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'This year reminds me a lot of that 2013 squad' - Brumbies primed for Super Rugby final tilt

Scott Sio. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

The last time the Brumbies were playing with this much confidence they made the Super Rugby final, according to 99-game prop Scott Sio.

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The Brumbies won their fifth straight game last week to clinch a finals berth and the Australian conference with one game remaining in the regular season.

They host the Queensland Reds on Saturday and victory can see them finish as high as second on the overall ladder. They can’t drop lower than third.

Sio arrived at the Brumbies in 2012 and started in the 2013 Super Rugby final, where the ACT club was narrowly beaten by the Chiefs.

The 27-year-old believes there are plenty of similarities between the 2013 squad and the current team, which has won seven of its past eight games.

“The biggest thing for me when I first got to this club, I played with a lot of great players but what really stood out to me was team success was the most important thing here,” Sio said.

“This year reminds me a lot of that 2013 squad, different individuals but a really cool vibe. We’ve got pretty close between then and now but I guess now it’s just that belief we can win and chance our arm at any time in the game, no matter whether we’re on the back foot or not.

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“Belief is a very strong tool, especially coming into finals.

“It’s not about changing anything now, it’s just being diligent in everything we do and taking it to the next level.”

Brumbies tighthead Allan Alaalatoa said their best is good enough to beat any team and backed the club to charge into the finals.

“I’m definitely confident in the group. There’s a lot of chat about the finals and if we continue to build that momentum into the Reds this week it’s going to put us in good stead,” Alaalatoa said.

“Keeping that momentum is crucial for us, if we just rock up on Saturday and just hope to put on a good performance it’s not good enough heading into the finals.

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“We have to give the Reds respect because they deserve it, they beat us the last time we played them and bashed us up front, so as a forward pack it’s going to be a huge challenge.”

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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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