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Brumbies close to securing finals berth

Brumbies match-winner Henry Speight

Brumbies coach Dan McKellar has revealed his backline is firing thanks to some mid-season tweaks from assistant and former Waratahs star Peter Hewat.

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The Brumbies are on top of the Australian conference with three Super Rugby rounds to play on the back of set-piece dominance and enterprising backline play.

Winger Henry Speight and outside centre Tevita Kuridrani have been the major benefactors with their red-hot form helping the Brumbies win five of their past six games.

McKellar believes the duo’s prolific try-scoring over the past month warrants them a Wallabies recall ahead of the World Cup in September.

“Speight is benefiting off the good work of those inside him in both attack and defence,” McKellar said.

“Our backs have clicked, (assistant coach) Peter Hewat has done a really good job there.

“We did a thorough review a couple of months back in and around our decision making and option taking and I think our backs have got t hat right.

“Speight benefits off the back of that, as has Tev. He’s also in a really good place. They’re happy, and if Fijians are playing with a smile on their face they’re generally playing well.”

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Kuridrani notched a hat-trick against the Bulls last weekend to boost his season tally to nine while Speight has four tries so far this campaign.

The Brumbies can all but secure their finals spot with a win against the bottom-placed Sunwolves on Saturday.

A bonus-point victory in Tokyo will take the Brumbies to 39 competition points, which was good enough for seventh last season. Eight teams play finals.

It would also mark the Brumbies eighth win in 2019. The Sharks played finals last season with seven wins – the first year Super Rugby returned to 15 teams.

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The Brumbies are unbeaten against the Sunwolves in five clashes and are heavy favourites extend that run.

The Brumbies missed finals for the first time since 2012 in McKellar’s first season last year, but they look set for a return having already fulfilled their Wallabies resting requirements.

The Brumbies can be temporarily overtaken in the Australian conference by the Rebels (33 points), who host the Waratahs on Friday.

NSW (26 points) remain a mathematical finals chance but that will evaporate with anything short of victory against the Rebels.

The Waratahs also still have to rest Australian players Kurtley Beale, Bernard Foley, Michael Hooper, Rob Simmons and Sekope Kepu to comply with the Wallabies pre-World Cup program.

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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?

4 Go to comments
N
Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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LONG READ England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit
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