Brumbies prepared for anything

Thu, Mar 3, 2016, 11:00 AM
Beth Newman
by Beth Newman

The Brumbies will be ready to play any way against the Waratahs in a fiery derby clash this weekend.

The ACT franchise will look to continue with the expansive element of their game that showed in the opening round but Toomua said they would be prepared for any scenario.

“A lot of it (tries) was from set piece, not much phase play so hopefully we can get that this week but if it is scrums and mauls that win the game so be it,” he said.

Their last match up, also at Canberra Stadium, yielded just two tries but co-captain Christian Lealiifano said the physicality of the contests played a part in that.

“We play as much as we can and I guess the constricted game is probably from the physicality of the games as well,” he said.

“They're always been quite brutal games and I guess we’ve just got to adapt as best we can to how the game flows and any chance we get to win we’ll take.

With a hot conditions predicted for Canberra on Friday, Lealiifano hoped for a high-scoring affair.

“It's just been the nature of the game, you can’t really do much about it when you're playing so tight and constricted.

“This week’s hopefully going to be pretty open, a dry track it’s going to be good for us to play some footy.”

Toomua also admitted the Brumbies would have to work on their breakdown tactics after being handed two yellow cards in their win over the Hurricanes.

Toomua was one of those yellow-carded in their 52-10 win over the Hurricanes and the 26-year-old said the side had reviewed the tape and found areas to improve.

“We’ve never done anything wrong on the field,’ is what you think (at the time) but we looked back at the tape and to be fair Leesy (referee Andrew Lees) was pretty spot on with a few of the calls,” he said.

“We don't want to take the pressure away, we want to make it a contest but have to do it legally."

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