Brumbies winger Corey Toole is confident that they can end a 26-year hoodoo against the Canterbury Crusaders in Christchurch, taking inspiration from their breakthrough win in Auckland last year.
The Canberra-based side last won in Christchurch in 2000 and has since dropped 12 consecutive away games against the reigning Super Rugby champions.
They meet again today, and six-Test Wallaby Toole says the team is brimming with confidence after opening their season with a dominant 56-24 victory over the Western Force in Perth last week.
He says they are building really well as a team.
Toole says they briefly talked about their 26-year record at the start of the week and also acknowledged their poor history against the Blues at Eden Park—and then they broke that streak last year.
He says they can take a bit of confidence from that going into this game against the Crusaders.
The Brumbies ended their 12-year losing streak at Eden Park last season with a 21-20 victory over the Blues.
Coach Stephen Larkham has named an unchanged squad, featuring a strong forward pack led by James Slipper, who will become the first Australian to reach 200 Super Rugby games.
The veteran prop is on course to surpass the all-time appearance record of 202 held by retired All Blacks legend Wyatt Crockett.
Larkham says they’ve got a lot of history in Christchurch, so the opportunity is there for us to deliver a performance like the one we saw against the Blues at Eden Park last year.
Crusaders coach Rob Penney has retained much of the squad that lost their season opener 25-23 to the Otago Highlanders.
The match also falls on the 15th anniversary of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, which devastated the city and claimed 185 lives,a moment of silence will be observed before kick-off.
The Brumbies will face the Crusaders at 3.35pm today
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