Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport<\/a><\/p>\nSo what did we learn?<\/p>\n
1. Welcome back Carter Gordon<\/p>\n
Carter Gordon, welcome home.<\/p>\n
The Reds flyhalf stepped up when it mattered, slicing past his opposite number for the winner when the Reds needed it the most.<\/p>\n
Gordon will get the limelight but Jock Campbell is the real star of the comeback, producing a sensational run from well inside the 22 to give the Reds a sniff.<\/p>\n
Luck went their way, but sometimes, that\u2019s all a team needs to really kick-start their season.<\/p>\n
A win over the Brumbies has alluded Les Kiss for so long, giving them belief before next week’s return fixture against the NSW Waratahs.<\/p>\n
2. Own medicine\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a tough way for the Brumbies\u2019 unbeaten start to end, copping the uno reverse card with the late comeback loss.<\/p>\n
Coach Stephen Larkham will be furious that the referees missed a clear knock-on from Filipo Daugunu that should\u2019ve given them a free kick to seal the game.<\/p>\n
They got some great impact from their bench via Luke Reimer and Blake Schoupp; however, they just couldn\u2019t hold them out late.<\/p>\n
But the Brumbies will have to park the emotion ahead of a tough away trip to Fiji to face the Drua.<\/p>\n
3. Lighting up Canberra<\/p>\n
Any drought-affected areas in Australia should be on the phone to the Queensland Reds because wet weather seems to follow them around the country.<\/p>\n
The Brumbies and Reds were forced to wait in the change rooms as lightning cracked the top of GIO Stadium in a mini storm that swept through Canberra.<\/p>\n
This pushed the kick-off well past the scheduled time of 7:35 pm, leaving the two teams to recalibrate their preparations until the game could actually get underway at 9:00 pm.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there were a host of players on either side with experience on how to pass the time after last year\u2019s third British & Irish Lions Test in Sydney, with James Slipper basically asleep in the dressing rooms.<\/p>\n
4. Number eight battle lives up to hype<\/p>\n
The match was billed as a battle of the number eights between Charlie Cale and Harry Wilson, and we got that and some.<\/p>\n
The first half was a display of both back-rowers unique athleticism as they went try-for-try.<\/p>\n
For Wilson, it\u2019s the deft hands and ball-playing that defies his size, having a hand in two tries. Not to be outdone, Cale\u2019s freakish speed and strength saw him bag his own double to keep the Brumbies in the hunt.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an awesome problem to have for Test selectors.<\/p>\n
5. Brother act <\/p>\n
It happened far earlier than expected but the battle of Kadin v Treyvon Pritchard was something that caught the eye throughout the match.<\/p>\n
An arm\/shoulder injury to Lachie Anderson saw the younger Pritchard thrown into the contest way earlier than expected, finding his brother in the 31st minute with a solid tackle.<\/p>\n
His brother gave it back to him when he was bundled into touch, giving him a ruffle up on the ground.<\/p>\n
18-year-old Treyvon showed enough to say he belongs at Super Rugby level, nearly pulling off the winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a game that had it all and then some, with the Queensland Reds somehow coming away…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[58864,64,63,12061,760,85,48013],"class_list":["post-524696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-act-brumbies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-queensland-reds","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}