Brumbies 'will' get up off the floor
In a humiliating weekend for Australian franchises the Brumbies (15-40 to the Blues in Auckland) and the Waratahs 17-28 to the Hurricanes in Sydney) both suffered losses.
To further rub salt into festering Australian wounds the Crusaders smashed the Rebels 85-26, the Western Force lost 3-22 to the Stormers and the Reds were also humiliated (losing 5-50) by the Chiefs.
The end result is that this coming weekend is a straight shoo-out between the Brumbies and Waratahs for the only play-off spot on offer to Australian teams – top place in the Aussie conference.
The other seven places will go to four New Zealand franchises (Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders and Hurricanes), the table-topping Lions, the Africa Two conference-winning Stormers and the Africa wildcard (a shoot-out between the Sharks and Bulls).
The Brumbies have seemingly the easier task of the two Aussie outfits.
The Waratahs have to make the perilous trip across the Tasman Sea to face the high-flying Blues in Auckland; while the Brumbies are at home to the lowly and trouble-riddled Western Force.
"We have to," was Larkham's brusque response when asked if his team can pick themselves up from the heavy loss in Auckland this past Friday.
He said the team will "put everything into their preparation" for this week.
"The good thing about this coming week is that we played on a Friday and we don't play till Saturday," the Brumbies mentor said, adding: "{it is] an eight-day turnaround that gives us a nice weekend off.
"We have a full week's preparation, starting on Monday.
"We want to get to the end of the week, saying: 'We have no excuses.'
"We are in a battle with the Waratahs for a place in the play-offs and we simply have to finish top of the Australian conference."
* Meanwhile the Brumbies will find out on Monday if wing Joseph Tomane will be fit enough to play in their must-win final regular season Super Rugby game.
The French-bound Tomane hurt his knee in his comeback from a 10-week injury in Canberra's club competition at the weekend.
Tomane and a host of Brumbies are facing the prospect of an earlier-than-expected departure from the franchise if the Waratahs can find a way to jump them on the ladder.
It's still unknown whether he's done any further damage to his medial ligament or if it's a new injury.
Brumbies captain Stephen Moore said he was disappointed with the way they performed at the weekend.
"We gave them [the Blues] too many points early, we fell off too many tackles, allowed them to offload – [it was] just not good enough," he said.
"We started poorly [two weeks ago against the Reds] and again [against the Blues], it's something we spoke about before the game and we didn't go out there and do it, so that's disappointing.
"You can talk about it until you're blue in the face but you actually have to translate it out on the field. So that's something we need to look at."
