No travel issues for Brumbies
Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham was quick to dismiss his side's travel schedule as an excuse for their semifinal defeat at the hands of the Hurricanes in Wellington.
Coming off the back of a convincing win over the Stormers in Cape Town a week ago, the side maintained the trend of a woeful record for teams forced to travel in the playoffs.
The 1999 Crusaders team remains the only side to have claimed the title after finishing outside of the top two after the round-robin matches.
Larkham was happy with his players' fitness levels, believing any fatigue was brought on by the Hurricanes' high-octane style.
"The travel's really not that hard. The fact you miss some valuable training days probably hurts you more than anything. The last two weeks we've had two training runs.
"But the combination's there and our fitness base was there," he said.
Larkham says changing the structure of the finals, where history has seemingly rendered results predictable, is not the answer.
"Everyone knows what the competition rules are at the start of the year and you play towards that.
"Our boys pushed as hard as they could. There was nothing left in the tank and when you come up against a side like the Hurricanes, who certainly play very laterally and make you work defensively, it fatigues you pretty quickly," he added.
Yahoo NZ
