Brumbies scrum-half Nic White says they are going to “throw the kitchen sink” at the Chiefs in the Super Rugby Pacific semi-finals.
The Brumbies stopped a clean sweep by New Zealand teams by beating the Wellington Hurricanes 37-33 in a thrilling quarterfinal game in Canberra on Saturday night.
The dramatic result, which ended with Hurricanes captain Ardie Savea’s desperate dive over the line being called a ‘no-try’, means that the Brumbies have to go to Hamilton next weekend to play the strong Chiefs.
The Brumbies want to be the first Australian team to win the competition in nine years. However, they will start as big underdogs because they lost to the Chiefs at home just a month ago.
The Chiefs were also first in the league at the end of the regular season.
“There’s no better challenge, that’s the one you want,” White said.
“Coming into this game (against Hurricanes)… seeing who the potential lineups are gonna be, you’re hoping you get a chance to go over and test yourself.
“That’s what we want to be prepping for all year.”
White told the high-energy Brumbies to keep playing with the flair they showed against the Hurricanes in the first half, when they scored three tries in 16 minutes.
“Get over there and throw the kitchen sink at them. We just got to find ways to be robust,” White said of the impending clash with the Chiefs on Saturday.
“It was our last game at home, so we will celebrate this over the next little while.
“We will then get stuck into the review because there is plenty to learn from.”
Allan Alaalatoa’s return from injury probably won’t help the Brumbies, but there is hope that Corey Toole can get over an ankle injury.
“(Toole) has tracked pretty well this week, but he’s on a rehab programme… we’ll wait and see how he turns up on Monday and Tuesday,” Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham said.
“Allan’s calendar is a little bit more serious than Tooley’s. He’s improving every day, but I don’t think it’s going to be there for him.”
The top-ranked Chiefs, who only lost once during the regular season, had to work hard to beat the Queensland Reds in the quarterfinals in Hamilton. It took them until the last few minutes to pull away and win 29-20.
But coach Clayton McMillan thinks it will be better for them than a win by more than one score.
“Sometimes it’s not going to be pretty but you’ve just got to get the job done,” he said.
“For a whole number of reasons, being put under pressure I think will be really good for us in the long run.”
Luke Jacobson, a loose forward for the All Blacks, was moved to the bench because he had been sick during the week. However, McMillan said that Jacobson was likely to play against the Brumbies.
On Friday, the Canterbury Crusaders and the Auckland Blues will play in the other semi-final.
In their quarterfinal match in Christchurch, the Crusaders beat the Fijian Drua 49-8, while the Blues beat the New South Wales Waratahs 41-12.