Brumbies to give Matt Toomua licence to come out of line and put hit on Chiefs No.10 Aaron Cruden

THE Brumbies will turn to Matt Toomua to physically rattle Chiefs rival Aaron Cruden, who Stephen Larkham rates as New Zealand's form five-eighth.

THE Brumbies will turn to hitman five-eighth Matt Toomua to physically rattle Chiefs rival Aaron Cruden, who Wallabies great Stephen Larkham rates above Dan Carter as New Zealand's form five-eighth.

There's just one catch if Cruden is in the sights on Saturday - if Toomua shoots, he can't miss.

"Cruden has very good feet," Larkham said. "It is remarkable how many tackles he spins out of, so you have to be really careful when you come up against a guy like him.

"You have to pick your moments. You have to make sure you know what is coming at you before you fly out of the line like that."

Toomua has cemented his reputation as Australia's foremost defensive five-eighth this season with a burgeoning highlight reel of big hits, several of which helped the Brumbies pull off a historic win over the British and Irish Lions.

The stocky five-eighth has shown a penchant for racing out of the line as a "shooter" and putting on fearless tackles.

One such shot on Bulls rival Morne Steyn last week yielded a knock-on.

Toomua's defence will again be crucial for the Brumbies in the Super Rugby final in Hamilton - on two fronts.

He will have to stop hordes of Chiefs backrowers running down his channel. But perhaps more influentially, Toomua's potential to catch Cruden with a rib rattler behind the line could be crucial for the Brumbies to disrupt the Chiefs' attack. A big hit by Toomua (92kg) on Cruden (84kg) could plant a few helpful seeds of doubt in the Kiwi's mind.

Matt Toomua

But while conceding Toomua has a licence to keep attempting shooters in the final, Larkham said his young protege must be accurate when the bullseye is painted on Cruden.

"You watch (Cruden's) last couple of games, he has been really elusive with the ball in hand," Larkham said.

"The stats say every six times he touches the ball he gets a linebreak. He carved up Dan Carter last game and the last time they played the Crusaders, so he's the in-form five-eighth at the moment.

"You look at finals and what wins finals. You need a good goalkicker and you need good defence. It often comes down to one or two opportunities, which is what we saw last weekend. So you need your defence to be solid and that's an area that Matt prides himself on. We're going to be looking for that this weekend."

The Brumbies' proven defence will be crucial across the park against the competition's best attacking team, which has scored the most points and tries this year. Few sides are better at punishing mistakes.

But given the Chiefs' defence was equally superb last weekend, the Brumbies face a tricky choice when it comes to scoring points: do they stick wholly to their trusted field-position-and-pressure style, or look to surprise the Kiwis by letting Jesse Mogg, Henry Speight and Tevita Kuridrani run from deep a bit more?

Larkham said the Brumbies would "tweak" their game plan, but not overhaul it.

"First and second phase we will change a bit but the rest of the game is the same," Larkham said.

"It's a little bit different but we're not going to really stray too much from what works for us. Every week we look at those options and make sure that we're not becoming too obvious. We know that all (attacking) options are there, we just need the right opportunities to take them.

"You need to make sure when you're in your half you have composure and you're taking the right options.

"You look at the Chiefs' game and they've scored more tries than anyone in the competition this year, and they're a team that doesn't play too many phases in their half."