Coach Stephen Larkham could be forgiven for having tears in his eyes as celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the ACT Brumbies’ grand final win over the Crusaders are in full swing.
Ultimately, it was one of the defining moments of his illustrious career.
But the former Wallabies five-eighth now has his eyes firmly set on the future. That’s because he knows his team must focus only on defeating their New Zealand rivals in Saturday’s round 13 Super Rugby Pacific match.
The third-placed Brumbies have not beaten the Crusaders in over 15 years but will start favorites alongside their second-placed opponents after a disappointing season.
Despite this, Larkham will be hoping for a strong competition with an upset win giving the Crusaders a chance of reaching the final.
“If you look at their performance throughout the year, they were close in a number of games and were actually playing really good rugby,” he said.
“So this is definitely a similar challenge to the Waratahs last week, I thought we had played really well all season but didn’t even get the win.”
Larkham surprised the mental toughness of the bottom-placed Waratahs in the Brumbies’ hard-fought 29-21 win.
“We said at some stage they were going to give up. The mental aspect of the game is probably too taxing for them. But that didn’t happen,” he said.
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Last 5 Meetings
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“So the boys had to struggle throughout the game.”
With three regular season games remaining, the Brumbies’ good form has their loyal fans hoping for a first title since their win over the Crusaders in 2004.
The Class of 2024 will receive pre-game modifications from the Class of 2004 and wear commemorative heritage jerseys to evoke the feeling of champions.
While the outdoor celebrations keep the camp spirit high, Larkham is keen not to get too emotional.
“They are conscious of it,” he said.
“But what we did 20 years ago is certainly not going to help the players play better this weekend.”
