The Brumbies climbed to the top of the Australian conference thanks to a bonus-point 33-0 victory over the Sunwolves in Canberra on Sunday. DYLAN JACK reports.

The home side came into the match needing five points to go ahead of the Rebels, who beat the Reds on Friday, in the conference. The victory not only allowed them to climb into first in their domestic conference, but also saw them go from 10th to second on the overall conference.

A dominant first half saw the Brumbies go into the break 19-0 ahead thanks to a brace from Henry Speight, one of them a sensational 50m try set up by Tevita Kuridrani. Joe Powell went over for a long-range try in between, with the home side looking set to get the bonus-point they needed from the match.

Speight turned provider in the second half as he set Tom Banks up for the Brumbies’ fourth try. The Sunwolves tried to respond and managed their best period of pressure in the 60th minute, but the match was sealed when Pete Samu finished off a brilliant Brumbies counter-attack.

Brumbies – Tries: Henry Speight (2), Joe Powell, Tom Banks, Pete Samu. Conversions: Christian Lealiifano (4). 

Brumbies – 15 Tom Banks, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Irae Simone, 11 Toni Pulu, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 Joe Powell, 8 Pete Samu, 7 Jahrome Brown, 6 Tom Cusack, 5 Sam Carter, 4 Darcy Swain, 3 Allan Alaalatoa, 2 Folau Fainga’a, 1 Scott Sio.
Subs: 16 Connal Mcinerney, 17 James Slipper, 18 Leslie Leuluaialii-Makin, 19 Blake Enever, 20 Murray Douglas, 21 Ryan Lonergan, 22 Tom Wright, 23 Andy Muirhead

Sunwolves – 15 Ryohei Yamanaka, 14 Gerhard Van Den Heever, 13 Josh Timu, 12 Phil Burleigh, 11 Jason Emery, 10 Yu Tamura, 9 Kaito Shigeno, 8 Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco, 7 Dan Pryor, 6 Hendrik Tui, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Mark Abbott , 3 Hiroshi Yamashita, Shota Horie, 1 Masataka Mikami.
Subs: 16 Jaba Bregvadze, 17 Conan O’Donnell, 18 Takuma Asahara, 19 Tom Rowe, 20 Kara Pryor, 21 Ben Gunter, 22 Jamie Booth, 23 Hayden Parker.

Photo: Rugby.com.au