The Clan from the deep south come to Canberra with their undefeated record on the line against a confident Brumbies side. Buoyed by their close loss to the Chiefs, the Brumbies head into the match with minimal changes and will be looking to keep their unbeaten home streak in 2012 intact.
Nic White returns at scrum half and should be over his battle with illness and his work around the back of the rucks will be welcomed. In other changes, Scott Fardy is the unlucky recipient of Jake White’s rotation plan despite a strong game last time out and will start on the bench. Also on the bench is Tevita Kuridrani who missed last weeks game in New Zealand due to visa issues.
Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph has made 5 changes to the team that beat the Hurricanes last week and have had some injury concerns during the week. The absence of flanker Adam Thomson could prove crucial in the battle of the breakdown. Crowd sledging favourite Jimmy Cowan hits the pine this week so heckling could be at a minimum this week from Brumbies fans.
Teams
Brumbies: 15. Jesse Mogg, 14. Joe Tomane, 13. Andrew Smith, 12. Pat McCabe, 11. Henry Speight, 10. Christian Lealiifano, 9. Nic White, 8. Ben Mowen (c), 7. Michael Hooper, 6. Peter Kimlin, 5. Sam Carter, 4. Leon Power, 3. Dan Palmer, 2. Stephen Moore, 1. Ben Alexander.
Res: 16. Anthony Hegarty, 17. Ruaidhri Murphy, 18. Scott Fardy, 19. Ita Vaea, 20. Ian Prior, 21. Zack Holmes, 22. Tevita Kuridrani.
Clan: 15. Ben Smith, 14. Kade Poki, 13. Tamati Ellison, 12. Shaun Treeby, 11. Hosea Gear, 10. Colin Slade, 9. Aaron Smith, 8. Nasi Manu, 7. Doug Tietjens, 6. James Haskell, 5. Culum Retalick, 4. Josh Bekhuis, 3. Chris King, 2. Andrew Hore, 1. Jamie Mackintosh (c).
Res: 16. Jason Rutledge, 17. Bronson Murray, 18. Nick Crosswell, 19. Elliot Dixon, 20. Jimmy Cowan, 21. Chris Noakes, 22. Buxton Popoali’i
Details
The match will be played on Saturday evening with kick off at 7:40pm. Anyone who is a student at Uni of Canberra have a great deal with tickets to the match at the outstanding price of only $5 so a good crowd should show up. It’s a windy day in the Capital today and it’s expected to be the same tomorrow.
This is the first time a South African takes the whistle for a Brumbies match in 2012 with referee Lourens van der Merwe making his whistling debut at Super Rugby level.
Referee: Lourens van der Merwe (SA)
Assistant referees: Marius Jonker (SA), Simon Moore (Aus)
TMO: Steve Lesczcynski (Aus)
Game Breaker
This match will be won in the forwards and both packs look very strong. The battle up front with Wallabies hooker Stephen Moore coming up against reserve All Blacks rake Andrew Hore will be worth watching. The role of the bench could come into play and if so the Highlanders on paper have the edge there.
The fearless prediction
The Highlanders have a few injury concerns that could see them come undone here. Despite wins over the Crusaders, Chiefs and Waratahs – albeit close victories – the disruption to the lineup could prove too much. The Brumbies with a more settled starting side will take the win by 7 in another close game.
The Canberra Stadium clock has been inspected and will ensure it’s a game of two halves to be played over the full 80, so credit to the boys for sorting that out. The other prediction is that Jimmy Cowan will be involved in something that requires him to mouth off at a rival player or even one of his own.
