Stephen Larkham
Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham has taken to the fine art of playing mind games ahead of his team’s massive semifinal match with the high-flying Hurricanes in Wellington.
Speaking to the media after returning home from demolishing the Stormers 39 / 19 in Cape Town, Larkham was more than happy with the way they have gone about getting into the semi-finals and believes the break the Hurricanes have had, could hinder their combinations.
“They’ve had the week off and will be nice and fresh, but maybe their combinations will be lacking. They’ve had a number of injuries over the last couple of rounds and a lot of those players are potentially coming back this week. We’ll see if that affects their combinations.
“For us, it’s about continuing the momentum that we’ve had.
“It’s an advantage that we haven’t played them this year because of the success they have had this year but we have been watching their games through the year and watching how other teams have gone against them,” he said.
As much as the Hurricanes’ backline poses a massive threat, Larkham was quick to point out that their forwards are no push overs either.
“They’ve been quite physical and their unstructured attack is good. They have some dangerous players in the likes of Julian Savea, Cory Jane… in fact, their backline is an All Black backline. You could look at the backline and say that’s where their biggest threat is, but their forward pack has been playing exceptionally well.
“They’ve been very physical and really good defensively. That’s the reason they’re on top, they’ve got a really good all-round game,” he added.
The Brumbies came out unscathed after the Stormers’ game and Larkham’s only real concern is the pending hearing of Henry Speight – who was shown a Red Card for a dangerous tackle on Juan de Jongh – but despite that, the team remains “pretty pumped” as they look to maintain their winning momentum.
“The boys were pretty pumped after the game against the Stormers. It’s been a long campaign but we realised that the goal at the start of the year was to reach the final and we haven’t done that yet so we still have some work to do.
“I think it’s worked well for us, the way we have done it. Ideally we would have liked a home semifinal… Top 2 finish would have been nice but we have had a bit of momentum, particularly leading into the final series. I think the last 5e games were pretty good from us and then we obviously played well against the Stormers, so there’s momentum there and it’s working well for us.
“We came out of the Stormers game pretty well and are just waiting on the outcome of Henry’s hearing. Other than that, everyone is available for selection,” he stated.
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