'We should have won that game': Brumbies confident of Blues boil-over
It's the toughest test in rugby, but if the Brumbies want to taste Super Rugby Pacific championship success, it's one they simply must pass.
They'll head to the cauldron that is Eden Park and battle the champion Blues for a spot in the following week's final, seeking their first trans-Tasman title since 2004.
But they gave the Blues a serious push just two weeks ago, even leading as the clock ticked over the 80-minute mark before a Beauden Barrett drop goal rescued a 21-19 win for the Auckland side in their round 14 clash in Canberra.
The Brumbies will also be boosted by the return of crucial flanker Rob Valetini, who's missed the last month with a hamstring injury.
Coach Dan McKellar said confidence was high as his troops entered the biggest week of their professional careers.
"We've been here before … we had to go to Argentina a couple of years ago and play a semi over there, we go to Auckland really confident," he told reporters.
"We felt we should have won that game a couple of weeks ago, there's an enormous amount of respect for them.
"They've got threats across the park, we feel we've got the game that can challenge them and we'll prepare for that."
The Brumbies had to dig extraordinarily deep to turn a 10-point second-half deficit into a 35-25 win against the Hurricanes in Canberra on Saturday night.
Captain Allan Alaalatoa said they headed to the semis believing they could achieve the allegedly impossible.
"There's a huge amount of belief, and tonight's win adds to that," he told reporters.
"Probably a sold-out Eden Park, I mean that atmosphere is going to be unbelievable.
"That connection and belief starts now and we'll continue to build that up throughout the week."
The Blues reeled off five straight tries to beat the Highlanders 35-6 on Saturday afternoon, with former NRL star Roger Tuivasa-Sheck looking the goods in scoring his first professional rugby union try.
- Alex Mitchell
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Interesting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
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