The Brumbies will lean on tough lessons learnt from recent wins in New Zealand when they attempt to complete an unprecedented “Kiwi sweep” with victory over the Hurricanes in Christchurch on Saturday.
After beating four of the five New Zealand sides so far this year, the Brumbies can make history if they beat the Canes and make it a full house of trans-Tasman wins in a single season.
The Reds are the only side that has done something similar, winning four from four against Kiwi rivals in 2013. But they didn’t play all five New Zealand teams due to the conference system in place at the time, and ultimately lost to the Crusaders in the play-offs.
Even the four Australian teams that won Super titles (Brumbies 2001 and 2004, Reds 2011 and Waratahs 2014) all dropped at least one regular season game to a New Zealand team.
But in a slightly off-kilter season in which the Brumbies have uncharacteristically lost several games at home, the ACT men have been consistently outstanding against Kiwi teams, home and away.
The Brumbies broke a 26-year drought and beat the Crusaders in round two in Christchurch and downed the Highlanders in Dunedin as well in round nine. Both wins contained key leasons for the Brumbies in trying to defeat the in-form Canes.
The Brumbies, like all teams in Super Round, could not train on One NZ Stadium on Friday and will only experience the venue when they run out on Saturday afternoon, in front of a sold-out crowd of 25,000. But coach Steve Larkham said the players had pseudo-acclimatised two weeks ago after beating the Highlanders at their roofed home ground in Dunedin, Forsyth Barr Stadium.
“It’ll be a great atmosphere inside the stadium,” Larkham said. “The stands are quite vertical, so all of that noise will resonate down onto the field, and it’ll just create a really good atmosphere for the players, something that we haven’t seen in Super Rugby for a while.
“We felt that in Dunedin as well. It wasn’t at capacity in Dunedin, but during the warm-up, even when the crowd wasn’t fully in the stadium, it was really hard to hear. And then the boys spoke about it after the game as well, in terms of that communication factor.
“So we’ve spoken about that this week in terms of some of our calls … being more physical calls on the field, to make sure that the players can identify the space and identify the options.”
The win over the Crusaders was at a different venue in Christchurch, Apollo Projects Stadium, but the Brumbies have stuck to a similar schedule and are staying in the same hotel. They did their captain’s run in a public park across the road on Friday, in front of curious onlookers. One car passed by, and mistaking them for NSW, the passengers, preaching to the converted, yelled out, “Waratahs suck”.
But the substance of the Brumbies’ win over the Crusaders is the lesson they’ll seek to carry into the Canes’ clash. The Australian side stifled the Crusaders with a game plan built around holding onto the ball and playing direct rugby, denying the defending champions the turnovers they love to turn into attack.
The Brumbies weren’t as disciplined in their shock loss to the Fijian Drua in Canberra last weekend, when they gave up 24 turnovers with a more expansive mindset.
“That just killed our continuity in the game,” Larkham said. “We know that if we can recycle the ball then we’re a very dangerous outfit, but it’s going to be that urgency to get to the breakdown as a priority this weekend.
“We’ve spoken about the fact that we have beaten the other New Zealand teams, and this could be quite a nice milestone for us. We’ve had success travelling to New Zealand over the last couple of years, and this would round out all the New Zealand teams in one year.
“We haven’t placed a lot of emphasis on that, but we know that’s something that we can celebrate after the game as well.”
The Brumbies sit fourth on the ladder, six points behind the top two teams, the Canes and Chiefs. A win over the Canes – who they beat in a Canberra play-off game last year – is important if they have any hope of hosting a final this season.
The fifth-placed Reds will play after the Brumbies on Saturday in Super Round, against the Blues. The Reds are also in form against New Zealand sides, having downed the Crusaders in Brisbane last weekend, and after also beating the Highlanders at home in round three.
Iain Payten is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.
