'Winning builds confidence': Brumbies' mental hurdle ahead of Super quarter

Prop Scott Sio admits the Brumbies’ preparation for the Super Rugby Pacific playoffs has been less than ideal, but he’s backing them to snap a losing streak and keep their season alive for at least another week.

They’ll host the Hurricanes on Saturday night in a rematch of an impressive round-11 encounter when they took down their New Zealand enemies 42-25, seemingly announcing themselves as the real deal.

But since then it’s been tough sledding for the Brumbies who will enter the quarter-final after three-straight losses, most recently to bottom-ranked Moana Pasifika.

Why Super Rugby Pacific’s eight-team finals structure shouldn’t change.

Why Super Rugby Pacific’s eight-team finals structure shouldn’t change.

“Winning builds confidence at the end of the day and you want to be confident heading into the business end of the season,” Sio told reporters.

“So (losing is) less than ideal in terms of results in the last few weeks, but the growth of this team is making sure that we take our learnings from each of those and keep building and keep getting better each day.”

It would be hard to view their campaign as anything other than a bust should they fall to the Hurricanes, in what would be a limp exit to a campaign that promised so much as they appeared on the cusp of breaking the NZ stranglehold on the competition.

But against an 8-6 side they’ve already beaten this season, Sio said a cliched ‘one week at a time’ approach was crucial

“You try not to think about that too much … you try to treat the preparation like any other week … but we’re under no illusions it’s knockout rugby now, we understand that pressure goes up for everyone,” he said.

“The main thing for us is we’re happy to be home before playing in front of our fans who’ve backed us the whole way through the season, it’s about putting in a good performance for them.”

– Alex Mitchell