THE Brumbies stampeded Dangar Park on Saturday, with Scone sweeping the Tier 2 silverware.
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Both they came from behind to win, with seconds getting up over Gunnedah 18-15 with a last-minute try, and then firsts overhauling a 13-point half-time deficit to beat Walcha 23-20 and complete the double.
It’s something they haven’t done for a long time.
“I don’t think we’ve won two grades for 40 years,” Brumbies co-coach Ben McRae said.
“What we are so happy about is when we were half way through and we got split we said ‘right, if we can’t be in the top one we’ll win the bottom one’.”
They had to fight hard for it, with Rams second-rower Nat Brazel driving over with just over a couple of minutes to go tomake it a three-point game with the conversion.
It’s a position the Brumbies didn’t look like they’d be in when the Rams went into the break up 13-nil.
After a bit of a messy start, with both sides making simple errors, the Rams settled the best and took the lead with 16 to go through the boot of skipper Simon Newton.
Newton extended their lead a few minutes later, after centre partner Ed Churchill had ripped the ball from Scone opposite William Wardlaw’s grasp and run about 30m.
He then pushed them out to 13 with five minutes to go.
“We were starved of the ball,” McRae said.
They just couldn’t get into the rhythm of the game.
The second half they straightened up the attack and picked up their intensity.
“We knew we had the wind behind us in the second half,” McRae said.
“It was more just holding the ball and getting into our rhythm,” McRae said.
They knew if they were patient the opportunities would come.
Murray Wilkinson’s try early in the second half was the perfect example.
It came after 14 phases, and was the spark for their second -half comeback.
They looked a different side after that, their kicking game becoming a lot more prominent.
As they had done in the major semi-final, they kept turning the Rams around and making them work it out of their half.
It had the desired result and by midway through the half they’d hit the front, with winger John Maxwell scoring after a smart kick through from centre Dale Robinson.
Robinson then combined with Wardlaw to push the Brumbies out to 10 ahead with eight to go.
Rams coach Andrew Crawford was pretty happy with their first half and thought at half-time they’d be fine.
“They just played smart footy in the second half,” he said.
“We didn’t touch the footy until about 10 to go.”
And when they did get it, they turned it over.