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Tom Banks handed the fullback jersey for Brumbies battle with Waratahs
By Online Editors
Wallaby Tom Banks has been named to start for the Brumbies in their blockbuster showdown against arch-rivals the NSW Waratahs at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.
The electric fullback has overcome a foot complaint and will make his first appearance in the new Super Rugby AU competition.
The rest of starting XV remains the same as the one that defeated the Melbourne Rebels 31-23 in round one with skipper Allan Alaalatoa, Folau Fainga'a and James Slipper making up the front row.
After an impressive outing in round one, young lock Darcy Swain again partners Murray Douglas in the second row with Olympian Tom Cusack, Rob Valetini and Pete Samu finalising the forward pack.
Joe Powell and Noah Lolesio will continue to build on their combination in the halves, as will Irae Simone and Tevita Kuridrani in the midfield, who have started all but one game together so far in 2020.
Try scorers against the Rebels, Tom Wright and Andy Muirhead keep their spots on the wings, with Banks wearing the number 15 jersey.
Canberra product Connal McInerney will wear the 16 jersey and will be alongside Scott Sio and Tom Ross to provide the spark as front row replacements.
Vice-captain Lachlan McCaffrey and Will Miller round out the forward finishers, while livewire halfback Issak Fines is in line for his second appearance for the club after making his Super Rugby debut in round one.
Bayley Kuenzle and Mack Hansen round out the matchday 23.
Brumbies coach Dan McKellar said: "It's great to see Tom back in the side, he had such a great start to the year and he's a really important voice for us out there on the field."
"Mack was good in his first start for the Brumbies in round one and he'll provide some real spark for us as a replacement on Saturday night.
"It's always a tough challenge against the Waratahs and we're expecting nothing less on Saturday night like it always is and we'll be ready for that battle at ANZ Stadium."
Brumbies: Tom Banks, Andy Muirhead, Tevita Kuridrani, Irae Simone, Tom Wright, Noah Lolesio, Joe Powell, Pete Samu, Tom Cusack, Rob Valetini, Murray Douglas, Darcy Swain, Allan Alaalatoa (c), Folau Fainga’a, James Slipper. Reserves: Connal McInerney, Scott Sio, Tom Ross, Lachlan McCaffrey, Will Miller, Issak Fines, Bayley Kuenzle, Mack Hansen.
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Latest Comments
Like I've said before about your idea (actually it might have been something to do with mine, I can't remember), I like that teams will a small sustainable league focus can gain the reward of more consistent CC involvement. I'd really like the most consistent option available.
Thing is, I think rugby can do better than footballs version. I think for instance I wanted everyone in it to think they can win it, where you're talking about the worst teams not giving up because they are so far off the pace we get really bad scoreline when that and giving up to concentrate on the league is happening together.
So I really like that you could have a way to remedy that, but personally I would want my model to not need that crutch. Some of this is the same problem that football has. I really like the landscape in both the URC and Prem, but Ireland with Leinster specifically, and France, are a problem IMO. In football this has turned CL pool stages in to simply cash cow fixtures for the also ran countries teams who just want to have a Real Madrid or ManC to lose to in their pool for that bumper revenue hit. It's always been a comp that had suffered for real interest until the knockouts as well (they might have changed it in recent years?).
You've got some great principles but I'm not sure it's going to deliver on that hard hitting impact right from the start without the best teams playing in it. I think you might need to think about the most minimal requirement/way/performance, a team needs to execute to stay in the Champions Cup as I was having some thougt about that earlier and had some theory I can't remember. First they could get entry by being a losing quarter finalist in the challenge, then putting all their eggs in the Champions pool play bucket in order to never finish last in their pool, all the while showing the same indifference to their league some show to EPCR rugby now, just to remain in champions. You extrapolate that out and is there ever likely to be more change to the champions cup that the bottom four sides rotate out each year for the 4 challenge teams? Are the leagues ever likely to have the sort of 'flux' required to see some variation? Even a good one like Englands.
I'd love to have a table at hand were you can see all the outcomes, and know how likely any of your top 12 teams are going break into Champions rubyg on th back it it are?
Go to commentsYou always get idiots who go overboard. What else is new? I ignore them. Why bother?
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