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96-Test prop elevated to Brumbies starting XV

James Slipper. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

The unbeaten Brumbies have made three changes as they look to top the Super Rugby ladder and equal their second-best winning streak at home.

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Wallabies veteran James Slipper replaces Scott Sio at loosehead prop, Will Miller earns his first start for sidelined No. 7 Tom Cusack (concussion) and lock Darcy Swain returns from injury.

Flanker Lachlan McCaffrey, prop Tom Ross and dynamic outside back Len Ikitau have been named on the bench for their potential first games of the season.

The Brumbies are chasing an 11th straight win at Canberra Stadium when they host the Highlanders on Saturday night.

Assistant coach Peter Hewat said he was “expecting the unexpected” from the Highlanders who have lost their one game this season against the Sharks.

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“They’re difficult to read really. A Tony Brown-coached team always has something up their sleeve,” Hewat said.

“Turnover attack, they like to kick a lot, but we’ve done a lot of work on that this week so hopefully we can work them out.

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“They’re going to come to Canberra pretty pumped up and ready to rock and roll.”

The Brumbies have scored the most tries (10) of any team in the opening two rounds and are the only Australian side to post a win.

They can finish the weekend on top of the table if results fall their way but the Brumbies have lost four straight to the Highlanders.

“We’ve had two good results in terms of two wins but we know we’ve still got a lot of improvement in our game,” Hewat said.

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“We’ve played some nice unstructured footy which has been good but we know we’ve got a lot of improvement with our attack. We haven’t hit what we want to hit yet.”

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The Brumbies have won 10 straight at home but Canberra crowds are down 17 per cent, averaging just 7267 fans after two rounds .

Hewat hopes their first Saturday game and decent weather will bring the faithful back but conceded rugby currently faced a perception problem.

“We’re taking a bit of a hit at the moment. That’s half the battle isn’t it, how it’s perceived,” Hewat said.

“We’ve got to get out there and continue to work with our community and reconnect and try and get people to our games.”

Brumbies: Tom Banks, Solomone Kata, Tevita Kuridrani, Irae Simone, Tom Wright, Noah Lolesio, Pete Samu, Will Miller, Murray Douglas, Darcy Swain, Allan Alaalatoa (c), Folau Faingaa, James Slipper. Reserves: Connal McInerney, Scott Sio, Tom Ross, Cadeyrn Neville, Lachlan McCaffrey, Ryan Lonergan, Len Ikitau, Andy Muirhead.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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