Its Brumby Time: Do it for George & Stirling

It’s been a bad week for Brumbies supporters: Firstly we have Kaplan reffing a home game, which is bad enough. Then our (booby)prize recruit, Matt Giteau, is made fun of for having ample possession and territory and not being able to build a big lead with it and now we’re being called the ugliest most boring Australian team to watch in this years Super 14.

Well enough is enough, and that last one was certainly a low blow. Every other year there are more contenders for the most boring award, this year the standard for Aussie rugby has been raised so high we have 3 Aussie teams only on 3 losses with only 3 (4 actually) matches to play. A situation never been accomplished before and probably never to be again.

Also all this criticism has come too early and will mean nothing when the Brumbies ‘Van Humphries’ the Waratahs come this F*ing Saturday Night. We already thrashed the South African Tahs 61 – 15 last time both teams played. We’ll have no jetlag having played in Canberra last week and we’ll be playing on a field the Tahs can’t claim a large amount of home ground advantage on.

Last week the Brumbies didn’t overcome the tactics of the Hurricanes but I hope it was a fast learning curve for the players in the team; that they learn how to change their team tactics during the game and certainly before they waste another 2 hours of every rugby supporters life.

This is a whole new week and it will be different. The Brumbies will step up for this derby match as their season is more on the line and they need to keep their finals hopes alive and maximise the chance of George Smith and Mortlock playing again for the Brumbies. They are sitting 3 points behind the Tahs, so a bonus point win to them and a double bonus point loss to the Tahs will square everything up. As a Brumby supporter a win at all costs is imperative, but as an Australian, I would like to see 7 points come out of this match 5 to the Brumbies.

Below I’ve named the line-ups but I’m not too sure about some of the injury clouds over some Tah players.

The Tahs may be without TPN and Benn Robinson for this one, so the brumbies have a chance up front with only old man Baxter as the usual starting front rower. If Alexander can dominate him in the scrum it could set up the rest of the team nicely.

In the Locks Mumm and Chapman will face off in the converted blindside derby. And either Hand or Chisholm will line up against Douglas.

In the back row Elsom will try and outmuscle Ben Mowen. Hoiles will cover Palu’s replacement (probably Caldwell) [ED: really? What about Dennis?] and Waugh will try and show the third Faingaa whose boss.

You can draw your own conclusions about the backline but I think the dumb move of taking AAC out of outside centre will give the Tahs a huge advantage in this area with Horne and Barnes being a much more experienced combination than Tyrone and Andrew Smith.

Brumbies v Waratahs
ANZ stadium
Saturday, 24 April, 2010
Kick-off: 7.40pm

Brumbies		HSBC WARATAHS
Julian Huxley	15	Kurtley Beale
Pat McCabe	14	Lachie Turner
Andrew Smith	13	Rob Horne
Tyrone Smith	12	Berrick Barnes
Adam Ashley-Cooper	11	Drew Mitchell
Matt Giteau	10	Daniel Halangahu
Joshua Valentine	9	Luke Burgess
Stephen Hoiles [c]	8	Will Caldwell
Colby Faingaa	7	Phil Waugh [c]
Rocky Elsom	6	Ben Mowen
Ben Hand	5	Kane Douglas
Mitchell Chapman	4	Dean Mumm
Salesi Ma’afu	3	Al Baxter
Stephen Moore	2	Tatafu Polota-Nau Fitzpattrick
Ben Alexander	1	Benn Robinson Kepu
	Reserves
Huia Edmunds	16	Damien Fitzpatrick Freier
Guy Shepderson	17	Sekope Kepu ?
Mark Chisholm	18	?
Michael Hooper	19	Dave Dennis
Pattrick Phibbs	20	Josh Holmes
Alfi Mafi	21	Tom Carter
Brackin Karauria-Henry	22	Sosene Anesi