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'We won't disappoint': How the Brumbies plan to upset the Crusaders in Trans-Tasman opener
By AAP
The Brumbies are hopeful three weeks on the road against new opponents will help ease the heartbreak of their Super Rugby AU grand-final loss to Queensland.
It doesn't get any easier for the Brumbies, who were beaten after the bell and face New Zealand's top three teams in the opening rounds of Super Rugby Trans-Tasman which kicks off this Friday.
Their first match is against the Super Rugby Aotearoa champions the Crusaders in Christchurch on Saturday afternoon.
Lock Darcy Swain said packing their bags for the new challenge meant they didn't have time to dwell too much on the defeat and don't plan to revisit the loss either.
Swain himself has particularly painful memories after being yellow-carded in the 77th minute and being sidelined while James O'Connor scored the 84th-minute match-winner.
"We're not going to review it; we're trying our best to park it," Swain said on Tuesday.
"It's a good opportunity to jump back on the horse - it's a big task but we back ourselves.
"We've played those Australian teams twice now as well as last year so it will be a good challenge to go over to New Zealand and play their style."
Bookmakers have written off the hopes of Australian teams of winning the inaugural title but Swain feels they have the talent and game plan to be competitive.
"We don't need to go over there and start doing a crazy amount of different things; we just need to back ourselves and stick to our defensive plans and attacking shape and play with heart," the Wallabies hopeful said.
"We go over there as now probably the second best in Australia having lost to the Reds but a lot of what we do will reflect on Australian rugby ... we won't disappoint."
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Latest Comments
Look there are a few unarguable facts here that are very clear. SARU was close to bankruptcy with SR, bailed out by the Lions and they need the URC and EPCR. Inclusion of SA teams in URC has been a great for for ALL concerned, from a rugby perspective and financially, moreover there is massive growth yet to come. The GP is in financial trouble and this will be the catalyst for EPCR change to further cement the Boks.
If this all plays out with even greater rewards for the urc AND the Top14 & GP via EPCR, the 6N will become 7N. Nz and Aus NEED to get their version firing with Japan & the PI’s, otherwise they will find themselves increasingly regressing…
Go to commentsPerofeta came back and was available for the eoyt right? Or was that why Love was in the squad (but got injured in the last week)?
It was such a frustrating year. Perofeta looked a service stop gap until Jordan was fit, but then got injured. Plummer was selected because of Pero's injury and dmac shat the bed in the second half in Australia but Clarke (?) got himself binned at the 65 min mark so Plummer couldn't come on (at least with the risk adverse Razors thinking) when he was planned to.
So many other exciting opportunities that could have happened without injuries, but then theyre probably balanced by knowing Sititi probably wouldn't have been given a chance without multiple injuries happened.
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