The ACT Brumbies yesterday turned in an improved second-half performance to beat the Otago Highlanders 27-21 in Super Rugby Pacific for the third win of the season by an Australian team over New Zealand opponents.
The Brumbies trailed 11-7 after a frenetic first half, but took the lead for the first time in the 42nd minute with a try to winger Corey Toole, his fifth of the season.
The Highlanders regained the lead in the 58th minute with a try to Billy Harmon, but the Brumbies rallied to retake the lead with a penalty to Noah Lolesio then a match-winning try to replacement Lachlan Lonergan.
Photo: AFP
Lolesio kicked five goals from five attempts for 12 points as the Brumbies posted their first win in Dunedin in 13 years.
Sam Gilbert kicked an injury-time penalty to give the Highlanders a bonus point.
The Brumbies lost 46-12 to the Waikato Chiefs in Round 2 in the only previous match against a New Zealand team this season. They got their season back on track with a 22-19 win over the Western Force last weekend and reproduced the best aspects of the match in the second half yesterday.
Photo: AP
“We had a good look at ourselves after the Force game,” Brumbies captain Ryan Lonergan said. “We got a win last week, but we still weren’t happy with the physicality in our breakdown.”
“I think in the first 20 minutes here we were still a bit lazy in that area,” he said. “Then we started to muscle up and we started to play a bit of good footy.”
In other games yesterday, the Chiefs beat the Fijian Drua 46-29 and the Auckland Blues downed the NSW Waratahs 12-10.
Photo: AFP
On Friday, the Canterbury Crusaders’ start to the season went from poor to unprecedentedly bad with their fourth straight loss, a 14-10 home defeat by the Wellington Hurricanes.
The 11-time champions had not lost three matches in a row at the start of season since 1996 before they lost to the Fijian Drua last weekend.
They had never previously lost four matches in succession.
“We’re trying really hard but it’s just not sticking,” Crusaders captain David Havili said. “We gave ourselves a chance in the contest tonight, but we couldn’t quite finish it off.”
The Queensland Reds thumped the Melbourne Rebels 53-26 and Moana Pasifika downed the Force 22-14.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946