The Brumbies’ Provincial team, full of Southern Inland’s best, won plenty of admirers despite going down to NSW Country on Saturday.
In a vast improvement from last year, the Brumbies, featuring Griffith Blacks Chris Latu, really pushed their Country rivals in Canberra.
Jumping out to a 13-6 lead, the representative team led for most of the first half against their highly fancied rivals.
However, they couldn’t sustain the effort and went down 50-34.
NSW Country took a 29-13 lead at half-time, but didn't really kick away until the very end.
With five minutes left NSW Country only led by 40-27, but scored two of the next three tries to seal the result.
Coach Richard Skellern was thrilled with the performance.
“I thought the boys really stepped up to the plate and played well,” Skellern said.
“Each player stepped up and did what we asked of them.
“Regardless of the result we showed the opposition we are competitive and can play some good football.
“We fought hard in the forwards and were really good in the backs.”
NSW COUNTRY 50 d BRUMBIES PROVINCIAL 34 (Joe Ratu, Siti Watkins, Nathan Seymour, Noa Rabici tries; Stu Dyer 2 cons, 2 pens, Siti Watkins 2 cons)
