Long overdue success for ACT as Brumbies win Super Rugby AU final

Here's a new one - a year in Canberra is an absolute eternity. And the capital has been handsomely rewarded for enduring its strangest ever year with a Super Rugby AU championship.

This time 12 months ago, Canberra was putting on its usual springtime show of floral brilliance. The bluebells were out in force, Floriade was attracting thousands and the words social and distancing were not yet a hackneyed couplet.

Then summer came, temperatures soared and Australia burned.

The Brumbies were forced to leave Canberra and its world's worst air quality to continue their Super Rugby preseason in Newcastle, almost 500km away.

Namadgi National Park went up in flames, and Canberra's southern and western fringes were on red alert. For weeks on end the fire raged, threatening to invade the capital.

Round one of the Super Rugby season arrived, and the Brumbies down Queensland 27-24 in searing temperatures.

Ryan Lonergan left the ground thinking not about their promising start to the year, but mentally preparing himself for a firefight the following day to help defend his family's Williamsdale property.

These were apocalyptic times, yet the Brumbies kept finding ways to win.

A few weeks later a bout of mumps spread through the camp, yet the Brumbies kept finding ways to win.

Then COVID-19 exploded, and the world was turned upside down. The Brumbies could no longer find a way to win because the planet had shut down.

Coach Dan McKellar and his players simply had to wait.

Wind the clock back to the Brumbies' last Super Rugby title 16 years ago, and Canberra was a very different place.

It was still reeling from the last bushfires that threatened the capital at the start of 2003, those that incinerated much of Duffy and ultimately led to the creation of the National Arboretum.

Back then we were a city of some 324,000 people. Gungahlin was merely a developing toddler, Braddon wasn't a hipster hangout, and night crawlers hung out at places like Insomnia and North Bar.

The Brumbies were a much different entity also.

Names like Gregan, Larkham, Roff, Finegan and Smith leaped off the team sheet.

These were seasoned Wallabies campaigners, and household names around the ACT. And they razzled and dazzled on that crazy night back in May of 2004, sweeping out to an early 33-0 lead before staving off the gallant Crusaders and finishing 47-38 victors.

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Queensland Reds coach Brad Thorn remembers it well - he was in the Crusaders lineup that night.

Those golden years of Australian rugby which straddled our hosting of its World Cup in 2003 are a distant memory, and our current heroes are very much plying their trade in a new era.

Now the team sheet reads Alaalatoa, Lolesio, Sio, Muirhead and Banks - a new generation who, much like the code, have endured their toughest year.

And these modern-day heroes have delivered Canberra another championship.

Even before the crippling virus, rugby union was struggling to sustain itself amidst the NRL and AFL.

Former chief Raelene Castle spent her tenure dousing spotfires, and had to manage the situation stemming from Israel Folau's homophobic messages on social media.

She was under serious pressure before COVID-19 arrived, and that was the final blow which preceded her departure.

The game found a way to continue - the Western Force were welcomed back, and Super Rugby AU was born, albeit under strict bubble conditions.

All the while these new-age Brumbies put their heads down and did all that was asked of them by unflappable coach Dan McKellar and his staff.

They quickly established themselves as Australia's best side. A couple of late-season losses threatened to derail their campaign but they only galvanised this tightest-knit of playing squads.

Unfortunately the virus remains. Rugby Australia is desperate to lock in a broadcast deal, and thus some financial security for the medium term. Whether or not a 2021 competition includes New Zealand teams remains to be seen.

Most likely it won't - Super Rugby AU version two will be on the menu and potentially there will be some kind of trans-Tasman Champions League type finish come the end of the season.

But that's 12 months away.

And a LOT can happen between now and then.