Brumbies v Sunwolves report: Henry Speight bags double in 41-31 victory

IT was sighs of relief all around in Canberra and Brisbane on Sunday after the Brumbies scored a seven-try win over the Sunwolves and star Wallabies players emerged from the game unscathed.

Henry Speight scored a double in the Brumbies win over the Sunwolves.

IT was sighs of relief all around in Canberra and Brisbane on Sunday after the Brumbies scored a seven-try win over the Sunwolves and star Wallabies players emerged from the game unscathed.

The ACT outfit did as expected and cruised past the depleted Sunwolves, but perhaps not as comfortably as they’d have liked.

The Brumbies won with a bonus point but the Japanese team - minus all of their Japanese Test players - hung in doggedly and it was only the second of two tries to Brumbies winger Henry Speight that sealed the deal late in the game.

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Henry Speight scored a double in the Brumbies win over the Sunwolves.

After a week where he was overlooked by the Wallabies selectors, Speight was the pick of the Brumbies but there were as many eyes on the handful of players that were picked by Michael Cheika.

With a tight turnaround to the first Test against Ireland on Saturday, Cheika asked the Brumbies to rest David Pocock, Scott Sio and Allan Alaalatoa. The ACT side refused, believing the request to be too late and needing the star power to draw a crowd with a targeted size of 15,000.

The crowd came in at 9521 but the faithful were at least given seven home tries and some glimpses of some old-style Brumbies’ running rugby - and there was no disastrous injury news either.

The Sunwolves and Brumbies traded tries in a high scoring affair.

Pocock - who scored a try - and Sio came off after 55 minutes and Alaalatoa followed them at the 60th minute. All escaped injury, it seemed, although their solid shift will no doubt require a light day of recovery in Wallabies world on Monday.

The Brumbies always appeared in control but a lack of fluency at times saw them struggle to shake off the Sunwolves.

After pushing out to a 19-3 lead, the Brumbies let the Japanese visitors claw back to 19-17 at the start of the second half. More consistency in attack saw the Brumbies score the next three tries, though, and it appeared like they’d done enough as the final quarter began. But again the Sunwolves responded and they drew to within 34-24 with nine minutes left.

The win was the Brumbies fifth of the season.

A wonderful set-piece move saw Speight cap a best-on-ground afternoon with a second try under the sticks, however, to seal the win.

A try on the siren to the Sunwolves was window-dressing.

The Brumbies could thank Speight, industrious performances from Tom Banks, Andy Muirhead and Locky McAffrey and a strong set-piece for their win. Tevita Kuridrani, too, showed glimpses of his old attacking nous too.

The Brumbies moved to 25 points with their win, still ten points shy of the conference leaders the Waratahs and nine from the eighth-placed Rebels.

BRUMBIES 41 (Henry Speight 2, Tom Banks, Thomas Cusack, Lachlan McCaffrey, Andrew Muirhead, David Pocock tries Christian Leali’ifano 2, Wharenui Hawera cons) bt SUNWOLVES 31 (Jason Emery, Kai Ishii, Ed Quirk, Hencus van Wyk tries Hayden Parker 4 cons pen) at GIO Stadium. Referee: Rasta Rashivenga. Crowd: 5,283.

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Originally published as Brumbies v Sunwolves report: Henry Speight bags double in 41-31 victory