Heartbreak for Brumbies as Highlanders rally to win 23-22 in Super Rugby

The Brumbies were 10 seconds away from an 11th straight home win in Canberra when the Highlanders rallied.

Teariki Ben-Nicholas of the Otago Highlanders scores an overtime try during the round-3 Super Rugby match against the ACT Brumbies in Canberra on Saturday. Picture: Lukas Coch/AAP

Heartbreak for the Brumbies. They were just 10 seconds away from an 11th straight home win in Canberra when their discipline let them down miserably as New Zealand’s Highlanders rallied to come away with an astonishing 23-22 victory at GIO Stadium on Saturday night.

Leading 22-16 at 78min 30sec, the Brumbies attempted to run down the clock with a series of pick-and-drive raids and, for 80 seconds, they were doing it in style.

But then they illegally sealed off the ball, forcing Australian referee Nic Berry to give the South Islanders a penalty and, over the next four minutes, the Brumbies conceded a further two penalties, lock Murray Douglas was sin-binned for taking the Highlanders lineout jumper in the air and eventually the Kiwis scored right next to the posts as Teariki Ben-Nicholas powered through the tackle of 18-year-old debutant Reesjan Pasitoa.

After three matches at home in Canberra to start the season, the Brumbies now venture abroad next weekend, playing competition leaders the Chiefs in Hamilton next Saturday.

The match against the Highlanders was an arm-wrestle right from start to finish, as it always threatened to be. It was one that fully tested a Brumbies side that might have escaped some of the hard questions as it began the season with a flyer, scoring Australian conference wins over the Queensland Reds and the Melbourne Rebels.

The Highlanders, surprisingly beaten by the Sharks last weekend in Dunedin, began strongly and were rewarded with an early lead as centre Josh Ioane landed an easy penalty goal in the third minute. But then the Kiwis ran headlong into the Brumbies’ not-so-secret weapon, the driving maul.

It produced a try for them in the 11th minute and again in the 30th, hooker Folau Fainga’a surging up the Super Rugby try-scorers list by grabbing both of them at the back of a rampaging scrum as the Brumbies surged to a 12-3 lead.

But then the Highlanders began asking some serious questions. Indeed, they struck back immediately from the kick-off as winger Jona Nareki sprinted after the ball. Brumbies winger Solomone Kata claimed the catch and sent back a measured pass to Noah Lolesio. He delayed on a split second before launching his clearing kick towards the touchline and in that moment Nareki charged it down and regathered to score.

From looking like they had weathered the storm, the Brumbies once again found themselves in a dogfight and, when Ioane kicked another penalty goal after Lolesio had been turned over a second time, the Highlanders headed off to the sheds at halftime with a spring in their step, leading 13-12 despite enjoying only 35 per cent of possession in the first half.

It was turning into a war of attrition as the Highlanders inched a further three points in front after Rob Valetini was penalised for offside. But then the pendulum looked to have swung back to in favour of the Brumbies when winger Sio Tomkinson was yellow-carded for a shoulder charge on fullback Tom Banks in the 45th minute.

The Brumbies, however, could make no use whatever of their extra man. Indeed, during the 10 minutes Tomkinson was in the sin-bin, the Highlanders skilfully managed play, camping in their opponents’ territory.

Inexplicably, however, Highlanders coach Aaron Mauger chose to pull All Black halfback Aaron Smith from the contest right on the hour mark. He had been the heart, soul and – most especially – voice of the New Zealanders side and, when Smith came to the sideline, Brumbies coach Dan McKellar must have breathed a sigh of relief.

His mood would have lightened even further when Fainga’a turned his double into a hat-trick, again as his forwards cleared a path for him to score at the back of the driving maul.

No doubt wingers Ton Wright and Kata could have done with some of that ball that the forwards kept close at hand but, whether or not one delights in the Brumbies’ maul, it is extremely effective.

When Brumbies replacement halfback Ryan Lonergan kicked the pressure conversion of Fainga’a’s third try and then added a 74th-minute penalty goal, the Brumbies almost looked home at 22-16.

Almost.

Nonetheless, they had their heroes in the rain, none of them working harder than loosehead James Slipper, while both locks Cadeyrn Neville and Douglas put in stirling shifts.

It was, however, not a night to remember for young playmaker Lolesio, who was put under enormous pressure by the Highlanders. Certainly the play did not fall for him as it had done against the Rebels when seemingly he could do no wrong, with two try assists and a well-taken field goal.

The Brumbies were disrupted before the match when centre Irae Simone took ill, while lock Darcy Swain suffered a late setback in his recovery from injury and was forced to withdraw.

But their absence seemingly disrupted the Brumbies not at all and McKellar would surely look to the lack of game management at the end of the match, rather than any problems before it as he attempts to unravel what went wrong.

The Brumbies loss means that no Australian team has so far beaten a foreign opponent in this year’s Super Rugby.

The Reds, admittedly, had a chance to do so on Sunday morning but it would take an incredible achievement for them to defeat last year’s beaten grand finalists, the Jaguares, in Buenos Aires.