Airlines assist Brumbies in home defence bid against the Chiefs tonight

Spelling defence as defense (I miss spelt it above as a jibe) and organisation as organization and colour as color are the three things that really get my goat.

As for the game, the Brumbies are not the team of old.

I agree on the spelling. Saw the game live – snagged someone else’s extra. Even though it had cost me nothing, I still felt like asking for a refund.

It could have happened. At 35-21, the crowd wanted them to score and put some pressure on. 35-28 would have had the place on its feet and screaming – coming back to win would have had them queueing to get in next time and next year. Instead, they lost possession and, moments later, conceded their sixth try.

Mortlock made progress on the rare occasions the ball got to him. Smith, as always, played like a man trying to carry a team (which he often is). Nothing else that was good. They were soft and tentative in defence and completely flatline (in every sense) in attack. Their ball retention was surrender-monkey stuff and their kicking game one-dimensional. Their capacity to implement set plays is a joke. Ashley-Cooper probably needed another week off, but showed guts being there even if his positional sense at times could best be described as random. Despite his innate skills, which had filled me with hope, Lealiifano has simply not got the ball handling capacity for this level yet. Holmes in the second half shaded Phibbs in the first; Salvi was pretty good and Chisholm mostly seemed aware that the tryline was thataway.

The referee was a South African, and nothing more needs to be said.

Would changing the coach make any difference? What happened showed fundamental limitations in vision and performance. I have not got a clue, but I think that they need, in the remaining weeks, to work out whether they try to play boring safe rugby or whether they try to excite the crowd.

Spot-on, Thumper.

Maybe the Brumbies didn’t know what defense was.

Yeah, sh!t game. We were too slow, too weak and too unco. The only good thing was 1 measly bonus point and a hand full of New Zealand dollars in the ref’s (and possibly a few of our player’s) pockets. Nice to see the waterboy (mortlock) back on the field and the smith brothers played well but but the real stand out was the chief’s speed and support play and the wholes in our defence.

Lucky the Chiefs suffered so much on the trip over. They managed to scrape away with a win, 42-28. Imagine the result if they were not tired!!!