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Brumbies open to significant coronavirus-enforced changes in order to keep winning run alive

(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

The Brumbies are open to a Super Rugby draw shuffle that would see them complete Australian conference matches while international travel bans impact the competition through the coronavirus crisis.

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The Super Rugby competition is on hold indefinitely following the Brumbies’ 47-14 win over the Waratahs on Sunday which completed round seven.

That win sent them 10 points clear of the Rebels and Reds, who are their nearest rivals in the Australian conference, while they are just one point behind South Africa’s Sharks in the overall standings.

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With just one loss for the season the Brumbies are hopeful the competition will be back up and running in whatever format.

“You’re hopeful aren’t you, that you can turn on the TV and watch Super Rugby or come to games,” said Brumbies coach Dan McKellar.

“There’s obviously health concerns and the experts will look after that, there’s obviously people out there who are incredibly sick so you’ve got to remember that as well.

“It’s challenging times for everyone.”

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McKellar said their preference was to play other Australian teams while international travel was on hold.

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He said they would hold a meeting on Tuesday where they hoped to learn more information from SANZAAR about plans for the competition.

“Yes, we just want to play footy,” McKellar said.

“We were supposed to be going to Auckland and that’s not happening and then we’ve got the Reds, Melbourne, and we play the Tahs again.

“If we can get the conference games; it’s a conference system so play your conference games and then see where things are at and then hopefully we can have a genuine finals series and the best play the best.”

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McKellar said they would also consider playing their interstate rivals in practice matches while the competition was on ice to ensure they could hit the ground running when it resumed.

Having already dealt with a mumps outbreak in the Brumbies camp this season, they are better prepared than most sporting teams to deal with the impact of an infectious disease.

“Our hands are cleaner than surgeons after the mumps,” McKellar said.

“Hygiene is something that we’ve been talking about for a long time now.”

– AAP

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Flankly 2 hours 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
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