Brumbies' late kick draws first blood from Force
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Western Force 15 ACT Brumbies 24
The Brumbies, Australia's Super 14 dream team, left the Western Force with nightmares with a 24-15 victory in last night's Super 14 opener.
They spoiled Force captain Nathan Sharpe's 50th Super cap celebrations as the Force continued its poor run of losing every season opener in its five seasons.
The Brumbies' Stirling Mortlock did have reason to celebrate though, his three conversions and a penalty making him the first player to score 1000 Super rugby points.
The Brumbies chiselled out the win on the back of a superior midfield.
There was huge pressure on Sam Harris on his Force debut at fly-half . He has not played in the key role at Super rugby level, wearing the No 10 only for the Honda club in Japan and the Warringah club in Sydney.
There was little cohesion in the Force attack as they struggled to adjust to his style.
Teenager James O'Connor, who was kept busy under the high ball at fullback, should have been moved to fly-half and given the chance to get his hands on the ball more without being under pressure.
He gave Harris a lesson in kicking for touch and kept his side in the game in the first half with four difficult penalties, adding a fifth in the second.
Force timing was out, there few change of running line and they struggled to break the Brumbies line even when hitting up several phases.
The class of the Force back row, David Pocock, Richard Brown and Matt Hodgson helped keep their side in touch especially in defence.
The Force had signalled that they may play a territorial kicking game this season but only on the odd occasion when they put the ball deep did they have any success.
Things had gone from bad to worse for the Force even before kick off.
Harris was shifted to fly-half after they lost Mark Bartholomeusz late on Friday with a neck injury, following the crushing loss of marquee signing Andre Pretorius for the year.
And then more disaster when winger Cameron Shepherd strained a quad in the warm-up.
The re-shuffle saw Haig Sare, not even in the squad on Friday morning, promoted to the run-on side and 18-year-old Stefano Hunt went to the bench.
And things did not look good for No 8 Richard Brown who came from the field clutching his right arm in pain midway through the second half.
The Brumbies had their losses with star playmaker Matt Giteau and big flanker Rocky Elsom both out.
Latecomers caught in traffic or looking for parking missed the first Brumbies try after 11 minutes.
Prop Benn Alexander broke through lazy defence and after linking with George Smith former Force scrum-half Josh Valentine went over. Mortlock converted.
Halfway through the term Adam Ashley Cooper broke the defensive line and Wallaby hooker Stephen Moore galloped over. Mortlock added the extra points.
Mortlock added a penalty early in the second period and the Brumbies finally put the away game eight minutes from time with a Huia Edmonds try. Mortlock converted.?Blues recruit Stephen Brett had only one error in the match, but it was enough to help the Hurricanes to a 34-20 victory in the opening match of the season in Auckland yesterday.
After a solid first-half performance, it was Brett's 57th-minute pass that was intercepted by Hurricanes winger Hosea Gear, who ran the length of the field to put Wellington ahead 22-20 to take the wind out of the Blues' sails.
The Hurricanes scored 22 unanswered second-half points, riding to victory on the back of nine penalty goals – a Super 14 record for one match – as the home side's frustrations gave the visitors a string of late shots at goal for infringements at the breakdown..
Five-eighth Brett, who was signed from the Crusaders, started brightly, scoring a try in the early minutes, setting up another for John Afoa a few minutes later and kicking two conversions and two penalties to have the Blues 20-12 up at the break.
Brett was clearly thriving for his new team, playing an astute kicking game and off-loading well, until his error put a dampener on his debut.
BRUMBIES 24 (Huia Edmonds, Stephen Moore, Josh Valentine tries Stirling Mortlock 3 cons pen) bt WESTERN FORCE 15 (James O'Connor 5 pens) at ME Bank Stadium. Referee: Steve R. Walsh (NZL).
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/fo...0213-nxqt.html
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