Blues v Brumbies

[Duluth]

James Slipper, Billy Pollard, Sefo Kautai, Darcy Swain, Cadeyrn Neville, Rob Valetini, Jahrome Brown, Charlie Cale, Ryan Lonergan (c), Noah Lolesio, Corey Toole, Tamati Tua, Hudson Creighton, Ollie Sapsford, Tom Wright

Reserves: Connal McInerney, Blake Schoupp, Rhys Van Nek, Nick Frost, Tom Hooper, Luke Reimer, Harrison Goddard, Jack Debreczeni

[Duluth]

Big chance for Funaki with Christie injured. Hope he carries on his form

Good to see Darry back

In the close calls Choat selected ahead of Segner and Lam ahead of Evans

[Daffy Jaffy]

A 6/2 bench is becoming a regular feature of teams playing the Blues. Indicative of the perceived strength/threat of the Blues Pack.

[KiwiMurph]

Predicted wet weather might also be a factor in the bench makeup.

Stoked to see Funaki at 9 in a big game

[nzzp]

Game of if the round. Can't wait, hopefully I can get to a pub to watch. Going to the beach blocks in Marlborough

[Dan54]

@Daffy-Jaffy said in Blues v Brumbies:

A 6/2 bench is becoming a regular feature of teams playing the Blues. Indicative of the perceived strength/threat of the Blues Pack.

Think both teams like the confontational type game from their forwards, so makes it real interesting.

[Duluth]

Ofa passes Kaino in this match to become the 2nd most capped Blues player

[African Monkey]

It's unusual having so many Blues centurions in the same team together, all came through at around the same time as well.

[george33]

Good to see Kurt return hopefully all good

[Kirwan]

Really good depth this year, players missing out and almost being good enough to start.

[Duluth]

The Blues struggle with the Brumbies but the recent record is better than I thought
Blues v Brumbies results

Blues have won 6 of the last 8 games against them going back to 2015

However the Brumbies won last year and the last 3 results have been very close:
2023 in Melbourne Blues lost 20-25
2022 in Auckland Blues won 20-19
2022 in Canberra Blues won 21-19

[African Monkey]

@Duluth We always struggle with their style. They're usually good at slowing our ball down and attacking our rolling maul, which forces us to play off slow ball.

They always make us look bad, whether we beat them or not.

[Duluth]

@African-Monkey

..and in the past we've given up plenty of 5m mauls. Discipline will be important

I'm a fan of Coventry and I think his impact at the Blues is underrated. However one thing that his pack never nailed was the maul defence. It appears Cotter has made an improvement there.

[KiwiMurph]

@Duluth said in Blues v Brumbies:

However the Brumbies won last year

Was 40 degrees in Melb and Blues were down to 13 men due to poor discipline (2 yellow cards).

[African Monkey]

@Duluth Which is funny because it was still a huge improvement from when Steve Jackson was the forwards coach and our rolling maul under him was barely schoolboy standard, but yes, Cotter has gotten them better in that area. They've all added a but of size too under Cotter.

[pakman]

Ponies mail isn’t as good this year. Reds probably best in Oz.

[Bones]

@pakman said in Blues v Brumbies:

Ponies mail isn’t as good this year. Reds probably best in Oz.

Shopping in Canberra isn't as good as Brisbane. Noted.

[Canes4life]

I’m hoping and also picking the Blues to win tonight. The Brumbies have a fairly easy run after they play us next week so hopefully the Blues can prevent them from accumulating any table points this week.

[Duluth]

Choat is out with a calf injury. Segner replaces him on the bench

[pakman]

@Bones said in Blues v Brumbies:

@pakman said in Blues v Brumbies:

Ponies mail isn’t as good this year. Reds probably best in Oz.

Shopping in Canberra isn't as good as Brisbane. Noted.

Farking predictive text. Changed it from mail and it changed it back!👹