Zack Holmes is unfazed at being thrust into the Brumbies’ five-eighth hot seat for his run-on debut in Friday night’s Super Rugby clash with the Hurricanes in Wellington.
The inexperienced 21-year-old was on Wednesday named in the starting side following season-ending injuries to Christian Lealiifano and Matt Toomua as the ACT side searches for a first win in Wellington since 2003.
The Brumbies will field a new-look halves pairing, with Ian Prior replacing Nic White in the No.9 jumper in coach Jake White’s only other team change from their win over NSW Waratahs a fortnight ago prior to the bye.
And despite the changes both White and Holmes are confident it should be business as usual for the Australian conference leaders, with Holmes having trained as a back-up five-eighth all season.
“Christian’s obviously been playing very well and sort of getting talked about for Wallabies selection and whatnot,” Holmes said on Wednesday.
“But my game, I wouldn’t say is too dissimilar to his and I’m just going to play what we’ve been going through since July last year.
“The plays haven’t really changed much in that time. I’ve been running these for almost a year now, so it’s nothing new to me.
“I don’t think there’s anything out there that I feel I can’t do.
“I feel like I know everything and feel comfortable with my game.”
White is comfortable with the new halves pairing, given they had spent plenty of time training together with the Brumbies’ back-up team, and said Holmes would also shoulder the goalkicking responsibilities on his starting debut.
“It’s a bit of a tough one for him, but that’s part of the position he plays,” White said.
Despite a lean run across the ditch in recent years, the Brumbies aren’t running away from their poor record in New Zealand, with White admitting it would present a mental barrier for his players.
“It’s a massive challenge for us. We haven’t won away from home in NZ in a long time, but this team has done some wonderful things this year that no one gave them a chance for,” he said.
White opted against including new recruit Peter Hewat in his squad, with the former NSW Waratahs star only having trained twice with the team since returning from a stint in Japanese rugby.
Brumbies: Jesse Mogg, Henry Speight, Andrew Smith, Pat McCabe, Joe Tomane, Zack Holmes, Ian Prior, Fotu Auelua, Michael Hooper, Ben Mowen (capt), Sam Carter, Scott Fardy, Dan Palmer, Stephen Moore, Ben Alexander. Res: Anthony Hegarty, Ruaidhri Murphy, Peter Kimlin, Ita Vaea, Nic White, Robbie Coleman, Tevita Kuridrani.
