| schema:articleBody
| - The Queensland Reds staged a stirring comeback to down the ACT Brumbies in a thrilling 24-22 win on Saturday, locking in a home final in Super Rugby AU. Trailing 12-0 early in the first half, the Reds hit the front for the first time in the final minutes to pull off a gutsy fightback and underline their title claims ahead of next month's final. The Brumbies were in control for much of the contest but the Reds surged home with two second-half tries and James O'Connor's steely goalkicking to peg back the deficit. The Reds, roared on by a 20,000 home crowd, remained unbeaten this season after seven games and the victory pushed them seven points clear of the Brumbies each with one game to play. "We could feel that support and it drove us home. We wanted a home final and I'm just stoked by our performance," skipper O'Connor said. "We couldn't be happier, so proud of our performance." Hooker Folau Fainga'a gave the Brumbies a flying start, crashing over for a try inside the corner flag in the sixth minute. The Brumbies were in again after Tom Banks swept on to O'Connor's long pass and sprinted 70 metres to score with Noah Lolesio adding the extras from the sideline for a 12-0 lead after 16 minutes. O'Connor reduced arrears with back-to-back penalty goals midway through the half as the Reds looked to get back into the contest. The Reds had a big moment when Joshua Flook's kick ahead was fielded by Andy Muirhead, only for the ball to jolt loose in Bryce Hegarty's tackle over the try-line and Hegarty grounded it for a try. But the TMO ruled that Hegarty had knocked the ball out of Muirhead's grasp and disallowed the try. Nic White landed a 53-metre penalty on half-time to give the Brumbies a 15-6 advantage. O'Connor featured twice in the leadup before hurling a long ball out to Joshua Flook, who beat off Muirhead's tackle to score in the corner early in the second half. O'Connor landed the sideline conversion to put the Reds just two points behind after 51 minutes. But the Brumbies hit back off a maul with a beautifully-worked passing move and using two decoy runners to send winger Tom Wright over unopposed in the left corner. Lolesio added the extras to restore the Brumbies nine-point margin. Jordan Petaia kicked a 50/22 to give the Reds the lineout throw deep in opposition territory. Petaia was on the spot to out-jump Banks to claim O'Connor's high kick for Queensland's second try, as they trailed by four points heading into the final 10 minutes. O'Connor closed the margin to one point with his third penalty as the Reds stepped up the attacking tempo. He then kicked the Reds to the front for the first time off a scrum penalty as the home team fended off the desperate Brumbies to close out the game. rsm/oho
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)