Can Brumbies curb Cruden?
The Brumbies have been put on notice by Director of Rugby Laurie Fisher, ahead of their showdown with the Chiefs on Saturday.
Despite recording a comprehensive 41-23 victory over the Chiefs in Round 11, the Brumbies are expecting a far sterner test from the New Zealand franchise when they go head-to-head in the first of the season's play-off matches in Canberra.
The reason for Fisher's cautious approach to Saturday's showdown is that chief playmaker Aaron Cruden missed the game with a fractured thumb.
Cruden and the Brumbies' own flyhalf, Matt Toomua, bring very contrasting styles to the game, but the battle between the No.10s could be pivotal in deciding Saturday's Super Rugby play-off.
Fisher also feels that Chiefs Tawera Kerr-Barlow, who missed the Round 11 encounter through concussion, will add some punch to the Chiefs.
"Cruden and Kerr-Barlow make it a whole different team," Fisher told the Australian Associated Press.
"We've looked at that game, but it's not going to help us win."
Fisher's high assessment of Cruden was echoed by Brumbies skipper Ben Mowen.
"One of the best No.10s in the competition. He's a massive threat," Mowen said.
"We're going to have our hands full."
That said, the Brumbies have their own in-form No.10 in Matt Toomua, whose imposing defensive game could just act as the perfect foil for Cruden's attacking raids.
Toomua's also coming into the match after picking up a hat-trick in last week's 47-25 thumping of the Western Force.
"Matty is a big physical 10. He's in the best form I've ever seen him," Mowen said.
Cruden and Toomua have both played key roles in rescuing their teams from setbacks and dragging them into the preliminary round of the play-offs for a re-run of last year's Final.
A classic No.10, Cruden is a slender goal-kicking pivot who dictates play from the hand or boot and can carve his way through a fissure in the defensive line in the blink of an eye.
The beefier Toomua is an archetypical modern Australian playmaker, equally happy at flyhalf or as a hard-tackling inside centre and more likely to offload the ball to dangerous attacking players than make breaks himself.
Not that Toomua cannot take matters into his own hands, as he showed with his hat-trick of tries in the 47-25 rout of the Force last weekend that secured the Brumbies home advantage for Saturday's clash.
It was a rampant display against a previously miserly defence that will give rugby fans in Australia's capital hopes the Brumbies can avenge the 27-22 defeat in Hamilton last year that gave the Chiefs their second successive Super Rugby title.
Cruden's most notable contribution of the season so far has probably been for the All Blacks, with his quickly taken penalty leading to the late try which killed off England's challenge in the first test of the June series.
Having struggled with the disruption of a broken thumb early in the Super Rugby season, Cruden improved as the series went on and returned from international duty to lead the Chiefs to wins in their last two games that got them into the playoffs.
Sources: AAP & Reuters
