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Nic White has last laugh Brumbies end Reds' Brisbane hoodoo

Tamati Tua of the Brumbies celebrates with team mates after scoring a try during the round seven Super Rugby Pacific match between Queensland Reds and ACT Brumbies at Suncorp Stadium, on April 07, 2023, in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Overlooked halfback Tate McDermott fired his best shots but adversary Nic White had the last laugh as the ACT Brumbies picked apart the Queensland Reds for their first win in Brisbane for eight years.

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An eyebrow-raising omission from Eddie Jones’ Wallabies squad this week, McDermott blazed 55 metres for a terrific solo try as the Reds gained an early 14-7 ascendancy.

But the Brumbies chipped away, exposing the Reds’ sloppiness and lack of second-half structure in a runaway 52-24 win to improve to 6-1 and second place on the live Super Rugby Pacific ladder.

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The Reds fell to 2-5 and likely outside the top eight by the end of the round, heaping further pressure on off-contract coach Brad Thorn.

It ended a 14-game Reds winning streak against Australian opponents at the ground, with an early red card for Angus Blyth rubbing salt into their wounds.

Veteran halfback White struck the dagger blow early in the second half, his kick in behind the Reds finding acres of space for Len Ikitau to score for a 28-17 lead.

The Reds led 14-7 and 17-4 after in-form winger Jordan Petaia’s storming run and regathered grubber earned a penalty and led to Brumbies fullback Tom Wright being yellow carded.

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But it was the visitors who scored next, with Dane Zander giving away another penalty in the ruck and Lachlan Lonergan scoring from a textbook rolling maul after the halftime siren.

Queensland started well, giving the Brumbies a taste of their own medicine with an efficient rolling maul try to Matt Faessler off a lineout.

That came undone in Blyth’s moment of madness though, the fit-again lock lasting just eight minutes in his first start of the season after a charge down on Corey Toole went horribly wrong.

The second-rower tucked his head and struck the pint-sized winger on the chin, with Toole wobbling twice when attempting to regain his feet and was quickly ruled out with a concussion.

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The incident was upgraded on review to a red, with Blyth’s suspension potentially ruling him out for the rest of the regular season.

Tom Wright scored while the Reds were a man down, when Noah Lolesio’s neat bounce pass allowed him to fall over the line.

The Reds were back in front in the 23rd minute when McDermott beat five men – the last with a cheeky dummy and wide smile – on the way to the line.

The lead slowly disappeared, though, as the Reds lost their way after the break and the Brumbies piled on five second-half tries.

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Flankly 54 minutes ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

43 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith' Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith'
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