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Brumbies hold firm to see off Stormers in crucial away win

Brumbies full-back Thomas Banks challenges for the ball against the Stormers.

A gutsy defensive effort has seen the ACT Brumbies record a stunning 19-17 Super Rugby victory over the Stormers in Cape Town.

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Seeking their first away win of the season, the Brumbies made the most of their rare visits into Stormers’ territory with three tries then pulled off a massive 226 tackles to come out on top at DHL Newlands.

Captain Christian Lealiifano described the Brumbies’ performance as “an incredible effort from our group”.

“(The Stormers) just kept us under pressure the whole time and we couldn’t really unlock our backline the way we wanted,” Lealiifano said.

“We had to find other ways and our defence was that today, we took our opportunities today when we did get them and the boys definitely saved some as well.”

In a controversial end to the first half, a video review after the halftime whistle saw a penalty try awarded to the Stormers with Brumbies winger Toni Pulu earning a yellow card for a high tackle on halfback Herschel Jantjies.

The ruling reduced the Brumbies’ advantage to 12-10 with the Stormers taking their first lead early in the second half but Tom Banks put the visitors back in front after 58 minutes and their defence stood tall under immense pressure to close out a famous victory.

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The result gives the Brumbies back-to-back wins as they move within reach of the Rebels and Waratahs in the Australian conference ahead of next week’s trip to Argentina to play the Jaguares.

Lock Rory Arnold handed the Brumbies a flying start, setting up Pete Samu for the opening try then scoring one of his own from a charge down as they jumped out to an early 12-3 lead.

It appeared that all the Stormers would tally from the first half was a ninth-minute penalty goal to Joshua Stander after passing on multiple chances to kick more points in favour of attacking the Brumbies’ line.

But that changed on the stroke of halftime after Pulu’s high tackle on Jantjies’ 30-metre dash to the line was deemed to deny a legitimate try-scoring opportunity. The Stormers made the most of their one-man advantage to start the second half with Wilco Louw barging over to put the home side in front.

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A try-saving tackle from Henry Speight prevented the Stormers from extending their advantage before the Brumbies cashed in again, running through 12 phases for an unmarked Tom Banks to score.

Lealiifano landed the conversion as the Brumbies regained the lead at 19-17 while Stander’s penalty miss in the 62nd minute proved costly in the final washup.

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J
JW 16 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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