About to embark on his fifth-straight Super Rugby finals campaign, Brumbies skipper Sam Carter has declared it’s time for the club to deliver against the in-form Hurricanes.
Carter says the Brumbies are relishing their underdog tag as they prepare to host the Hurricanes in Friday night’s knockout quarter-final.
“I think we kind of thrive under those circumstances. That’s why we came down to Canberra for the opportunity to be the underdogs with a point to prove,” Carter said.
“To come down here and show what we’re actually worth because the other franchises wouldn’t pick us up.”
The Brumbies were grand finalists in 2013 before semi-final appearances in 2014 and 2015.
They were eliminated in a home quarter-final by the Highlanders last year.
The Australian conference champions face another stiff task to progress this year, pitted against the competition’s best attacking team.
That scoring power will be boosted by the return of star five-eighth Beauden Barrett whose cross-field kicking is one of the Hurricanes’ most lethal weapons.
“We’ve got to be wary of their threats but we’ve also got to play the footy we want to play and if we can do that I know we can get a good result,” Carter said.
Aside from their ability to score heavily, the Hurricanes also finished the regular season with the competition’s most miserly defence.
Breaking their way through that is simple, Carter said.
“We need to play to our strengths which is our set-piece,” he said.
Carter believes Canberra’s freezing temperatures, with an overnight low of -6 degrees predicted, gives the Brumbies an edge.
“They haven’t travelled here this year and they haven’t been here in a while,” he said.
The Brumbies thrashed the Hurricanes 52-10 in their last trip to Canberra in round one last year.
That match was the last time the ACT-based franchise claimed a New Zealand Super Rugby scalp, with the Hurricanes hammering them 56-21 in Napier earlier this year.
Both teams will be aiming to give returning stars a fairytale comeback, with Christian Lealiifano making his first appearance for the Brumbies since overcoming leukaemia and Hurricanes hooker Dane Coles also set to play his first game since March.