Brumbies coach Jake White says sacrifices his side has made over two years make him believe his side can win Super Rugby final

BRUMBIES coach Jake White has outlined why his side can’t win tonight’s Super Rugby decider – and it’s exactly why they can.

Jake White

IN his final word before the final game, Brumbies coach Jake White outlined why his side can’t win tonight’s Super Rugby decider – and it’s exactly why they can.

Heavy underdogs against the defending champion Chiefs, having endured the most arduous travel schedule imaginable in the past month, they are a self-described “motley crew” of rejects and ruffians who gathered two years ago without training kit or much idea of each others’ names.

White, yesterday sitting in front of journalists at the team’s Hamilton hotel, summed up the situation with expert wisdom.

“We’ve got no chance, we’ve travelled around the world, we’ve been in four time zones in four weeks,” he said.

“But that’s what the romance of sport is all about.

“If it was a fait accompli that you get to New Zealand and you’ve got no chance, because the champions are champions and they’re playing at home, well people wouldn’t follow sport.

“You’ve got to believe.

“These boys have been professional. It’s not just what they’ve done in the last four days, it’s not what they did last weekend against the Bulls, it’s genuinely a two-year thing they’ve sacrificed.

“For two years they’ve wanted to win, and who knows? I’ve got to be positive, and it’s not because I have to be, it’s because I know what they’ve put in behind the scenes.

“It’s a fantastic thing for this group, and I have no doubt that if they play as well as they can, they can beat anybody, at any place.”

Sitting alongside White, Brumbies captain Ben Mowen was just as comfortable about their predicament.

He’s heard for a long time now: no team has won an away Super Rugby final since 2000; no team has flown to South Africa and back to win a title; no foreign team has ever won a final in New Zealand.

“One thing I’d say about this Brumbies side, we love the challenges where there’s absolutely no chance you can pull it off, that’s what brings the best out of this side,” Mowen said.

“We’ve been underdogs since we got together back in June 2011. We were a bit of a motley crew for a couple of months there, even training without a training kit.

“We were just getting to know each others’ names, I think we were calling each other the wrong names for about two or three weeks, just getting to know each other.

“You definitely can’t imagine at that stage you’ll be playing in a final two years later.

“Right from the start we’ve been underdogs and it’s a tag that’s sat well for us in the last couple of years.”

White and Mowen have led an incredible revival of the Brumbies from third-last in 2011 to grand finalists in 2013, and White said it was in the club’s nature to bounce back from tough times.

“The Brumbies, since the inception of the club, have been the younger brother, the one no one wanted,” White said.

“It started from the players who weren’t given any deals in Queensland and NSW, so maybe in a lot of ways… I can say for the Brumbies the whole inception of the club was based on, no one really wanted them.

“It’s always been driving factor.

“As Ben said, June 2011, we had no training kit, I got there and didn’t even know what the Shute Shield was, never mind who played in the Shute Shield.

“Then I arrived, brought in converts from rugby league, a couple of boys from Brisbane, a couple of boys from Sydney, and I think the basis was back to the future.”

In more ways than one. White, who says this week is very similar to the one before his Springboks won the 2007 World Cup final, describes today’s match with all the idealism of a young poet.

“These are the games that people play for,” he said.

“Boys play rugby, and they put boots on for the first time when they’re little boys and their dads tackle them in the garden, for games like this.”

Four months after his team had first gathered for early pre-season training camps in Narrabeen that June, the squad gathered in Canberra, where they finally received training gear.

Observing the quick-developing camaraderie between teammates, many who had relocated their lives for a final shot at rugby glory, Mowen knew then they were on the verge.

“Whenever you’re getting that connection amongst the group, you know you’re going to be able to do something pretty special,” he said.