“Fired up” at half-time and glassy-eyed 40 minutes later, Stephen Larkham has overseen one of the best wins from an Australian team in Super Rugby in years in a result that could swing some late support behind his bid to become the next Wallabies coach.

Indeed, with Joe Schmidt’s successor not yet confirmed almost a month after telling Rugby Australia he wouldn’t continue as head coach beyond October, Larkham delivered a timely reminder of his coaching ability after overseeing the Brumbies’ phenomenal second-half comeback to defeat the Blues at Eden Park 21-20.

In taking down last year’s Super Rugby champions, the Brumbies snapped a 12-year losing streak at the venue.

But just as impressive as the hoodoo breaking result was how they turned around their ugly five minutes leading in half-time, as they made the most of Beauden Barrett’s absence and turned the screws on the Blues through brilliant pressure at the breakdown and at the kick-chase.

Respected coach Vern Cotter cut a frustrated figure in the coach’s box and didn’t dance around their shortcomings after the match.

“I think if you just simplify things, we lost too much possession,” Cotter said.

“We lost the kick-battle in the air, we couldn’t take ball there, and we got turned over at ruck time, and they were very good at spinning us. They’re a good team.”

Brumbies prop Blake Schoupp celebrates after their upset win over the Blues at Eden Park. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Larkham, one of the Wallabies’ greatest players turned respected coaches, couldn’t hide his smile.

“I just think for the season now, we’ve started slowly, we’ve lost two of opening three, we had a really tough game last week, we had a six-day turnaround into this, and the boys worked really hard,” said Larkham, who was visibly glassy eyed in the moments after full-time.

“We’ve been so close.

“It’s every 12 years [we’ve won]; 2001, 2013 and now 2025.”

Interestingly, former rival turned Sky pundit Jeff Wilson revealed that Larkham had missed his half-time cross in the seconds before play resumed in the second half.

Asked what happened, Larkham, a methodical and deep thinker of the game, who rarely loses his cool, admitted the playing group saw a different side to him during his half-time message.

“I was actually a bit fired up,” he said.

“It’s very rare that I’m fired up, but I was fired up and I had to go and compose myself. I went to the bathroom, looked in the mirror for a sec and it was too late (for the interview).”

Asked what he said, Larkham said it was a matter of reminding his team what had worked well at the start of the match and ensuring they get back to that quickly.

“The way that we started the game was the way that we needed to start that second half,” Larkham said.

“Obviously 10 points down, we spoke about the forwards will do the job, hopefully get a maul try and bring some points back on the scoreboard, but it was really just reiterating what we said at the start of the game and trying to get the boys back in the mindset of how they started.”

Stephen Larkham’s stocks got a bump after the Brumbies beat the Blues at Eden Park. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

While Red coach Les Kiss has long been the favourite to succeed Schmidt, and Dan McKellar viewed as another strong contender, the win across the ditch will undoubtedly make Rugby Australia’s executive team and high performance director Peter Horne think twice.

A tactically astute coach, Larkham not only has the experience on the field, having won a World Cup as a player abroad in 1999 and starred in a home final four years later, he was also Michael Cheika’s assistant when the Wallabies reached the final in 2015.

Since then, however, Larkham’s reputation, like most involved in Australian rugby, has fallen.

Indeed, Larkham was the scape goat for the Wallabies’ troubles at the end of 2018.

The fact that he hasn’t been able to guide the Brumbies to their first major silverware since 2004, let alone make a final despite carrying the Australian flag over the past decade, hasn’t helped either.

But his quiet and, at times, unorganised nature as a head coach has hurt his reputation just as much.

With wins like Friday night’s though, Larkham’s stocks have been given a boost.