Brumbies knocked out of Super Rugby finals

The Chiefs have set up a showdown with the Crusaders for the Super Rugby Pacific title after charging home late to beat the Brumbies in an epic semifinal in Hamilton on Saturday night.

Brodie Retallick powered his way over the line in the 78th minute for the only try of a massively tense 19-6 encounter at a wet FMG Stadium Waikato.

The veteran All Blacks lock finished off a break from Damian McKenzie just prior to bring the 18,500 crowd to their feet, after they had spent the entire contest on the edge of their seats.

In a complete contrast to the massively lopsided semifinal from the night before, this was as intense as it gets, real semifinal footy at its best, where the margins for error were tight and neither side was budging an inch.

Tensions were clearly boiling, with what was on the line, feisty Brumbies captain and halfback Nic White not only continued his running verbal battle with referee Nic Berry from the week before, but went about fighting well above his weight class in taking on Retallick and Tupou Vaa’i.

On a greasy surface, with rain falling throughout the first half, the kicking battle was always going to be key, and while there were a few big duels, the ball was still in play plenty, the game going at hectic pace at times.

So good were the teams in the tricky conditions, in fact, that the first scrum did not pack down till 18 minutes in. When they did lock in, the hosts enjoyed a distinct advantage, having also put the Brumbies’ lineout under huge pressure early, winning a couple against the throw.

Turning with a slender 6-3 halftime advantage, the Chiefs came up trumps with a couple of crunch turnover penalties early in the second stanza, while McKenzie and Noah Lolesio – on after Jack Debreczeni left the park with a nasty head knock in the 31st minute – again trading three-pointers prior to the hour-mark.

But the home side slowly squeezed their opponents when it really counted.

After seeing off the Brumbies’ dangerous rolling maul with quarter of an hour to play, the Chiefs soon then also held the Canberrans up in midfield, and it was from that resulting scrum that McKenzie kicked a crucial 72nd minute long-range penalty from on halfway.

Lolesio banged the restart out on the full, and from there the Chiefs duly went on to seal the deal, having earlier on struggled to kick clear against a gallant Brumbies defence which came up trumps in a massive way in the final few minutes of the first spell.

After Emoni Narawa couldn’t hold on to an in-ball, the Chiefs put on an absolutely massive scrum shunt, but despite a string of penalties on the Brumbies’ line, they just couldn’t find their way over. Samisoni Taukei’aho was held up then Tom Wright gifted them another shot when his dropout found Narawa, only for Luke Jacobson to knock on when charging hard off the back of another scrum.

But in the end, the top seeds were good enough, extending the Aussies’ record in playoff matches in New Zealand to a miserable 0-16.