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Wayne Smith | April 27, 2009
The Australian
THE Brumbies are hoping to re-sign Wallabies flanker George Smith this week to give the ACT side a much-needed fillip going into their must-win match with the Queensland Reds at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.
Smith, who registered his 117th Super rugby appearance in Saturday's shattering 56-7 loss to the Hurricanes to overtake Steve Larkham as Australia's second-most-capped player behind George Gregan (136), has been courted by a number of European clubs, Toulon most persistently.
But Brumbies CEO Andrew Fagan has his fingers crossed that the lure of the 2011 World Cup and of playing alongside Canberra's prodigal son, Matt Giteau, will persuade the 96-Test veteran to sign on for an 11th season with the ACT.
"We've given his manager all the information he needs and now we're just waiting on George's decision," Fagan said. "Indications are that it will be a positive one for the Brumbies and the Wallabies."
Smith has been the constant in a decade of domination by the Brumbies over the Reds, who only once in the history of Super rugby have come out on the right side of the scoreboard against the ACT, and that by the smallest possible margin, a 19-18 victory at Ballymore in 1999.
The Brumbies will need to regroup quickly from their record-breaking pummelling from the Hurricanes if they are to keep alive that streak and, more importantly, their semi-final hopes.
While it came as no great shock that their Wellington match on Saturday proved a bridge too far for the emotionally over-extended Brumbies, they and their supporters still were left flabbergasted by the scope of the disaster in which two invidious club records were set - for points conceded and margin of defeat.
The ACT side has been left teetering on the brink in ninth place with only two matches remaining after this weekend, against the Blues in Canberra and the Chiefs in Hamilton.
Still, as dire as their predicament sounds, the encouraging news is that the Brumbies are only four competition points adrift of the top four and while teams such as the Reds and Cheetahs periodically keep scuttling other finals contenders, the Super 14 table remains benignly bunched.
Trouble is that on the impressive form the Reds displayed in ending their 20-match drought on the road by beating the Blues 31-24 in Albany on Saturday, the Brumbies will fear they are now coming for them.
But where they were outkicked by the Hurricanes at the Cake Tin in Wellington, the Brumbies will fancy their chances of winning the field position arm wrestle at Suncorp now that fullback Mark Gerrard has recovered from a hamstring strain. Still, even the prodigious boot of the former Wallabies fullback does not guarantee the Brumbies domination in this facet of play, not with de facto Reds five-eighth Berrick Barnes also in exceptional kicking form.
The return from a groin injury of Gene Fairbanks at least gives coach Andy Friend, who was whisked away for a slightly belated surprise 40th birthday party on his return to Canberra yesterday, some options at five-eighth.
Teenager Matt Toomua did not have an especially inauspicious run-on debut, handling most of his duties well. But any time a side with the proud history of the Brumbies tumbles to a defeat of such magnitude, it is always the newcomers whose positions are put under most scrutiny.
Legitimate questions even could be asked of Stirling Mortlock, who was embarrassed more than once by rival All Black centre Ma'a Nonu, although to be fair to the Wallabies captain, it seemed at times he was defending as though he half-expected to have to plug a gap on the inside.
No one could have blamed the Brumbies had they taken the easy out of attributing their record loss to the emotional strain they have been under since March 29, the day Shawn Mackay was hit by a car in the early hours of the morning in Durban following the Sharks game - the accident that ultimately claimed his life.
But Friend was adamant that was not the case, that the Brumbies had prepared well and had anticipated, correctly, that the Hurricanes would target the breakdown and the counter-attack and yet still had turned in a "flat' performance.
There was almost nothing positive the Brumbies could take away from the defeat. But then, the talk at Friend's birthday party was that the Hurricanes would be unwise to read too much into their own stunning display.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
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Originally Posted by Burgs
