ACT Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham has backed his squad to lift to the challenge of facing the ladder-leading Chiefs in Hamilton after last week's defeat.
The Brumbies were stunned by the Western Force in Canberra, conceding a 21-0 lead before a late Brandon-Paenga Amosa undid their fightback try.
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It came after their historic win over the Fijian Drua in Suva, with the toll of the travel and game clear as they were overrun by the 13-men Force side,
“We’ve looked at everything in our review this week,” Larkham said to the media.
“We'd made some changes with our forwards early based on some cramping and some guys fatiguing and if you look at that last 15 minutes, we had five guys who were down cramping.
“It was really difficult to make a decision as to who to put on the field because you don't want to put your reserves on and then find that someone else has to come off because the cramp's too much or they've torn something there.
“We’ve looked at it all and we looked at our training processes and we have lightened the load considerably from where we got to in the pre-season.”
Larkham has made just one forced change to the starting side, with Tom Hooper ruled out with concussion.
“The good thing coming out of the weekend is that we've got a relatively unchanged team and there's an opportunity for those guys now to bounce back and make sure we're a little bit more clinical at the start of the game," he states.
“We’ve got the chance to go up there and meet the best teams in the competition. The Chiefs are currently sitting first and were second last year, and the Blues were the best team last year. They've had a bit of a rocky start, losing their first two games, but you'd expect them to bounce back
“We set the mindset on Monday, and guys came in very focused, disappointed and a little bit embarrassed with some of the errors that we made. But there is clear direction in terms of moving into this game.”
Hooper will make the trip to NZ with the side for a view of being fit for next week's clash with the Blues alongside David Feliuai (finger) and Feao Fotuaika (ankle).
Flyhalf Noah Lolesio will likely be out for another week after picking up further symptoms on his road to recovery from a head knock.
“He was on a return to play protocol, which is 12 days and I think it was about day four. He didn't pull up well from the training so he went back a day and that's how close it is with the return-to-play protocols
“We're very conscious safety is a massive part of the game for us. We want to make sure that our players are safe in the training environment, obviously in the game, and then if there are any concerns around head injuries, we want to make sure those players have a full recovery process and they can get back out there when they're fully confident.
“We had to weigh up the four in terms of the four extra players that you take, what are the most important positions that you need to cover, and we thought halfback and utility back were the two needed, as opposed to Noah.
“If we do pick up an injury whilst we’re over there, then Noah comes back in, but at this stage, he’s going to stay at home and make sure he's fully recovered for our game against the Drua when we get back.”
