Hurricanes centre Ma'a Nonu gets yellow carded as Tana Umaga looks on
A Thomas Waldrom try after the hooter had already sounded for full-time gave the Hurricanes a 11-10 win over the Brumbies in their Super 14 Round Four match at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Friday.
The win saw the Hurricanes move to the top of the standings, although they could be knocked off the top as the weekend progresses.
Wellington weather is notorious, and on Friday it rained in Wellington but not during the match. In fact there were no real signs that Westpac Stadium's short grass was the cause of yet another low-scoring Super 14 match in 2007.
The defences on both side may well have seen to that. Both teams missed chances to score tries - the Brumbies in the first half when a forward pass prevented a certain try and the Hurricanes in the second half when they lost the ball over the goal-line.
The missed opportunities more or less tell how the match went. The Brumbies dominated the first half, scored a try and fluffed, played with confidence, kept the ball and looked as if they were well set for victory. The Hurricanes turned it all around in the second half, fluffed a try and then scored the telling one at the death, and generally dominated the match.
The Hurricanes had a five-metre line-out and two five-metre scrums of their own and forced the Brumbies to fight to survive at two line-outs and two scrums five metres from their own line. The Hurricanes won the second Brumby line-out five metres from their line to add to pressure on the visitors.
In that half the Brumbies battled in the scrums. They lost one against the head, were wheeled in another and penalised in another.
Jimmy Gopperth missed a straightforward penalty attempt while Julian Huxley missed two.
What possibly kept the Hurricanes out, apart from the earnest Brumby defence, was that they created their best running opportunities for their forwards out wide, rather than for their backs.
Their try when it came was an exceptional effort by the forwards as they somehow contrived to keep passing the ball to their right under intense pressure - from the defenders and from the siren's death knell - till the ball came to Thomas Waldrom. He threw a rudimentary dummy as he went inside Jeremy Paul and over in Richard Stanford's tackle. The ran all of eight metres but those eight metres meant a golden victory for the Hurricanes and grievous disappointment for the Brumbies.
The three outstanding occurrences of the first half were a yellow card, a try and a fluffed try.
After Gopperth had kicked a goal and Huxley missed one, there was a yellow card which may attract the attention of the citing commissioner. Julian Huxley caught a mark. Whistle gone Tana Umaga shoved Clyde Rathbone for some reason and then suddenly Ma'a Nonu came rushing in, grabbed Rathbone round the neck and slung him to ground, for which he was sent to the sin bin. It was ugly.
The try came when the Brumbies battened on a Hurricanes knock-on and then went passing with great hands, Julian Salvi prominent twice till he gave to big Adam Wallace-Harrison with five metres to go. It was an excellent try which Huxley converted. 7-3, which was the half-time score.
The Brumbies fluffed a try soon afterwards when a pass to Gerrard was forward a few metres from the goal-line. Gerrard went over but in vain.
After that Nonu returned. He had an awful match, but at least his side were on a numerical par.
There were other noteworthy moments - strong David Smith running out of his goal when Huxley missed a penalty and it ended on the right on the Brumbies 10-metre line. Gopperth had a chip, catch and grubber which Huxley saved. Thomas Waldrom went on a promising charge and the Hurricanes destroyed a Brumby scrum near the Brumby line.
In the second half the sides each lost an important man. Stephen Larkham did not restart the half, replaced by Tim Wright who went to fullback while Huxley moved up to flyhalf. Then after a minute or so Tana Umaga left the field with a sore Achilles. Tamati Ellison replaced him.
Gopperth kicked a penalty after 58 minutes to make the score 7-6 and then Huxley kicked one to make it 10-6 after 68 minutes.
In between the two kicks the Hurricanes lost a gilt-edged opportunity. They won a tighthead at a scrum and sturdy David Smith kicked ahead and chased towards the Brumby line. Rathbone saved, diving the ball into touch. This gave the Hurricanes a five-metre line-out. They caught and mauled. It was a quick maul as in no time they were rushing the maul to and over the Brumby line - only for Tiatia to lose the ball.
David Smith, who had a fine match, started a counterattack that went from far left to far right and then back again to far left, but into touch for a line-out five metres from the Brumbies line. They did their wide-wide routine again till Nic Henderson tackled Neemia Tialata out five metres from the Brumbies line. Such was the Hurricanes dominance with only penalties getting the Brumbies out of trouble. (The penalty count was 10-7 to the Brumbies, 6-4 in the second half.)
Then the Hurricanes mounted a sharp, concerted attack from a scrum just inside their own half and on their left. They went left and then left again. From there they went right, left, right and right again as, the siren sounding, the ball went from David Smith to Tony Penn to Hayden Hopgood and then, high, to Waldrom who reached up to pull it down., He scored. The process took 1 minute 35 seconds from scrum feed to try scored.
Man of the Match: Thomas Waldrom again had a busy match but for the life and enterprise he infused into a gridlocked match our Man of the Match is David Smith of the Hurricanes.
The scorers:
For the Hurricanes:
Try: Waldrom
Pens: Gopperth 2
For the Brumbies:
Try: Wallace-Harrison
Con: Huxley
Pen: Huxley
Yellow card: Ma'a Nonu (Hurricanes, 14 - foul play, swinging arm)
Teams:
Hurricanes: 15 Cory Jane, 14 Hosea Gear, 13 Tana Umaga (c), 12 Tamati Ellison, 11 Ma'a Nonu, 10 Jimmy Gopperth, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Serge Lilo, 6 Luke Andrews, 5 Bernie Upton, 4 Paul Tito, 3 Neemia Tialata, 2 Tone Kopelani, 1 John Schwalger
Replacements: 16 Mahonri Schwalger, 17 Tony Penn, 18 Bradley Mika, 19 Hayden Hopgood, 20 Chris Smylie, 21 David Smith, 22 Shannon Paku
Brumbies: 15 Julian Huxley, 14 Clyde Rathbone, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Gene Fairbanks, 11 Mark Gerrard, 10 Stephen Larkham, 9 George Gregan, 8 Stephen Hoiles, 7 George Smith (c), 6 Julian Salvi, 5 Mark Chisholm, 4 Adam Wallace-Harrison, 3 Guy Shepherdson, 2 Jeremy Paul, 1 Nic Henderson.
Replacements: 16 John Ulugia, 17 Salesi Ma'afu, 18 Richard Stanford, 19 Jone Tawake, 20 Patrick Phibbs, 21 Matt Carraro, 22 Tim Wright
Referee: Craig Joubert (South Africa)
Touch judges: Willie Roos (South Africa), Matt Stanish (New Zealand)
Television match official: Gary Wise (New Zealand)
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