The Brumbies are off to Tokyo to take on the Sunwolves on Saturday arvo, just three weeks after their previous meeting in Canberra and with a chance of extending their conference lead over the Rebels.
The Brumbies are on a bit of a hot streak having won their last three games in a row and five of their last six, with the only defeat in that run at the hands of those nasty, nasty (according to some) Argentinians.
Coach Dan McKellar has kept things pretty simple with the makeup of the starting side and why wouldn’t he after the latest run of form, with the only change coming in the front row as the rotation system with James Slipper and Scott Sio that has worked pretty well in 2019 in effect again.
On the bench, the newly re-signed Lachlan McCaffrey is back after a few weeks off with a knee injury and a stint in club rugby last weekend for the Queanbeyan Whites with fellow pine rider, Matt Lucas, who also re-signed for another year.
On the other hand, the Sunwolves are coming off a hiding at the hand of the Rebels and looked in all sorts of trouble. For this match there are only a handful of players who took part in the return clash and that doesn’t bode well for team cohesion with a few injuries coming out of last weeks game, including a knee injury to Amanaki Mafi that sees seven changes in the 23.
The hosts have not won a home game in 2019 and the news didn’t get any better for them this week with the news that coach Tony Brown will be heading back to New Zealand for the 2020 season with the Highlanders and will miss the rest of the season on Japan national team duty so Scott Hansen takes over.
The Sunwolves do have Hayden Parker back at 10 so the Brumbies will have to watch their discipline with his radar boot ready to punish any indiscretions. They so have some handy names in the rest of the backline and if Hosea Saumaki and Semisi Masirewa, who missed the return game through suspension, get in space there could be trouble for the Brumbies defence.
Key match up
Jahrome Brown v. Dan Pryor
The breakdown will be an area of focus for the Brumbies and Jahrome Brown has shown that he’s more up for the dirty stuff around the ruck every game. Dan Pryor is equally keen to get involved so this will go some way to determining the winner.
Prediction
The Brumbies have too much to play for and have a much more settled side than the Sunwolves. Brumbies by 18..
TEAMS
[one_third last=”no”]
BRUMBIES
1 James Slipper
2 Folau Fainga’a
3 Allan Alaalatoa
4 Rory Arnold
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 Scott Sio
18 Leslie Leulua’ialii-Makin
19 Darcy Swain
20 Lachlan McCaffrey
21 Rob Valetini
22 Matt Lucas
23 Tom Wright
[/one_third]
[one_third last=”no”]
Sunwolves
1 Alex Woonton
2 Nathan Vella
3 Takuma Asahara
4 Mark Abbott
5 Tom Rowe
6 Yoshitaka Tokunaga
7 Dan Pryor
8 Ben Gunter
9 Jamie Booth
10 Hayden Parker
11 Hosea Saumaki
12 Phil Burleigh
13 Jason Emery
14 Gerhard van den Heever
15 Semisi Masirewa
Replacements
16 Jaba Bregvadze
17 Masataka Mikami
18 Conan O’Donnell
19 Yuya Odo
20 Kara Pryor
21 Keisuke Uchida
22 Takuya Yamasawa
23 Timothy Lafaele
[/one_third]
[one_third last=”yes”]
MATCH DEETS
Kick off: 3:15pm AEST
Prince Chichibunoyima Stadium, Tokyo
Saturday 1 June
Referee: Federico Anselmi
AR1: Nick Briant
AR2: Shuhei Kubo
TMO: Minoro Fuji[/one_third]
