Brumbies wary of Highlanders

The Canberra side booked their place in the play-offs with a 24-10 win over the Western Force on Saturday. The win ensured that the Brumbies walked away with the Australian Conference title – it also secured them a home quarterfinal against the defending champions. 

"The Highlanders are very dangerous," Toomua told brumbies.com.au. 

"Their back three strike a lot and they love to kick. They kick more than any other team in the competition so we’re going to have to be good.”

The first 40 minutes in the Force match was definitely the better half for the Brumbies who scored all their points in that period.

Despite the slow start to game, all 34 points were scored in the first half. The Force began strongly but Toomua believes the Brumbies did well to hold them out.

"The Force came out firing. They had a point to prove tonight and you could see that from the start.

"I thought we did well to resist that and the last 20 minutes of the first half we really hit our straps.

"Second half we probably fell away a little bit, I'm not sure what happened there but in saying that we'll take the win and look forward to finals now."

Scrumhalf Joe Powell said there is plenty of work to do at training this week, but the players are looking forward to it.

"We have to keep building on our performance," he said. "We were a bit sloppy in areas tonight so we'll work on that in training and come in with a big physical game for next week."

Rory Arnold said it was a difficult match against a determined Western Force.

"It was a tough start," Arnold said. "The Force really showed up in defence and really gave us something to work for, all credit to them they put on a really good performance tonight."

@BrumbiesRugby