Brumbies keep fighting despite Bulls loss

Jake White says his Brumbies dispelled some of the myths surrounding the Bulls’ lauded fortress in Pretoria with their valiant 36-34 Super Rugby defeat at the hands of the joint South African leaders.

They outscored the Bulls five tries to two to come within a whisker of victory at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Sunday morning (AEST), despite having looked gone in the game at 33-13 deep in the second half.

They scored three tries in the final 12 minutes in front of a hostile crowd of 26,578 to ensure the Brumbies left Pretoria with two hard-fought bonus points – and their reputation for fighting to the end intact.

“They’ve got fighting spirit,” a proud White said of his young squad, which has an average age of 22.

“People keep saying it – which we’re obviously very proud of – that this team just never gives up and that’s a great attribute to have.

“We get two points out of that.”

It also keeps them atop the Australian conference after nine weeks of Super Rugby, just one point ahead of NSW.

White admitted before the game how difficult a win would be at Loftus – the Brumbies haven’t won there since 2006 and the Bulls have not conceded a game to any Australian rival at home for the past 11 matches.

But despite Sunday’s loss, he said the Brumbies had proven the stronghold was not impermeable.

“You say everybody talks about altitude, but we didn’t even mention it.

“We scored five tries and we finished the game stronger than the local team, so I say again, we don’t want to make something out of something we haven’t even talked about.

“A lot of teams can’t score against the Bulls, so that’s a massive statement for us.”

In the end, it was the boot Morne Steyn that saved the home side, having kicked 26 points from nine successful kicks out of 11 attempts.

They remain joint leaders of the South African conference, along with the Stormers.

“We’ve got some work left on our defence, but we did enough to get the win,” skipper Pierre Spies told Fox Sports.

“It’s always a tough competition and we’ll take the points while we can.”

The Bulls were the first on the board with two quick Steyn penalties, but the Brumbies were the first over the line with tries to Henry Speight and Jesse Mogg.

Christian Lealiifano missed both conversions and more penalties to Steyn had the homeside with a 19-13 advantage at halftime.

They had the margin out to 33-13 after a controversial try to CJ Stander with 30 minutes left to play. Players from both sides had paused to wait for a whistle from referee Marius Jonkers after Steyn clearly knocked the ball on.

It never came, allowing Stander to cross easily.

But it was outside centre Andrew Smith who started the Brumbies fightback a few minutes later, scoring under the sticks after jumping on Ita Vaea’s pass.

Speight then missed out on his second try after a desperate tackle from Francois Hougaard forced him to spill the ball as he fell over the line.

Ian Prior from the bench assured the Brumbies of a bonus point when he crossed in the 76th minute for their fourth of the night, and reserve hooker Anthony Hegarty of another for bringing the margin to within seven.

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