Brumbies overcome Blues
The ACT Brumbies ground out a 16-11 away win over Auckland Blues to keep their Super 14 semi-final hopes alive on Saturday.
By Simon Dilger
Last Updated: 12/04/08 2:19pm
The ACT Brumbies ground out a 16-11 away win over Auckland Blues to keep their Super 14 semi-final hopes alive at Eden Park on Saturday.
In a fraught encounter the Brumbies weathered intense early pressure from the Blues before gradually stamping their authority on the match.
The Brumbies opened the scoring against the run of play, thanks to a 10th minute penalty from Wallaby skipper Stirling Mortlock, after Auckland came out of the traps attacking at a furious pace.
Little by little the visitors began to assert their dominance, with only some desperate defending by the hosts and some poor decision denying scores on a number of occasions.
Fly-half Christian Lealiifano eventually cracked the Auckland defence, scoring out wide with Mortlock converting to make it 10-0.
But a Nick Evans penalty kept the hosts in touch three minutes before half time as they entered the break trailing 10-3.
Agonising
Eight minutes into the second period Mortlock restored the 10 point advantage but another penalty from Evans just minutes later returned the deficit to seven points.
After another three easy points looked to have sealed the game for the Brumbies, Blues winger Rudi Wulf set up an agonising final five minutes after scoring out wide but it was too little too late.
