Brumbies looking into breakdown problems

Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham has bookmarked the breakdown as one of his main concerns.

Star loose forward David Pocock repeatedly found himself on the wrong end of South African referee Stuart Berry's rulings and was eventually yellow-carded in the 77th minute.

Larkham suggested he will take the matter up with SANZAAR – Super Rugby's governing body – to ask what the Brumbies need to do better.

Pocock also felt the rash of penalties may not have all been his own doing.

"We'll have a look at the tape, if it's a timing issue we'll fix it this week," Pocock said.

"We've put a huge amount of work into the [breakdown] area and it's something we're pretty good at. Getting it right is something we have to figure out and we've got to work on it."

Larkham added: "A couple of them were good decisions and a couple were 50-50, we were disappointed.

"Poey [Pocock] is the best in the game at making decisions at the breakdown but it was obviously interpreted slightly different."

* Meanwhile Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd lamented his side's inability to cope with the Brumbies' breakdown pressure and defensive line speed following a disastrous 42-point loss in their Super Rugby opener.

The Hurricanes also struggled at scrum time.

"Clearly we don't like losing any game but to lose and concede 50 was really disappointing for everybody," Boyd said.

"Every day's for reflection, but we had trouble at scrum time; we made far too many errors; we couldn't build any pressure because we kept getting slow or dead ball.

"And so our inability to recycle phases under pressure at the breakdown was probably the key really."

Larkham, in contrast, was looking for his team to maintain the speed and style they showed in their season-opener.

"We've done a fair bit of work on our speed through the pre-season ," Larkham said, adding: "And it's good that that sort of stuff showed on the field.

Source: @BrumbiesRugby & Sydney Morning Herald