First of all, congratulations to Nic White on his 100th Brumbies cap who always get to start at No.9 (scrum-half) while getting straight into work. He took his time over the first 50 minutes in all areas, such as looking over the Reds on their doorstep as well as making up these box kicks to get out of trouble & bringing his numbers that left the Reds disadvantaged from the ground up. Thanks to the Reds poor discipline & finishing, he was able to put the Brumbies into a great position well into half-time, before Ryan Lonergan took over his place for the rest of the match. Ryan too looked after the Brumbies well where Nic left off, so the Reds were unable to get past them in their tracks while staying ahead on what has been a close victory.
There is someone out there who was very destructive tonight in none other than Nick Frost (No.4 shirt) on the Brumbies second row. He did a great job keeping the Reds quiet by monitoring their body language defensively as if he’s a security guard/bouncer. Not only that, he backed up some good attacking momentum while running through the opponents blocks at the same time like a bulldozer & also muscling up at scrum/maul time, which caused the Reds even more damage with a few rewarded points along the way. A long night’s hard work has tested his patience & brains and brawns well against a fellow established Australian Super Rugby side like the Reds at GIO Stadium.
And it’s great to see James O’Connor back who made an immediate impact off the bench throughout the 2nd half in favour of Tom Lynagh at the Reds No.10 jersey. He provided so much creativity & spark his Reds team desperately needed in the attack, which helped them make up lost time following a poor opening 40 without him. It’s just a shame that his side lost when a mix of slow starts, ill-discipline & some isolated execution has let him down, particularly when he thought he passed off to someone in the 79th minute but that went through into touch instead & the game already went the Brumbies way.
