Needing a bonus point win to go to the top of the Australian conference, the Plus500 Brumbies have toppled the Sunwolves 33-0 on Sunday afternoon at GIO Stadium.
Two tries and an assist for fan-favourite Henry Speight led the team to their fifth win in a row at home in Canberra.
The Brumbies now sit one point clear on top of the Australian conference, putting them into a finals position.
After a tightly contested opening to the match, the Brumbies finally found some space out wide when Henry Speight broke into the back field.
A neat one-two play with Tevita Kuridrani to get around the fullback and Speight dotted down under the posts.
Christian Lealiifano had no trouble converting the try and giving the home team an early 7-point lead.
Within minutes of the first try Kuridrani was racing down the left side of the field again, linking up with Joe Powell this time who had too much speed for the Sunwolves.
A bad injury to Sunwolves’ fullback Ryohei Yamanaka saw play stopped after 18 minutes, with a five-minute delay necessary to stretcher the player off, and Hayden Parker entered the field to replace him.
Speight picked up his second try of the first half when a maul close to the line broke down and Powell took the opportunity to clear the ball to Lealiifano who threw a long cutout pass to his wing.
A number of errors from the visitors when they had the ball stopped them from building any real pressure in the first half, allowing the Brumbies to take their 19-point lead into half time.
The home team came out of the sheds with intent, and ten minutes into the second stanza it looked like Speight was destined to pick up a hattrick, but he chose to flick an offload for Tom Banks to score in the corner.
Now with a four try lead, the ACT team looked to be in control of the decisive bonus point they needed.
The Sunwolves were then camped on the Brumbies try line for several phases, but eventually a loose pass was picked up by Tom Banks, giving the Brumbies an opportunity to clear the ball.
Spreading the ball wide, rampaging loose forward Pete Samu found himself in space and used a surprising turn of speed to race over the line to score the Brumbies’ fifth try of the game.
The Brumbies have the bye next week before they face the Bulls in Canberra on the night of Friday the 24th of May.
STATISTICS:
Brumbies: (19) 33 (T: Speight (2), Powell, Banks, Samu C: Lealiifano 4)
Sunwolves: (0)
TEAM:
1. Scott Sio (51’ 17. James Slipper), 2. Folau Fainga’a (51’ 16. Connal McInerney), 3. Allan Alaalatoa (53’ 18. Leslie Leuluaialii-Makin), 4. Darcy Swain (70’ 19. Blake Enever), 5. Sam Carter, 6. Tom Cusack, 7. Jahrome Brown (62’ 20. Murray Douglas), 8. Pete Samu, 9. Joe Powell (51’ 21. Ryan Lonergan), 10. Christian Lealiifano, 11. Toni Pulu, 12. Irae Simone (66’ 22. Tom Wright), 13. Tevita Kuridrani, 14. Henry Speight (66’ 23. Andy Muirhead), 15. Tom Banks
