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Brumbies players skip Christmas in pursuit of consecutive Super Rugby AU titles

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

The Brumbies have proven their commitment to winning back-to-back Super Rugby AU titles with some players skipping Christmas with their families to ensure they didn’t miss training.

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Five players, including promising young five-eighth Bayley Kuenzle, headed home prematurely from their Sydney-based families to ensure they didn’t have to spend 14 days in quarantine with COVID-19 cases on the rise in NSW.

“It was a bit of a curve ball for a few of the boys but as always they had a great attitude,” coach Dan McKellar said on Wednesday.

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“It was tough on the players to miss Christmas and tough on their families … but it’s another great example of how our players just adapt and get on with it and there was no complaining.

“They understood it was for the team and for them individually to avoid quarantine and live life as normally as we can so it was something they had to do.”

The Wallabies players among them are on an extended break having finished their Tri Nations campaign on December 6 and will join the squad mid month.

The Brumbies have made few changes to the squad that beat Queensland in the Super Rugby AU final in September, with the most notable departure being ex-Wallabies centre Tevita Kuridrani to the Western Force.

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They have recruited lock-backrower James Tucker from the Blues, as well as outside back Reece Tapine and tighthead prop Archer Holz, with almost half the squad aged 23 or younger.

Tucker, 26, is a former Junior All Black, who made his Super Rugby debut for the Chiefs in 2016 before stints in Europe and Japan.

The Brumbies will play their first trial against the NSW Waratahs in Bowral in the Southern Highlands on January 30.

They open the season on February 19 in Perth against the Force, with the game following the Queensland Reds and Waratahs at Suncorp Stadium.

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M
MA 2 hours ago
How the four-team format will help the Wallabies defeat the Lions

In regards to Mack Hansen, Tuipoloto and others who talent wasnt 'seen'..

If we look at acting, soccer and cricket as examples, Hugh Jackman, the Heminsworths in acting; Keith Urban in Nashville, Mike Hussey and various cricketers who played in UK and made the Australian team; and many soccer players playing overseas.


My opinion is that perhaps the ' 'potential' or latent talent is there, but it's just below the surface.


ANd that decision, as made by Tane Edmed, Noah, Will Skelton to go overseas is the catalyst to activate the latent and bring it to the surface.


Based on my personal experience of leaving Oz and spending 14 months o/s, I was fully away from home and all usual support systems and past memories that reminded me of the past.


Ooverseas, they weren't there. I had t o survive, I could invent myself as who I wanted, and there was no one to blame but me.


It bought me alive, focused my efforts towards what I wanted and people largely accepted me for who I was and how I turned up.


So my suggestion is to make overseas scholarships for younger players and older too so they can benefit from the value offered by overseas coaching acumen, established systems, higher intensity competition which like the pressure that turns coal into diamonds, can produce more Skeltons, Arnold's, Kellaways and the like.


After the Lion's tour say, create 20 x $10,000 scholarships for players to travel and play overseas.


Set up a HECS style arrangement if necessary to recycle these funds ongoingly.


Ooverseas travel, like parenthood or difficult life situations brings out people's physical and emotional strengths in my own experiences, let's use it in rugby.

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