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Canberra - Highlanders head coach Tony Brown fully knows what to expect from the Brumbies when his side make the trip to Canberra.
Brown compared the Brumbies to being like a South African
franchise in terms of their forwards-heavy approach, while conceding that on
their stopping the Brumbies' maul and scrum can prove difficult.
"They don't hide what they're going to do against
you," Brown told Stuff.
"We are going to have to adjust to the South African
style as they are a scrum and maul team. They do not play like Aussie teams.
"They're going to scrum you every scrum and then
they're going to maul you every maul. They're a pretty predictable team but
they're hard to stop when they get going.
"But we've had a big week's preparation around that and
hopefully our discipline is good and we cut the number of lineouts they
get."
Brown also defended his side's poor position in the table
after winning just one of their first four matches this year.
Aside from toppling the Blues in Auckland, the Highlanders
have been narrowly beaten by the Chiefs and Crusaders before last week's
thumping away to the Hurricanes.
Brown however believes the Highlanders could have
realistically had a 100 percent record at this stage and is understandably
hoping for their fortunes to change against the Brumbies.
"We're one from four, and we weren't very good against
the Hurricanes [41-15 loss]. But we should have beaten the Crusaders for sure
and we were pretty rough execution wise against the Chiefs and pretty much gave
them that game," Brown added.
'"We could easily be three from four and sitting in a
pretty good position.
"But where we are is one from four and we just need to make sure we prepare a little bit better, put on a better performance and be a little bit mentally tougher."
