Brumbies Birthday Game

69/365

So, I started telling you about last weekend in parts, here is Saturday.

We started the day at noon. Yay! We got a proper sleep in. To me it felt good, however, it gave James a headache sleeping that much. Oh well! We then enjoyed the lovely (I'm sick of it, but it is still nice) weather by having lunch outside with James' family, with a bit of Rose wine as well. I love lazy lunches like that. James and I then headed out to the shops for a bit of shopping, because we seem to be incapable of visiting Canberra without doing some sort of shopping. Shopping done, we wait until the game. (If you don't care too much for sport, you may want to skip the rest of this...)

This game was purposely held at home as it was Canberra's 100th birthday weekend, which I think added a whole lot of extra pressure for the Brumbies to perform. Not only was it a special birthday home game, it was also against their rivals, the Waratahs. The Waratahs are to the Brumbies like Everton is to Liverpool, or Man City is to Man U. Or that's how I understand it anyways. From reading the little booklet we get at the games I learnt that the Brumbies were originally made up of 'unwanted' Waratahs, they were basically players who were told (apparently not in the nicest of terms) that they were not good enough. So beating the Tahs is pretty important to the Brumbies. Thankfully they did so, it made for an awesome night.

The Brumbies scored the first points of the night (off of a penalty), which I think really helps the momentum of a team. They also got the only tries (of the whole game), two in the first half. The ref called a lot penalties, and a lot against the Brumbies for "not rolling away". This is a piece of information we would not normally have known, because there was never any announcement or mention for the crowds at the game why a penalty was called. This issues was obviously mentioned as at this game they had the reason for the penalty up on the big screen, along with a replay. The ref was very consistent with his calls, but he also only gave players about 2 seconds to roll away before deciding to give a penalty. Anyhoo, near the end of the first half one of the Brumbies got a yellow card for not rolling away too many times. So that sucked a bit. Pocock also left the game during this half with what looked like a minor injury, but turned out to be a torn ACL/ligament in the knee. So he's basically out for the season, boo! BUT Brumbies' fans were very happy that this meant George Smith came to the field earlier than planned, so...yay!

The second half started with the Brumbies down a player for the first 7mins. You wouldn't have known it though, they dominated. They were pretty much in the Tahs 22 for most of that time, and if I remember correctly there were also a few close tries. Two players, one from each team then got yellow cards at exactly the same time, so it kind of didn't matter. The second half was somewhat boring but exciting at the same time. The Tahs didn't get any points in the second half (so this is the third game in a row that the Brumbies haven't conceded a point in the second half). The Brumbies scored another 2 tries, both near the end of the game. We have watched two games, and both have had awesome end of the game tries.
In the first game we watched against the Reds (who also seem to be a much hated team, at least in James' family). The Reds have Quade Cooper on their team, who according the James and his family is a douchebag...and I kind of agree. He's the Reds flashy player, kind of like Cristiano Ronaldo. This isn't a random fact, it's important. In the last minute of the game against the Reds the Brumbies were in the lead, they also had the ball and all they had to do was stop the Reds from scoring to stop them from getting a bonus point (for being within 7 points of the winning team). The Brumbies kicked the ball to the Reds, meaning the Reds had possession of the ball in their 22. The Reds began passing the ball trying to move forward to get those much needed points. The ball is in Quade Cooper's hands, he passes forward, but it doesn't matter because Jesse Mogg (Brumbies player) intercepts and scores a try. AWESOME!
In the game against the Tahs the Tahs have the ball and are making a pretty convincing run for the try line. Guy with the ball (think he was called Folau) has the ball, he kicks it to chase after. Jesse Mogg catches the ball, he runs through heaps of people, passes it to Coleman who kicks it over the last defender, catches it and gets the try. This was almost a full field run for the try. Everyone was up on their feet. AWESOME!

The game ended awesome, we were happy. We found out the bad news about Pocock after the game, which was a bit of a downer, but George Smith is back, it's OK. We then watched the game AGAIN on the TV...it sounds so lame now...BUT we were on TV! I thought we might have been, I saw a Fox Sport camera pointed our way. So yeah, cool. At about midnight I was knackered so headed to bed.
So, to end this story the Brumbies won 35-6. The game ended awesomely. I am being sucked way too much into this sporting world.