How do you stop the best player in the world?
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That's the question the ACT Brumbies must answer if they want to keep their Super Rugby championship dream alive when they play Beauden Barrett and the Wellington Hurricanes on Friday night.
Hurricanes' magician Barrett will return to the playmaker duties for a quarter-final showdown at Canberra Stadium after he was ruled out of the last game of the regular season because of illness.
The 26-year-old was World Rugby's player of the year in 2016 after guiding the Hurricanes to their first title and stamping himself as the No. 1 flyhalf in New Zealand.
But Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham, a former champion playmaker, says the key to shutting down Barrett is to avoid the trap of focusing solely on the All Blacks linchpin.
"That's the challenge of the Hurricanes' back line," Larkham said.
"They've got the Barrett brothers [Beauden and Jordie], Ngani Laumape, Julian Savea, [Nehe] Milner-Skudder, Vince Aso ... all them individually are dangerous players.
"So that means you can't focus on Beauden Barrett or anyone. If we did that, we wouldn't be doing our job."
The Hurricanes have been the most dangerous attacking team in Super Rugby this season, scoring 596 points compared to the Brumbies' tally of 315.
The Hurricanes thumped the Brumbies 56-21 in April, with Barrett catching the ACT out with pinpoint cross-field kicks and slicing through the defence with some superb runs.
The Brumbies have scored just two tries in the past two games, haven't won a match since the start of June and won just six games during the regular season.
But Larkham and the Brumbies have an unwavering belief they can cause a finals upset against the rampaging Hurricanes.
"The season is done now, what's happened up until now doesn't matter. It's irrelevant," Larkham said.
"It's these next couple of games that will make or break your season and that's what we've been preparing for over the past few weeks because we've known we were playing finals.
"We've got to get back together this week ... to be playing at home this week is going to be a massive bonus for us."
SUPER RUGBY QUARTER-FINAL
Friday: ACT Brumbies v Wellington Hurricanes at Canberra Stadium, 7.35pm. Tickets available from Ticketek.
