Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

'I've never won a grand final at any level' - Why the Brumbies can win Super Rugby

The Brumbies. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Brumbies lock Rory Arnold says they can extend their winning streak to nine games and end a 15-year Super Rugby title drought over the next fortnight.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Brumbies are playing for a spot in their first final since 2014 when they take on the Jaguares in Buenos Aires on Saturday morning (AEST).

The Brumbies have won a single-season club record seven straight games and could host the decider with another victory and if the Hurricanes upset the Crusaders in the other semi-final.

The Jaguares are also in a rich vein of form, winning 10 of their past 11 games, including six straight, and were the last side to beat the Brumbies.

Both teams boast one of the best forward packs in Super Rugby but Wallabies enforcer Arnold backed his men to win the battle up front.

“They’re a world-class team, full of international players, they’ve got a good record and been playing some really good footy, so it’s going to be a hard task with the travel and everything but we’ve won there before,” Arnold told AAP.

“We’ve got some quality players in our pack with big Al [Allan Alaalatoa] and Sammy [Carter]. From one to eight we’ve got good players then some more on the bench. I’m quite confident our pack will match theirs.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We’ve had some pretty good sides in the past but I think as a squad we’re gelling really well and that’s showing on the field at the moment.

“I back our squad and ability to go over there and get the job done.”

If the Brumbies overcome the Argentines they’ll then face one of the two best-performing teams this year, but Arnold said their best is good enough to beat anyone.

“We need to tidy a few things up but we’ve got a strong set piece and some classy backs there. It all starts up front for us, but I think we can go all the way,” Arnold said.

“The pinnacle of Super Rugby is winning it and we’re two games away. We’re all competitors and we don’t play footy to come second, we play to win and if we did that it would be pretty special because I’ve never won a grand final at any level.

ADVERTISEMENT

“It would be unreal to host the final, when they were farewelling us (on Saturday night) I was like you never know we might be back here in a couple of weeks.

“That would be unreal but we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves, we’ve got a big game this week and we need to get the result.”

AAP

In other news:

Video Spacer

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
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
LONG READ
LONG READ Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith' Mick Cleary: 'Borthwick needs to have faith in Marcus Smith'
Search