The Brumbies have a golden chance to keep the pressure on the Melbourne Rebels when they take on the unpredictable Sunwolves on Sunday arvo in Canberra.
The Brumbies are going for five wins in a row at home and with a bye following this game, they will be giving it everything to keep pace with the Rebels or even overtake them if they can come up with a bonus point win.
They’re coming off a gritty win against the Blues last week that might not have been everyone’s cup of tea but the Brumbies don’t care about how they win, as long as they’re winning. There was the word of the Lord during the week telling those critics where they can shove it and don’t be surprised if there is more of the same as they look to use their main weapon.
But the Sunwolves are an unpredictable bunch and aren’t the easy beats they once were and you only have to ask the Waratahs about what happens if you don’t respect the opposition but their biggest issue at the moment is consistency and discipline, something that cost them big time in last weeks defeat against the Reds and sees them as the most penalised and yellow carded team in the competition.
The Brumbies have made a few changes for this important game. The prop rotation between Scott Sio and James Slipper continues but whoever has been given the start in 2019 has been impressive. Lock Rory Arnold is out with ankle ligament damage from the Blues game and is replaced by Darcy Swain with Blake Enever coming onto the bench. Tevita Kuridrani is straight back into the starting side at 13 after the week off.
The Sunwolves have a few changes and will be without their biggest attacking weapon in Semisi Masirewa as he sits out the week for claiming the full house of yellow cards last week. The other interesting team news is that goal kicker extraordinaire Hayden Parker is on the bench with Yu Tamara given the start at 10 but they do get Dan Pryor back in the seven jersey.
Mark Abbott partners Grant Hattingh in the second row and Jason Emery moves from the centres to the wing with Josh Timu taking his place at 13. They’ve gone with a 6/2 split on the bench in a likely sign as to how they will approach this game.
Key match up
Backrow
It’s an obvious one, but one that is crucial to this game. The Brumbies might be missing their first-choice trio of Valetini, Pocock and McCaffrey but the transition to the make up of newly re-signed Tom Cusack, rookie Jahrome Brown and Pete Samu has been seamless. The Sunwolves backrow of Hendrik Tui, Dan Pryor and Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco will be more than up for a physical battle.
Prediction
Brumbies by 15..
TEAMS
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BRUMBIES
1 Scott Sio
2 Folau Fainga’a
3 Allan Alaalatoa
4 Darcy Swain
5 Sam Carter
6 Tom Cusack
7 Jahrome Brown
8 Pete Samu
9 Joe Powell
10 Christian Lealiifano
11 Toni Pulu
12 Irae Simone
13 Tevita Kuridrani
14 Henry Speight
15 Tom Banks
Replacements
16 Connal McInerney
17 James Slipper
18 Leslie Leulua’ialii-Makin
19 Blake Enever
20 Murray Douglas
21 Ryan Lonergan
22 Tom Wright
23 Andy Muirhead
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Sunwolves
1 Masataka Mikami
2 Shota Horie
3 Hiroshi Yamashita
4 Mark Abbott
5 Grant Hattingh
6 Hendrik Tui
7 Dan Pryor
8 Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco
9 Kaito Shigeno
10 Yu Tamura
11 Jason Emery
12 Phil Burleigh
13 Josh Timu
14 Gerhard van den Heever
15 Ryohei Yamanaka
Replacements
16 Jaba Bregvadze
17 Conan O’Donnell
18 Takuma Asahara
19 Tom Rowe
20 Kara Pryor
21 Ben Gunter
22 Jamie Booth
23 Hayden Parker
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MATCH DEETS
Kick off: 4:05pm AEST
GIO Stadium
Sunday 12 May
Referee: Damon Murphy
AR1: Angus Gardner
AR2: Graham Cooper
TMO: George Ayoub[/one_third]
