The ACT Brumbies say they have no fear about playing at an Australian rugby graveyard, and they've got the statistics to back them up as they attempt to topple the Auckland Blues at their Eden Park bunker.
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Cold, wet and windy conditions greeted the Brumbies in Auckland on Thursday as they flew in for the penultimate game of the regular season and another do-or-die clash in New Zealand.
Australian Super Rugby and Test teams have struggled to beat the Blues or the All Blacks at Eden Park over the past 30 years. The Wallabies haven't won at the venue since 1986 and Australian franchises have just an 18 per cent success rate in the competition's 20 years.
But the Brumbies buck the trend in Auckland, winning four of their 12 games at Eden Park and two of their past four visits to play the Blues.
The Brumbies need to beat the Blues to give themselves the best possible chance to stay ahead in the race for Australia's guaranteed finals berth.
"It's tough to win at Eden Park and you have a lot of memories of hard nights there," said Brumbies back Matt Toomua.
"But a lot of us have won there. I think I've won there a couple of times and so have others. You can't deny it's hard to win there.
"But you don't want to make it a bigger issue than it is. The Blues are good at winning there and in Super Rugby it's not very different to other teams with good away records.
"If you're talking about grounds [that are hard to win at], we hadn't won at [Allianz Stadium] in a long time and we did that this year, so hopefully we can do that again."
The Brumbies are refusing to underestimate the Blues, who sit out of finals contention but pose a massive threat to the Brumbies and NSW Waratahs' play-off ambitions.
The Blues play the Brumbies and the Waratahs to finish the year and can throw a massive spanner into the Australian conference if they beat the ACT side.
The tightness of the competition means that bonus points could decide which Australian team makes it into the finals.
Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham has injected halfback Tomas Cubelli into the starting XV, while winger Joseph Tomane will make his comeback from a knee injury in Canberra's club rugby competition.
Cubelli's return to the No.9 jersey means the Brumbies have had a different back line for the past seven games.
"The Blues are a good team ... we don't see them as spoilers, we see them as a good team that's still competing," Toomua said.
"We've all played with each other for a while in the back line, guys are becoming fit at the right time of the year so it's something you've just got to deal with.
"We have that intent to play rugby. Tomas changed the game last week, but we haven't even mentioned bonus points. A couple of times we haven't gone for it this year and we hope that doesn't come back to get us, but all the focus is just on winning."
SUPER RUGBY ROUND 16
Friday: Auckland Blues v ACT Brumbies at Eden Park, 5.30pm (AEST). TV: Live on Fox Sports 2.
Brumbies team: 15. Aidan Toua, 14. Nigel Ah Wong, 13. Tevita Kuridrani, 12. Matt Toomua, 11. James Dargaville, 10. Christian Lealiifano, 9. Tomas Cubelli, 8 Michael Wells, 7. Jarrad Butler, 6. Scott Fardy, 5. Sam Carter, 4. Rory Arnold, 3. Ben Alexander, 2. Stephen Moore, 1. Scott Sio. Reserves: 16. Josh Mann-Rea, 17. Allan Alaalatoa, 18. Ruan Smith, 19. Blake Enever, 20. Tom Staniforth, 21. Joe Powell, 22. Andrew Smith, 23. Lausii Taliauli.
Blues team: 15. Melani Nanai, 14. Matt Duffie, 13. Male Sa'u/Matt Vaega, 12. Piers Francis, 11. Tevita Li, 10. Ihaia West, 9. Bryn Hall, 8. Steven Luatua, 7. Kara Pryor, 6. Jerome Kaino, 5. Josh Bekhuis/Scott Scrafton, 4. Patrick Tuipulotu, 3. Ofa Tu'ungafasi, 2. James Parsons, 1. Sam Prattley. Reserves: Quentin MacDonald, Nic Mayhew, Sione Mafileo, Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, Blake Gibson, Billy Guyton, Matt Vaega/Michael Little, Lolagi Visinia.
