Brumbies need to back themselves against Blues

Unpredictability is the key for the Brumbies as they vie for their first Kiwi scalp, lock Rory Arnold says.

The Brumbies have lost their past two clashes, against the Rebels and the Hurricanes, and Arnold said they needed to think outside of the box more, moving away from the rigidity of structure.

“I think over the last three or four weeks we worked on a bit of counterattack and looking to play rugby, instead of staying in our shape and be so direct,” he said.

“It's a game of footy, just play what's in front of you.”

The Brumbies have lost their past two games against the Blues but haven’t conceded three in a row to the Auckland since since 2007.

Arnold said they hadn’t lost confidence despite their second half fade-out, with perseverance the only way to turn their record around.

“I think we just keep persisting,” he said.

“You see in those patches, that first half, they put a few points on us in that first half and what did we put, three tries on them in about 15 minutes?

“We're capable of putting points on, we've just got to stay confident and back our skills.”

Loosehead Scott Sio is being given until the last minute to overcome a knee issue that ended his night against the Hurricanes, but his front row partner Allan Alaalatoa backed the side’s depth to cover Sio should be not come up.

The front row battled against the Hurricanes in the opening 40 minutes and Alaalatoa said they would need to be able to fix their issues quicker if they want to avoid the same inconsistent showing on Sunday.

“First half scrum last week was very disappointing from our point of view,” he said.

“I think the main result out of that, it just took us too long to react to that.

“We came out at half-time and fixed it in the second half but we just have to identify that early and just try and adjust on the run a lot quicker than what we did on the weekend.”

The Brumbies take on the Blues on Sunday afternoon, LIVE on FOX SPORTS and via radio on RUGBY.com.au