Weather no friend of Brumbies
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Peter Fitzgerald, Canberra Times | May 13, 2009 - 12:12PM
The New Zealand weather is threatening to hamper the ACT Brumbies' quest for a four-try bonus point victory in Hamilton on Friday night.
The Brumbies arrived in the North Island city yesterday to rain, wind and cold temperatures.
And with similar conditions forecast in the lead-up to and on game day, the prospect of an expansive match with plenty of tries is diminishing.
A four-try bonus point win while ensuring the Chiefs take no points from the contest will guarantee the Brumbies a finals berth.
Anything less and they will be relying on other results for them to sneak into the play-offs for the first time since 2004.
Chiefs captain Mils Muliaina believes the likely wet conditions will favour his team because of its "superior kicking game".
Muliaina backed his flyhalf Stephen Donald and inside centre Callum Bruce to triumph over the Brumbies backs with the boot and lead the New Zealanders to victory and a semi-finals berth.
"The key to the match is going to be trying to find space with the kicks and get them in and over the opposition and Steve and Brucey and a few of our other guys have been very good in that department this year," Muliaina told The Canberra Times.
"I think Mark Gerrard is a huge loss for the Brumbies. With positioning and how consistently he'd been kicking this year, he's been spectacular.
"He's a very big loss for them but we know guys like Adam Ashley-Cooper and Stirling [Mortlock] can kick well enough so it won't be easy for us by any stretch of the imagination."
Rain has already played its role in the make-up of the top four heading into the final round of the competition this weekend.
The Sharks and Waratahs were forced to compete in atrocious conditions in Durban last weekend in a match both teams needed bonus points from to reach the top four.
The Waratahs ground out a 16-12 win. Only two tries were scored.Despite accepting the weather would make it tougher to score four tries against the Chiefs, Brumbies coach Andy Friend backed his team to achieve the feat.
"Rain doesn't help but it doesn't mean you can't get four tries," Friend said.
"The most important thing for us is a win. We'll go in with the focus of getting the win and if, at half-time, we think we're in with a shot of a bonus point then we'll go for it.
"It all comes down to execution and effectiveness of execution and if we can do the things we want to then I know we can score four tries, no matter what the conditions are like."
Friend agreed with Muliaina's prediction that kicking would play a major role in the outcome but disagreed with which team was better placed to assert its dominance in that area.
He accepted the Brumbies had to improve their kicking game from what they produced in the first half against the Auckland Blues last weekend but backed his troops to do so.
The Brumbies will train in Hamilton today. Hooker Stephen Moore will travel there today after being unable to fly earlier in the week due to an injection.
http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/n...894024020.html
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