As Leon MacDonald welcomed the return of Beauden Barrett, his coaching counterpart Darren Coleman firmly took hold of the underdog status as his Waratahs side resembled the walking wounded.
While Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham attempted to paint a rosy picture that his side were in strong health ahead of their crunch knockout match against Jason Holland’s Hurricanes on Saturday.
It was all fun and games on Monday afternoon, but the pleasantries are about to stop.
The respective coaches of the Waratahs and Blues, Brumbies and Hurricanes jumped on zooms on Monday afternoon ahead of this weekend’s quarter-finals, but the pressure cooker is set to be turned up a notch later in the week.
The half-hour press conferences didn’t quite resemble a Paul Gallen or Connor McGregor face-off, but there was intrigue and curiosity on both sides of the ditch as all four teams asserted themselves ahead of the weekend.
“I don’t know what Bernie [Larkham] reckons, but it’s pretty strange chatting with him sitting there staring me down,” quipped Holland, having opened up by answering a series of questions about their return to form against the Crusaders.
“Yeah, it’s a bit weird, isn’t it?” Larkham replied.
Stephen Larkham’s Brumbies are Australia’s best hope of going deep in the Super Rugby competition. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
Asked about Rob Valetini’s stunning season, Larkham said he was not surprised by the Wallaby’s consistency and added that Holland would recognise that he’s one of the big ball-running threats for the Brumbies.
“I thought he was impressive last year,” Larkham said. “And it’s probably one of the things that Jason’s talking about there in terms of getting a few things right. I’m sure they’re going to be targeting Bobby, and we’d be aware of that. He’s definitely one of our best ball-carriers. Generally gets the gain-line most times, and we do use him a fair bit.”
Holland, who will join Scott Robertson’s All Blacks coaching team next year, took Larkham’s comments with a grain of salt.
“I’m just figuring out that Rob Valenti’s going to be the decoy all week this weekend,” Holland said.
“The double or triple bluff,” Larkham replied.
Whether Corey Toole’s injury scare is just that remains to be seen.
Larkham confirmed Allan Alaalatoa would miss the quarter-final, but said the rest were in good healthy before admitting that some doubt remained on lock Nick Frost and flying winger Toole.
“They’re progressing well,” he said.
“Yeah, we haven’t picked our team for this week. But they’re progressing well. They’re both at this stage available for selection.
“So, we had a light run out here today just going through a bit of our strategy and set-piece plays and we’ll have our first proper session on the field tomorrow afternoon. We’ll know more tomorrow morning.”
While Frost showed his athleticism against the Hurricanes in Wellington during their narrow loss back in April, Toole’s speed and skill set was on show as he burnt Holland’s side outside.
Rob Valetini holds the key for the Brumbies against the Hurricanes. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
It hasn’t been forgotten.
“It didn’t surprise us because we’ve been a bit of a fan ever since we started doing our analysis for the first time we played the Brumbies, we were pretty impressed with them,” Holland said.
“I know CJ, [Hurricanes assistant coach and former World Cup-winning All Blacks winger] Cory Jane, thinks he’s pretty something, pretty special.
“He is only a little dude and he’s fast, but he seems like a pretty tough player as well. I reckon he’s something special and obviously the more XVs he plays it looks like he’s going to get better and better.”
Meanwhile, the stakes are slightly different in Friday night’s opening quarter-final.
Unlike the looming epic between the Brumbies and Hurricanes, the Blues are heavy favourites against the Waratahs who have suffered back-to-back defeats after being humbled against the Crusaders in Christchurch and, next, beaten by the previously winless Moana Pasifika.
Darren Coleman has lost his captain Jake Gordon for Friday’s trip to Auckland. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)
It’s something not lost on either Coleman or MacDonald, who too will join Robertson at year’s end.
“Obviously Auckland are a strong team and Eden Park’s a bit of a fortress,” Coleman said.
“I think once in 96 years that we’ve won there, so the odds are against us. But what did we take out (of our earlier loss in May at the same venue)? It was good practice, right, as far as we know the hotel we’re in. A lot of us, it was our first time at Eden Park, so we’ll be more familiar with the surroundings.
“As Leon said, the lineups will be slightly different. We had a few out, but you always got a few out at this time of year anyway. But we’re just excited to get over there. We like the challenge of being underdogs and we probably run best from there.
“We haven’t got to beat Auckland 10 times out of 10, we’ve only got to beat them on Friday night. So, you go there with the right attitude and you’re ready to stay in the fight and compete and scrap.
“As Leon touched on, we’ve got enough talent to score points, we’ve just got to make sure we limit how many they do and we make the game uncomfortable for them.
“Will it be perfect, clinical performance? I’d doubt not, and I’m not asking for that, I just want my boys to go out there and compete and do our state and our country proud over there, and if we’re doing that, we’re in the game with 15 to go or something like that, then you never know.”
Leon MacDonald is set to welcome back Beauden Barrett to his side to take on the Waratahs for their quarter-final. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
MacDonald, whose Blues side lost to the Crusaders in last year’s final at home, knows the stakes are high and they can’t afford to slip up again.
“No surprises, I’d be pretty keen to finish with a winning title. I’ve made no secret of that. Spoke a little bit about that, the opportunities in front of us and you don’t get many opportunities to do something special, and this is the start for us,” he said.
“This is finals number one and it starts for us this week and we don’t progress if we don’t get it right. So, we’ve put the pressure on ourselves to turn up the volume this week at training this week to make sure we’re in the best possible condition to perform well on the weekend.”
Coleman confirmed captain Jake Gordon (concussion) and prop Harry Johnson-Holmes (syndesmosis) would miss the clash, while also saying Jed Holloway and Izaia Perese remained under injury clouds.
Coleman’s openness wasn’t lost on MacDonald.
“Good honesty, Darren,” he said, before revealing his star lock Patrick Tuipulotu would miss the rest of the season with a broken arm.
Adding: “Well, I felt I had to give one back after Darren gave us an injury list. Yeah, we’re definitely not boxers. We’re not going to be giving each other the big stare down. We both know we’re in the same situation, it’s finals time. It’s time to get excited as a team, it’s do-or-die, there’s no tomorrow, so you’ve got nothing to lose and you could just feel the temperature rise a little bit in the meeting room.”
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