Wallabies enforcer Rob Valetini has fired a warning shot at his former coach, Dan McKellar, ahead of his first Shop N Save Super Rugby Pacific match of the 2025 season.
Valetini will make his much-anticipated return after sustaining a hamstring injury in the pre-season and says he is feeling his best ahead of the ACT Brumbies' grudge match against the NSW Waratahs tonight.
The game will be McKellar's first against his former side after coaching the Brumbies from 2018 to 2022 and winning a Super Rugby AU premiership in Canberra in 2020.
Valetini, who debuted in 2018, has worked with the Waratahs coach at domestic and international levels.
The classy back-rower said there was a different energy in the Canberra camp as the Brumbies look to extend a seven-year winning streak against their arch-rivals.
He says that getting a win against them adds to the motivating factors.
Valetini says they are one of their biggest rivals.
The Brumbies will face the NSW Waratahs at 8.35 tonight.
Meanwhile, the Highlanders are leading the Reds 17-12.
In other matches, the Blues will battle the Crusaders at 6.05 tonight, and the Swire Shipping Fijian Drua play the Force at 6.05pm tomorrow at HBF Park, Perth.
[Source: Rugby.com.au]
