Chiefs v Brumbies
Kick-off: 7:05pm Saturday 14 June
FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton
Live blog updates on RNZ
Not many people are giving the Brumbies a shot at tipping up the Chiefs on Saturday night, but then again, not many tipped the Blues last weekend either. Coach Stephen Larkham, who won two Super Rugby titles with the side in the early 2000s, was confident that perennially strong Australian side was ready to potentially pull off an upset in their do or die semifinal.
"It's a big challenge going down there, obviously. We've played some big games in that stadium and the results haven't gone our way," said Larkham at the team's Auckland training base of Dilworth College, before reflecting on what was learned from the Blues' intense 20-19 victory last Saturday night.
"The physical battle was there from both teams. (The Blues were) very dominant with their forwards, very heavy at the breakdown and I thought that worked pretty well. I mean, the biggest thing we take out of it is that we need to be physical this weekend. Then obviously there's things that we've been working on, throughout the season over the last couple of weeks and games, that we think have been going pretty well."
One of those will be the ability to control territory, something the Brumbies excelled at in their win over the Blues at Eden Park back in round four. Larkham highlighted the kick strategy as a key one for his side in a game that may well follow the low-scoring template set in the Chiefs' last home game.
Damian McKenzie is tackled by Brumbies Declan Meredith. Photo: Brett Phibbs / www.photosport.nz
"We've got the conditions today, where the ground is a little bit muddy, and ball was very slippery in the rain. We're sort of expecting the same on the weekend…we've been working on our kick strategy for the whole year. It doesn't really change with the wet, we like to have variation. We like to have balance with our kicking game…that's really determined by where we are on the field."
Larkham has named an unchanged match day squad from his side that beat the Hurricanes in their play-off on Saturday night. The inside back pairing of Ryan Lonergan and Noah Lolesio will be in charge of implementing the kicking plan, but the Brumbies do possess some serious firepower in the back in Tom Wright, Len Ikitau and Corey Toole.
However, Larkham stressed that they all need to be given good ball in order to do anything, something the Brumbies have been very good at this season.
"Our ability to hold the ball through ten phases and score tries is the best in the competition, and that comes from all the breakdown work. So we spent a lot of time on that this year and we certainly know that's going to be important this weekend," he said.
"If you sort of look at just about every game in Super Rugby this year, it's gone down to the wire. Even when you've got first place playing last, it's come down to the wire as well. So we've spoken about that, that when you get into the finals, every team is fairly evenly matched, and it will come down to those little moments."
