Brumbies map path to final via Buenos Aires

The Brumbies and Jaguares will square off in fight to keep their season alive in Buenos Aires on Saturday morning.

The winner will have to wait for the result in the Canterbury Crusaders' clash against the Wellington Hurricanes on Saturday night before knowing where the grand final will be.

The Brumbies will host the grand final in Canberra for the first time since 2004 if they win and the Hurricanes topple the back-to-back defending champions Crusaders.

But they face a daunting Christchurch challenge if they beat the Jaguares and the top-ranked Crusaders win. The Brumbies haven't won in Christchurch since 2000.

The Brumbies will fly straight to New Zealand if they earn a spot in the final to avoid a 30-hour trek back to Canberra for one or two days.

The players, however, have narrowed their focus to the Jaguares challenge and trying to find a way to beat a team boasting Argentinean Test stars.

BRUMBIES NEWS

The Jaguares have just one player - prop Mayco Vivas - in their starting XV who hasn't played international rugby.

The "one game at a time" cliche is perhaps the most overused phrase in sport. But Brumbies lock Sam Carter says the team is actually living by that mantra.

Skeptical? Well, the players only found out about a 6am Canberra departure on Sunday after they beat the Durban Sharks last week.

"Losing to the Jaguares last time we played [in April] was probably the best thing that happened to us, we can take a lot of lessons out of that and we know we can improve," said Sam Carter.

"We've looked at the tape and we've identified areas where we can be better from last week.

"We haven't thought about anything beyond this week. The most important task we have is the Jaguares and that's all anyone has thought about. We didn't even know what time we were leaving Canberra until after the game last week, it makes it easy to focus.

"We were disappointed with how we went against the Jaguares last time and we want to rectify that."

Brumbies captain Christian Lealiifano will be playing his 150^th game this weekend, making him just the second player to reach the milestone.

Lealiifano will be one of nine players leaving the Brumbies when the season ends, including Carter, David Pocock and Henry Speight.

SUPER RUGBY SEMI-FINAL

Saturday: Argentina Jaguares v ACT Brumbies at Jose Amalfitani Stadium, Buenos Aires, 9.05am (AEST).

Brumbies: 1. Scott Sio, 2. Folau Faingaa, 3. Allan Alaalatoa, 4. Rory Arnold, 5. Sam Carter, 6. Rob Valetini, 7. Tom Cusack, 8. Lachlan McCaffrey, 9. Joe Powell, 10. Christian Leaiifano, 11. Toni Pulu, 12. Irae Simone, 13. Tevita Kuridrani, 14. Henry Speight. 15. Tom Banks. Reserves: 16. Connal McInerney, 17. James Slipper, 18. Les Leulualiaali-Makin, 19. Darcy Swain, 20. Murray Douglas, 21. Jahrome Brown, 22. Matt Lucas, 23. Tom Wright.

Jaguares: 1. Mayco Vivas, 2. Agustin Creevy, 3. Santiago Medrano, 4. Guido Petti, 5. Tomas Lavanini, 6. Pablo Matera, 7. Tomas Lezana, 8. Javier Ortega Desio, 9. Tomas Cubelli, 10. Joaquin Diaz Bonilla, 11. Matias Moroni, 12. Jeronimo de la Fuente (c), 13. Matias Orlando, 14. Sebastian Cancelliere, 15. Emiliano Boffelli. Reserves: 16. Julian Montoya, 17. Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 18. Enrique Pieretto, 19. Marcos Kremer, 20. Francisco Gorrissen, 21. Felipe Ezcurra, 22. Domingo Miotti, 23. Ramiro Moyano.