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Canberra - The Brumbies are confident ahead of their Super Rugby clash at home against the Bulls on Friday.
The Brumbies dropped down to second place in the Australian conference over the weekend after the Waratahs defeated the Crusaders in Sydney, but are clinging onto the final spot in the top-six standings.
But Brumbies’ prop Ben Alexander isn’t too concerned about the Super Rugby standings and is confident that if his side wins their remaining three fixtures, they will be in the hunt for a home semi-final.
“Last year we were in similar spot, we had had a string of losses throughout the season and things weren’t looking great and all of a sudden we had a home semi-final and we got to within a game of the grand final,” Alexander told the Brumbies’ official website.
“Things can turn around. The Waratahs have to go to (South) Africa and they have to keep winning as well, they’re only just ahead of us even though we’ve lost a lot of games, we’ve managed to pick up a lot of bonus points.
“The ball is still in our court. We win the last three games, without looking past this week; we’re still right in the hunt for a home semi-final.”
Ahead of facing the Bulls, Alexander knows the challenge which awaits them.
“They’re big and they’re physical, they’re a huge side - a big rolling maul and a big scrum. It’s a pretty standard Bulls side,” he said.
“They’ve had a formula that’s worked for them, they’ve won a lot of Super Rugby titles, and they were top of the South African conference for a lot of this year.
“We’ve played them in semi-finals, we’ve played them in Pretoria and we’ve played them here plenty of times so we know what to expect and we’re going to expect a really tough hard physical match.”
Kick-off for Friday’s clash at GIO Stadium is scheduled for 11:40 (SA time).
Teams:
Brumbies:
15 Jesse Mogg, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Robbie Coleman, 11 Joe Tomane, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 Nic White, 8 Ita Vaea, 7 David Pocock, 6 Scott Fardy, 5 Sam Carter, 4 Rory Arnold, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore (captain), 1 Scott Sio
Substitutes: 16 Josh Mann-Rea, 17 Allan Alaalatoa, 18 Ruan Smith, 19 Jordan Smiler, 20 Jarrad Butler, 21 Michael Dowsett, 22 Nigel Ah Wong, 23 James Dargaville
Bulls:
15 Jurgen Visser, 14 Francois Hougaard, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Burger Odendaal, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Handré Pollard, 9 Rudy Paige, 8 Pierre Spies (captain), 7 Arno Botha, 6 Deon Stegmann, 5 Grant Hattingh, 4 Flip van der Merwe, 3 Marcel van der Merwe, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Dean Greyling
Substitutes: 16 Callie Visagie, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Werner Kruger, 19 Jacques du Plessis, 20 Lappies Labuschagne, 21 Jacques Louis Potgieter, 22 Travis Ismaiel, 23 Jesse Kriel
