'We've played some classics with the Reds, but that wasn't one'

The Brumbies may have toppled the Reds to become the only undefeated team in Super Rugby Pacific, but head coach Dan McKellar wasn’t overly impressed with his side’s performance.

The Brumbies walked away from the top-of-the-table clash as 16-12 victors at GIO Stadium in Canberra in what was the latest instalment of what’s become the most hotly-contested rivalry in Australian rugby.

Both teams have dominated Super Rugby in Australia in recent years, with the Brumbies pipping the Reds to claim the 2020 Super Rugby AU final, before the Queenslanders won last year’s crown with a James O’Connor try in injury time.

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The Brumbies and Reds were also the only Australian teams to register victories over New Zealand teams in last year’s Super Rugby Trans-Tasman, beating the Hurricanes and Chiefs, respectively.

All of this reflects their status as the two best franchises in Australia, which has led to some enthralling encounters between both sides over the past couple of seasons.

Friday’s clash in the nation’s capital wasn’t one of them, though, according to McKellar, who was unimpressed with the stop-start nature of the match.

“If we had lost tonight, we would have beaten ourselves,” McKellar told reporters post-match.

“That’s what I was thinking. I’m really proud that we ground out a result. I thought the scrum battle was tough and we’ve made some really good shifts there.

“A lot of boys, especially up front, had to work really hard because it was like scrum, maul, someone would get injured or break in play, and the game just never really got going. We’ve played some classics with the Reds, but that wasn’t one.”

McKellar was particularly disappointed with his team’s inaccuracy with ball in hand, which he said allowed the Reds to dominate possession and force the Brumbies to produce 120 tackles, nearly 50 more than that of the visitors.

In saying that, the outgoing boss – who will depart the Brumbies after this season to join the Wallabies as an assistant coach in a full-time capacity – was satisfied with the efforts of his forwards defensively and at the set-piece.

“The scrum was good, there were some really good parts of our defence, we had to do a lot of defending, but we’re having to do a lot of defending because we can’t maintain possession and we’re inaccurate and not as clinical around areas of the game as we normally are,” McKellar said.

“I thought our lineout defence was outstanding. Nick Frost was very good, so a lot of good things.

“I thought we played smart. I thought we played the game in the right area of the field, found some backfield space there a number of times and put them under pressure, but we’ve got to get our accuracy in a lot of areas improved quickly.”

Reds boss Brad Thorn offered a similar assessment of the encounter, noting after the match that his side will endeavour to improve after playing out a game that provided few opportunities to showcase their collective skillset.

“It was sort of just a stop-start game. What we take from that, we want to continue to improve and grow our game, our skillset around out set-piece, both sides of the ball,” Thorn said.

“I guess just executing. There were some good things going in that first half. We had opportunities. Taking opportunities and executing opportunities is probably a big [work-on] when you get down to that attacking 22.

“Just those little things again. There was a time in the first half where we didn’t exit after scoring. It’s just that discipline and that focus. It’s probably more mindset.

“You tend to switch off a bit when you’ve scored a try, so I think just getting that discipline around exiting from the kick-off, so little things.

“I’m sure we’ll go over the game and see things for guys to work on individually and, as you said, improve as a team.”

With five wins from as many matches, the Brumbies will travel to Perth next week to take on the Western Force, while the Reds will aim to stay in second place when they host the Waratahs in Brisbane next Saturday.