Giteau boots Brumbies to victory
Four penalties from fly-half Matt Giteau helped ACT Brumbies to a narrow 17-16 victory over Wellington Hurricanes on Saturday.
Last Updated: 09/04/11 2:20pm
Four penalties from fly-half Matt Giteau helped ACT Brumbies to a 17-16 victory over Wellington Hurricanes on Saturday.
Giteau clinched the match by a single point with two second half penalties in a lacklustre affair between two strugglers in Super 15 rugby.
The Hurricanes were the first to get off the mark when Aaron Cruden crossed in the fourth minute from the first scrum of the match.
Cruden converted his own score to make it 7-0 but Giteau pulled six back in quick succession shortly before the half-hour mark to keep his side in touch.
Fijian winger Henry Speight put the Brumbies ahead two minutes from half-time but Giteau could not add the extras, leaving the scores on 11-10 at the break.
Pleasing effort
Replacement fly-half Daniel Kirkpatrick put the Hurricanes back in front with penalites on 50 and 53 minutes.
But Giteau replied in kind soon after to restore his side's slender lead and seal the Brumbies' first win against Wellington since 2006.
"It was a really pleasing effort, we stayed in there," said Giteau, "It wasn't pretty, but we got the win."
Hurricanes captain Andrew Hore said: "We seem to be making our rugby pretty hard at the moment. The Brumbies took their chances pretty well.
"We are trying to score right away, when we need to hold on to the ball a bit more. We need to regroup and start playing some good rugby."