Brumbies wing Ben O’Donnell scored a hat-trick of tries in his side’s 43-28 win over the Fijian Drua in a frantic clash in Canberra.
O’Donnell’s try raid included a lucky bounce in a bizarre turn of events. The Brumbies had a scrum on the halfway line and played the ball out left before putting it on the toe to go in behind the defence. However, the ball ended up bouncing awkwardly amongst a group of bodies before the wing kicked it up and managed to snag it and canter through for the try.
The smile on his face afterwards shows that even he knows he got lucky with that one.
🤯 What a lucky bounce! Honeybadger lookalike Ben O'Donnell is in for his brace. #SuperRugbyPacific #BRUvDRUpic.twitter.com/2ElfgZ5xrv
— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) April 14, 2023
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It was O’Donnell who broke the deadlock early on with a fourth-minute try which was very quickly followed by his bouncing effort in the 13th minute. Fly-half Noah Lolesio could only manage one of the conversions.
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Lolesio, however, would be on his mark to convert Pete Samu’s try that came 10 minutes later as the Brumbies looked to be taking charge of the game.
The Fijian Drua had other ideas and scored two late tries before the break through half-back pairing Peni Matawalu and Teti Tela to only trail 19-14 at half-time thanks to Tela’s conversions.
The Canberra side scored first in the second half, with hooker Lachlan Lonergan crashing over five minutes into the second period. Lolesio again failed to convert.
Drua responded almost immediately as Iosefo Masi scored only three minutes later with his fly-half Tela accurate from the tee again.
Andy Muirhead was next on the scoresheet in the 51st minute, and his fly-half did manage the conversion on this occasion. However, once again Drua responded soon after with a cross-kick leading to a stunning Kalaveti Ravouvou try before Tela kicked the additional points.
The visitors pushed to find a decisive score, but the Brumbies showed their class, forcing a penalty try in the 73rd minute and opening up the corner for O’Donnell in the final moments of the game.
Video credit: Super Rugby Pacific