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Highlanders' 'outstanding' set piece keeping Brumbies on edge
By AAP
The Brumbies are well-poised for a top-two finish this Super Rugby Pacific season, with their bid to secure hosting rights for a semi-final seeing them welcome the Highlanders to Canberra on Sunday.
Perhaps buoyed by the first signs of a chink in the ladder-leading Chiefs' armour after they lost at home to the Queensland Reds on Friday night, the second-ranked Brumbies will look to continue winning ways against a Highlanders side that have lost four straight games.
After facing the Dunedin-based side, they close the regular season against the Western Force (eighth), Chiefs (first) and Melbourne Rebels (10th) with all games in Australia.
They'll need no reminder of the importance of a home game in the final four, beaten 20-19 by the Blues in last year's semi-final at Eden Park in Auckland.
But ahead of a match they'll enter as warm favourites, Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham denied they'd turned their mind to the bigger picture of the post-season.
"We haven't spoken about that, and we're not going to speak about that in a team environment," he said.
"We're very much focused on the week-to-week ... you can get carried away with where you are on the ladder and where you can potentially end up, and lose sight of what's most important.
"Really good training ... concentration in the meeting space, making sure we're really aligned on the weekend, and putting a good performance in on the weekend."
Their line-up is well settled and they've only tinkered around the edges, Ollie Sapsford's inclusion at centre in place of Tamati Tua the only change to the run-on side while former Wallaby Connal McInerney is on the bench for his first appearance since round five.
Larkham said the Highlanders' record - they're just 3-7 this season and rank 11th - was deceptive of just how good a side they can be.
"Like any New Zealand team, they've got some pretty devastating ball carriers... they're dangerous around the halves and have a few trick plays through the middle of the ruck," he said.
"Their set piece is outstanding, probably one of the best New Zealand teams in terms of their scrum, so we've got to be wary of that.
"We certainly know where they are on the ladder is not indicative of how good this team is."
The hosts should expect a fired-up Highlanders side given they're only one win outside the top eight in their own finals push.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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