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Brumbies ready to ride lucky breaks
Wayne Smith | February 21, 2009
This article is all about winning the lottery with their game, wonder if getting Gits back is their equivalent of hitting of the jackpot this week?
IT'S as though all the Brumbies' Lotto numbers have come up. Now they just have to make certain they don't misplace their ticket.
Granted, a couple of winning numbers were locked in even before the Super 14 season started. Robbie Deans wouldn't be coaching the Crusaders. Dan Carter wouldn't be playing for them. But then dramatically, barely 48 hours before tonight's clash with the defending champions at Canberra Stadium, three other numbers sensationally dropped into place. Richie McCaw out, Brad Thorn out, Leon MacDonald out.
When the Brumbies brains trust sat down at the start of the week to begin analysing this match in earnest, the first thing they would have done, after sending up a prayer of thanks that they wouldn't have to match wits with Deans and Carter, was tightly focus in on the three warhorses of the 14th Crusade.
For injury to have claimed even one of that trio would have been a bonus beyond words. For all three to have been forced out was a staggering windfall.
Brumbies coach Andy Friend must have read and re-read the Crusaders team sheet a dozen times, like a Lotto winner checking his numbers over and over, not daring to believe his own eyes. Then the clammy thought would have dawned: Don't lose it now!
Pretty much those same words would have gone through his head last week at the House of Pain when, having wiped out the Highlanders' early 19-0 onslaught to lead 30-19, the Brumbies then got careless again to trail 31-30 with less than two minutes on the clock.
They played their "get out of jail" card through Christian Lealiifano's last-gasp field goal but there is a limited allocation of these cards each year and the Brumbies were forced to use theirs before the season was barely 80 minutes old.
Of course, where their Lotto "win" is concerned, it's not a case of "the cheque's in the mail". The Brumbies have to go out tonight to collect their winnings in person. Understandably, they are somewhat jittery about being mugged, robbed or being involved in an accident along the way.
the rest here...http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
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