Outside centre Tevita Kuridrani scored a hat-trick of tries to help the Brumbies to an important 22-10 win over the Bulls during their lively Super Rugby clash at the Gio Stadium in Canberra on Friday.
Kuridrani touched down twice in the first half and completed what turned out to be a good day in the office with the third try after the break as the Brumbies maintained their place at the top of the Australian conference.
The home side could have won by a bigger margin but they were let down by the normally reliable flyhalf Christian Lealiifano who missed one penalty and three conversions to end the match with a meagre two points.
The other try for the Brumbies was scored by Irae Simone while the only one for the Bulls was scored by eighth-man Handro Liebenberg.
For the Bulls‚ who went into this match with confidence after last weekend’s win over the Rebels in Melbourne‚ their position at the top of the SA conference is in danger from the Jaguares‚ the Lions and the Sharks‚ who are in action on Saturday.
Tevita Kuridrani hat-trick sinks the Bulls in Canberra
Outside centre Tevita Kuridrani scored a hat-trick of tries to help the Brumbies to an important 22-10 win over the Bulls during their lively Super Rugby clash at the Gio Stadium in Canberra on Friday.
Kuridrani touched down twice in the first half and completed what turned out to be a good day in the office with the third try after the break as the Brumbies maintained their place at the top of the Australian conference.
The home side could have won by a bigger margin but they were let down by the normally reliable flyhalf Christian Lealiifano who missed one penalty and three conversions to end the match with a meagre two points.
The other try for the Brumbies was scored by Irae Simone while the only one for the Bulls was scored by eighth-man Handro Liebenberg.
For the Bulls‚ who went into this match with confidence after last weekend’s win over the Rebels in Melbourne‚ their position at the top of the SA conference is in danger from the Jaguares‚ the Lions and the Sharks‚ who are in action on Saturday.
Coach Pote Human will be concerned by the fact that his team failed to put any points on the board in the second half as the Brumbies dominated them with their attacking play.
The Bulls opened the scoring through a penalty from Manie Libbok‚ who was deputising at No 10 for inured Handre Pollard‚ early in the match but the home side responded quickly with the first try by Kuridrani.
Not long after that the Bulls received a huge boost when Tom Cusack was sent to the sin bin after a string of unsuccessful mauls.
They exploited their numerical advantage with what turned out to be the their only try off the back of the scrum by Liebenberg.
Kuridrani registered his second of the match shortly before the break to leave the score tied at 10-10 after a good maul‚ and Lealiifano managed his only successful kick of the day to give the home side a slender two-point lead at the break.
The Brumbies further increased their lead to seven points four minutes after the break through a try by Simone‚ and Kuridrani registered his hat-trick just before the hour mark as they took firm control of proceedings.
Brumbies (12) 22
Bulls (10) 10
Scorers:
Brumbies - tries: Tevita Kuridrani (3)‚ Irae Simone; conversion: Christian Lealiifano (1); yellow card: Tom Cusack
Bulls - Try: Hanro Liebenberg‚ conversion: Manie Libbok (1); penalty: Manie Libbok (1)