Brumbies on high alert for major Hurricanes threat
While much has been made of the breakdown battle, the ACT Brumbies are on high alert for the threat coming from the Hurricanes back-line in their Super Rugby Pacific qualifying final.
The Brumbies are out to make amends at GIO Stadium on Saturday's after the Hurricanes snapped an eight-year losing streak in Canberra in round 11 when they cracked a 35-29 win.
That scoreline set up their charge to the play-offs, winning six straight.
Hurricanes winger Kini Naholo was pivotal in the match, making 10 tackle-busts en route to two tries, but will miss the final after suffering an ACL injury last month with Fatafehi Fineanganofo taking his place.
Brumbies fullback Tom Wright said there was still plenty of strike weapons in the visitors' line-up and they couldn't give them any room to move.
Peter Umaga-Jensen and Billy Proctor are two of the form centres of the competition and will keep the Brumbies pairing of Len Ikitau and David Feliuai on their toes.
"I saw Umaga-Jensen carve out a pretty decent try on the weekend and Billy Proctor obviously, you don't have to go looking too far at the season that he's had also, so I dare say Len and Dave will have their hands full," Test No.15 Wright said.
"The Hurricanes bring in that sort of expansive style of football, they play an exciting game and there's going to be a lot of points scored so we're looking forward to that challenge, but, you know, we didn't get here, by accident either.
"With the season our centres have had as well, I know that they're (Hurricanes) going to be looking at that pretty seriously and trying to stop them at the same time, so it's going to be a good battle."
As well as a dominant home record, the ACT outfit have also enjoyed a favourable finals record against the Hurricanes, eliminating them in 1997, 2022 and 2023.
Dependent on the results of the other two finals, as the third-ranked team the Brumbies could still advance to the semi-finals even with a loss.
But after suffering a tight loss to the Crusaders in the final round, which cost them a top-two ladder position, Wright said his team wanted to control their own destiny.
He didn't feel they were far off their best against the Crusaders, with a slow start proving costly.
"For all the good work that we did we made it bloody hard on ourselves so we need to be a bit sharper as very much more of the same challenge will be coming at us this weekend from the Canes - big ball-carrying, physical guys with the footy, they want to impose themselves," Wright said.
"We're looking forward to bringing the game to them."
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