Brumbies will try different approach

Jake White has seen his Australian Super Rugby rivals try to unsettle the British & Irish Lions on this tour and earn plaudits for doing so, yet the Brumbies coach knows the bottom line is that all of them have failed.

So far. Today, the 2007 South Africa World Cup-winning coach pits his considerable experience against Warren Gatland’s latest Lions 15 at Canberra Stadium (10:30am Irish time) and while he knows it may be the first genuine midweek side of the tour, he knows ploughing the same furrow as the Queensland Reds and NSW Waratahs will not produce the upset victory he craves for his team.

The Reds, with Quade Cooper pulling the strings, tried to outrun the Lions in Brisbane 10 days ago but ran themselves into the ground in the process, while Michael Cheika’s Waratahs tried to beat the tourists into submission only to knock themselves out trying.

The Brumbies will have a different, more cagey and conservative approach, the same one that has propelled them to the top of the Super XV Australian Conference and third place in the overall standings.

“The most important thing is we’re going to have to defend,” White said yesterday at a chilly Canberra Stadium, where the temperature is expected to drop to -2C by kick-off time today.

“We’re not going to play like the Reds, we’re not going to play like the Waratahs and they didn’t win the game either. To all intents and purposes they say they’ve got a blueprint to beat the Lions but it didn’t work.

“We’ve got to play to our strengths and we’ve got to defend well and that’s the same as every week. The only difference now, and I think people know about it, is that the Lions are big and strong and it doesn’t matter who comes around that corner, if it’s Richie Gray the next one who comes around is (Mako) Vunipola and the next one is Paul O’Connell. At the end of the day you’ve got to tackle them. So it’s different to what we’re used to.

“When you play Super teams you maybe get five or six players coming out of club rugby or getting their debut starts whereas here the bench comes on and that chap’s got 50 caps.So it’s going to be a different challenge.”

On the face of it, it is the ideal time to be playing the Lions, five days out from the crucial first Test against Australia with the first-choice side wrapped in cotton wool and this midweek team featuring guys just off the plane from Japan, America and Argentina.

Shane Williams makes his unlikely transition from a radio commentary booth to the wing, 18 months after playing his last game for Wales and heading east to Japanese club rugby.

Brad Barritt was dragged away from his holiday in the USA to occupy the outside centre’s berth, while one of England’s newest caps Christian Wade makes his debut on the other wing having left his country’s tour of South America.

Throw in another new arrival in inside centre in Billy Twelvetrees and you have a backline of individual talent, including a half-back pairing of Ben Youngs and Stuart Hogg as well as full-back Rob Kearney but perhaps little cohesion after just one, jet-lagged training session together.

Expect then a dominant forward display from a Lions pack of forwards intent on playing keep ball and a little less of the width that has been prevalent so far on this tour, particularly against a Brumbies pack missing its first-choice front row, and two of its back row through injuries and international call-ups. With keeping the Lions’ unbeaten record on this tour the sworn objective of the players, any win will do.