George Smith snatches Brumbies win
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George Smith's intercept try hands Brumbies 19-17 win over the Stormers
February 27, 2010
Stormers fullback Joe Pietersen missed a conversion attempt with the last kick of the game to hand the Brumbies a 19-17 win in the Super 14 match at Newlands.
The Brumbies appeared to have made sure of the win when veteran flanker George Smith scored the first try of the match three minutes from time after he intercepted a pass from Stormers prop Brok Harris.
Smith, who retired from playing for the Wallabies earlier this month, scored under the posts and Matt Giteau's conversion gave the Brumbies a 19-12 lead.
But the Stormers came back strongly from the kick-off and flank Pieter Louw burst around the side of a maul to score six metres in from touch.
Pietersen, who had landed four out of five penalty goal attempts, hooked the conversion effort, which would have levelled the scores.
The upset victory by the Brumbies was their 10th win in 13 matches against the Stormers, with just two losses and one draw.
"It wasn't a pretty performance,'' Brumbies captain Stephen Hoiles admitted. "We had to work hard against an in-form team.''
The importance of the victory was not lost on Hoiles, leaving the Brumbies with two wins and a loss from their tough three-game away trip.
"Seven of our last ten games are at home now, so it looks like a good run home, but it's as good as we'll make it.
"The touring part is over and we've got two from three, which we're very, very happy about it.''
Stormers captain Andries Bekker said: "We made too many mistakes. We'll have to look at the video on Monday and look at what we did wrong.''
The match statistics confirmed Bekker's diagnosis. The Stormers made 12 handling errors against six by the visitors. Bekker also said there were too many poorly directed kicks.
With Brumbies fly half Giteau controlling the tempo of play skillfully, the Stormers were seldom able to mount any sustained attacks.
But the Stormers players and their supporters were convinced that Pieter Louw had scored a try after just six minutes when he touched down in the corner. However a television replay showed that the ball had made contact with the touchline as well as the in-goal area.
Pietersen and Giteau traded penalty goals for most of the match and there were never more than three points between the sides until Smith's try.
The Stormers led three times, only for the Brumbies to pull level before taking the lead for the first time when Giteau landed his fourth penalty 16 minutes from time. But Pietersen leveled the scores two minutes later.
The Stormers pressed hard in search of a try to maintain a winning start to the season but were in their own territory when Harris sent out a long pass which Smith intercepted and ran 30 metres to score.
The Brumbies return from the road trip with 2 wins from 3 starts. With the toughest part of their 2010 draw out of the way the Brumbies now have 7 homes games with away games in Auckland, Sydney and Christchurch.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...002381,00.html
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