He even made it a personal mission to shut the Queensland Reds up after they broke the Brumbies' hearts in a Super Rugby AU decider. Remember the knock-on that wasn't, which cost the ACT back-to-back titles and left the visitors fuming?

Now Swain - a Brumbies lock notorious for wearing his heart on his sleeve - returns to Queensland with Australia's premier Super Rugby teams to meet in Brisbane on Saturday night.

"I've sort of been caught up with it in the past, just getting really emotional," Swain said.

"I have a couple of mates that I played with during schoolboys and against [while at] school and whatnot.

"We've just got to treat it like another game. We just need to be really diligent in our approach and just trust our processes and systems and I think we'll go up there and get a good result."

It's a game many in Australian rugby circles have been waiting for since the Reds re-emerged as a genuine Super Rugby threat under Les Kiss.

The Brumbies sit third on the table and head north riding a three-game winning streak while the Reds are desperate to make amends for a shock loss to the Western Force in round five.

They arrive at Lang Park on Saturday night positioned as the best two teams in Australian rugby, and recent jousts for national supremacy and Wallabies jerseys have seen the Brumbies-Reds rivalry usurp the little brother versus big brother battles between ACT and NSW.

The Brumbies have made back-to-back semi-final appearances since Super Rugby resumed a proper trans-Tasman format, while some say the Reds might just be the Australian team most likely to knock off New Zealand powerhouses this year.

"It sort of paints a good story, doesn't it," Swain said.

"They've been a really strong side and hopefully the media gets behind it and Australian rugby gets behind it because we've sort of needed that in Australian rugby at the moment, so it's good."

The Brumbies will head to Brisbane after piling 60 points on Moana Pasifika under Swain's captaincy at Canberra Stadium last week.

Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham will be buoyed by the performance of Hudson Creighton ahead of his own Queensland homecoming, having scored two tries in his first appearance of the year with Len Ikitau sidelined by injury.

But Larkham is under no illusions as to how difficult the task ahead will be against an enterprising Reds outfit.

"They're playing good footy, they're throwing the ball around, they're a very good attacking team at the moment and good to watch," Larkham said.

"There'll be a good crowd up there, we've got the travel, we've got potential humidity up there as well that we don't get in Canberra, so there's a few challenges through the week.

"We've got a couple of days off so we'll enjoy [Friday's win.] We've started the season well in terms of the results. Have we played the way that we wanted to play? Probably not. But, you know, we're four out of five now so we're sitting in a pretty good position there.

"We'll come back in on Monday, hopefully really focused on putting in a good week's preparation and then see who we get to on the weekend."