In what has been hailed as one of the best Plus500 Brumbies performances in years, Christian Lealiifano wound back the clock on Saturday night as the Brumbies won 54-17 over the Chiefs in front of a vocal crowd in Canberra.
After a disappointing first round first round loss to the Rebels, the Brumbies knew they had to work especially hard during the week on their work rate and attitude if they wanted to have any chance to beat the Chiefs.
“The leadership group, Dan (McKellar), and his staff were fantastic in being able to just park it and move on as this competition moves really quick,” said Lealiifano.
“It was about taking the positives out of the week before and reviewing hard on the things we can fix. It was just about getting into position to attack and tonight was just one of those nights and it worked.”
Lealiifano praised his forward pack who were able to get the home side into scoring positions through set piece and turnovers at the breakdown and from there some quick ball out the back of the ruck created space for the backs.
“You look a lot quicker when you are on the front foot and i think the platform that the forwards set really helped and the speed coming out from Joe Powell was fantastic in that area. It was nice to just get into some space and put the boys on the front foot.”
However the boys from the bush capital are not getting too far ahead of themselves as they face two-time World Rugby Player of the Year Beauden Barrett and the Hurricanes next week in Wellington.
“Obviously he is a quality player but it seems every week you got a big match up. Quade Cooper one week, Damian McKenzie the next and Beauden Barrett the week after that so it’s a tough competition.”
With fans being allowed to come on to the field after the full time siren to meet the players certainly lifted the spirits and confidence of the squad to which they can take into next weeks first away game of the season on Friday night.
Words: Rob Davison
