In the end it all came down to the final minutes. Again. But those minutes were defined by referee Damon Murphy instead of any players from the ACT Brumbies or Queensland Reds.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The dying minutes of the Brumbies' 16-12 win over the Queensland Reds had two sides of the coin.
The first question came when the Brumbies thought they had been given a penalty advantage by Murphy at the end of a maul, before he quickly put his arm down.
The Brumbies reacted slowly to a loose pass, the Reds kicked it forward and Fraser McReight went within a metre or so of scoring the match-winning try before Iona saved his team from disaster.
When play was stopped, Brumbies players confronted Murphy about the advantage they thought they had.
"I didn't put my arm up," Murphy said, despite clearly doing so. He then added: "I put it down straight away."
Brumbies coach Dan McKellar raised his eyebrows after the match, but also warned of it needing to be a lesson for his players.
"I just thought I saw a hand go out. I'm not 100 per cent whether it is was advantage called or not, but what does that tell us?," he said motioning his arm out.
"It tells you there's an advantage. So the improvement for us is play the whistle. Always play the whistle."
The resulting aftermath of play on saw Reds skipper McReight in a foot race with fly-half replacement Iona for the ball as it trickled towards the try line.
The next question of did he or didn't was about Iona. Did he hold McReight back in the race to the ball?
The replay showed them shoulder to shoulder, and Iona appearing to tug McReight back. But Murphy didn't review it, the television match official didn't intervene and the Brumbies held on for a win.
Reds coach Brad Thorn and his skipper remained tight lipped on their thoughts.
"[I] maybe got held back a little bit, who knows, but that's the game, that's footy, it's pretty fickle, and yeah, it's one of those ones," McReight said.
"Well said," Thorn chimed in.
"I guess that's how we look at it, and don't make any judgement.
"Ideally, we are not in that position at the end of the game."
Back to the 2002 glory days
The Brumbies took fans back to the glory days of 2002.
History was repeated for only the second time in the club's history, after they recorded their fifth straight win to open their Super Rugby season, against the Queensland Reds.
The score was locked 16-12 in the dying minutes as Brumbies fans held their breath to see if the history-making feat could be achieved.
Fans had known this feeling before, but unlike the devastating blow back in May last year, the Reds did not cross in injury time to claim the glory.
They came close on two occasions to repeating the Brumbies' heartbreak from 2021. The difference this time proved the Brumbies' never-say-die attitude.
O'Connor pain
James O'Connor delivered the devastating blow during last year's Super Rugby AU final defeat and dealt the first blow at Canberra Stadium on Friday.
After missing a penalty attempt to rebuke the Brumbies 3-0 lead, he made no mistake at his next chance to get on the scoresheet.
A dummy pass on the try line saw the Reds cross for the first try of the night in the 25th minute. Unlike the Brumbies' last heartbreak against their Queensland rivals, this time they had 55 minutes left to respond.
And respond they did, with a try minutes later from Tom Wright.
This time, however, it was a different ending for the Brumbies.
Game won in the statistics
The Brumbies' forward pack put in a big shift across the 80 minutes, making more than double the amount of tackles compared to the Reds.
The home side made 118 tackles compared to the visitors' 69 tackles. Despite the stark difference in tackle count, both sides were near equal in missed tackles.
Twelve slipped past the Reds, and 14 broke away from the Brumbies.
Brumbies captain Allan Ala'alatoa said he was "rooted" after the game.
"Physically I'm bloody rooted," he said.
"It was a tough game for us.
"I think you've gotta feel for some of the outside backs who wanted to get more involved. But you look at the front rowers walking off that field and everyone's feeling this but it's a good feeling to have."
Similarly the 16-12 scoreline was reflective of two missed conversions from the visitors. Compared to Noah Lolesio, Nic White and Ryan Lonergan's 100 per cent accuracy to give the side the four-point lead.
Injury woes for Brumbies
The Brumbies' confidence in the second half was dealt a blow early on, with star fly-half Lolesio requiring treatment off the ball.
Medics treated him on the field providing some hope to Brumbies fans he may play on, with an over the sock strapping of his right ankle.
The 22-year-old hobbled through another five minutes before pulling the pin. His injury dealt a blow to the Brumbies' kicking game but White made sure to fill the kicking void until the 60th minute.
Deja vu tries: one disallowed, one given
O'Connor's last minute tackle kept the homeside from their second try of the night, and extending their lead, in the 51st minute.
He managed to take Jahrome Brown's feet out of play milliseconds before he put the ball down over the line.
Video replays showed how close it was in the corner.
Following the disallowed try, Brown was taken off for a head injury assessment. The flanker had looked wobbly since a first half clean-out by the Reds front rower Taniela Tupou.
Shortly after Darcy Swain was shown a yellow card by Murphy. Queensland soon took advantage of the Brumbies 14-man defence for 10 minutes and responded with a similar try of their own.
But there was a different outcome from the second video replay of the night. With Josh Nasser successfully crossing in the corner, diminishing the Brumbies lead to one point.
Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
