The Brumbies had some good individual efforts and it was good to see Frankie Fainifo healthy and in early form. We forget this is the guy that ran down Habana one day.
Vaea was the form 8 in Sydney club rugby last year - going by watching games on the ABC - but you couldn't be sure that he had the ability to take that game to Super Rugby. Now we can be sure. Folks will now know what I meant when I mentioned he plays a heavy game.
The commentators apart from Clarkie should do their homework. Clarkie had Vaea's weight on his crib sheet but Kearnsie mentioned that he was a giant, which he isn't, but a paper that Kearnsie read said he was. Kearnsie has to get out and watch a few club games.
Salvi had a nice return to Super rugby. That's the kind of form he showed for Bath and why they didn't want to let him go. I think he will thrive now that Smith is not blocking his way. Before he left to go offshore he was getting too little time at 7 or got shoved into playing 6 or even 8 to give him that time.
Palmer showed also why the Tahs didn't want to let him go. It seemed a bad decision for the young man but he backed himself. Well done to Friend for his selection and to Caputo, who must have offered advice on the matter.
The main problem for the Brumbies (and no, I don't think it is Giteau) is that they lack the on field team nous that the old Brumbies had in their pomp. They had better players then but not everybody was a star, yet the team played with an admirable belief in each other and that if things weren't going too well they could, as a team, find the solution.
This Brumbies team needs to get some of that. It's a bit rough to criticise them after only one game, which they won, but it was something that they were missing last year too.
They have to learn to grind things out. They can't rely on opponents stuffing up as much as the Chiefs did.
