It’s the eve of a Super Rugby match in Canberra and that most ominous of situations again has arisen, the players are denying there is any rift with the coach.

It was barely six weeks ago the Brumbies were making earnest protestations that they had no problems with Andy Friend.

Now, with the Brumbies poised to play the Hurricanes at Canberra Stadium tomorrow night, much the same rhetoric is again to be heard.

But this time, mercifully, it’s not coming from the ACT camp.

The Brumbies were thought to have bottomed out when they went down to their fifth straight defeat last weekend to the Highlanders in Invercargill, but on closer inspection it was discovered their worst losing streak.

The Hurricanes, by contrast, have brought in a new halves pairing or rather resurrected an old one in Tyson Keats and Aaron Cruden, and may be forced into a third change if, as expected, All Black fullback Cory Jane is unable to make the trip because of the impending birth of his third child.

In tonights lone match the Highlanders host the Cheetahs in Dunedin at 7:35pm.


Story by: Selina Navuso