Brumbies v Kings preview

The Southern Kings will travel to Canberra to take on the Brumbies on Friday, 4 April 2013, for Round 8 of the 2013 Super Rugby tournament.

The Brumbies will be pleased with the return of Wallaby back Pat McCabe, who will slide into the number 12 jersey.

This means that Christian Lealiifano will move into the flyhalf position, pushing Matt Toomua out of the match-day squad.

Siliva Siliva has been named to start at hooker; and returning to the starting side from the bench is Fotu Auelua at the back of the scrum, with Captain Ben Mowen moving to blindside flanker and Peter Kimlin to lock.

The Kings have shuffled players around a bit, bringing Waylon Murray into the starting lineup at outside centre, and Ronnie Cooke moving onto the wing.

In the forwards, the impressive Jacques Engelbrecht moves to the bench, while Oosthuizen gets the number 6 jersey.

Rugby Informer’s take: the Kings have shown to be an undeniably spirited and persevering team who are also capable of scoring tries, however, the Brumbies will be glad to be performing in Canberra again and should have control of this game. Brumbies by 15.

Brumbies:

15 Robbie Coleman, 14 Henry Speight, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Pat McCabe, 11 Joe Tomane, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 Nic White, 8 Fotu Auelua, 7 George Smith, 6 Ben Mowen (captain), 5 Etienne Oosthuizen, 4 Peter Kimlin, 3 Dan Palmer, 2 Siliva Siliva, 1 Ben Alexander.
Replacements: 16 Stephen Moore, 17 Scott Sio, 18 Sam Carter, 19 Colby Faingaa, 20 Ian Prior, 21 Andrew Smith, 22 Zack Holmes.

Southern Kings:

15 George Whitehead, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Waylon Murray, 12 Andries Strauss (captain), 11 Ronnie Cooke, 10 Demetri Catrakilis, 9 Nicolas Vergallo, 8 Cornell du Preez, 7 Wimpie van der Walt, 6 Devin Oosthuizen, 5 Rynier Bernardo, 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Grant Kemp, 2 Hannes Franklin, 1 Schalk Ferreira.
Replacements: 16 Bandise Maku, 17 Kevin Buys, 18 David Bulbring, 19 Jacques Engelbrecht, 20 Shaun Venter, 21 Marcello Sampson, 22 Elric van Vuuren.