Homecoming trio give a timely boost to Brumbies trial squad

The Brumbies will welcome three of their most experienced players back from Japan ahead of their final pre-season trial.

Lachlan McCaffrey is the running to captain the Brumbies after returning from Japan. Picture: Getty Images

The Brumbies will welcome three of their most experienced players back from Japan, including captaincy contender Lachlan McCaffrey, just days before their final Super Rugby trial against Melbourne Rebels on January 23.

Number eight McCaffrey, lock Cadeyrn Neville and tighthead Les Leulua’iali’i-Makin will all return from playing stints in Japan just days before the trials in Albury against the Rebels.

McCaffery signed a one-year extension with the Brumbies last season, which also ensured he would be free to play a stint of second division rugby in Japan.

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But with the Brumbies having lost Wallabies Christian Lealiifano, Rory Arnold, Sam Carter, David Pocock, Henry Speight and Josh Mann-Rea from last year’s squad, the 29-year-old could well feature in the club’s long-term plans, with coach Dan McKellar admitting McCaffrey would come into the reckoning as a candidate for the captaincy.

The Brumbies are expected to name their 2020 skipper shortly before they split their squad in half to play two trials against the Rebels. It will be a veritable Melbourne Cup field with Test props Allan Alaalatoa, Scott Sio and James Slipper, halfback Joe Powell and backrowers Tom Cusack and McCaffrey all regarded as potential leaders.

McCaffrey must feel he has some frustrations to work through from his 2019 season. He began the year in such sparkling form that he was being spoken of as the bolter in the Wallabies’ World Cup pack, but he fell heavily and only made his way back into the starting side for the Brumbies’ playoff match against the Jaguares in Buenos Aires. By that stage, sadly, his World Cup chances had taken a heavy hit.

For Neville, now 31, it will be an eerie feeling playing against the Melbourne side where he first started out in Super Rugby in 2012, playing with them for four seasons before moving up to Queensland Reds in 2016.

Few Brumbies fans would have seen his signing last year as much more than the club filling in around rising young second-rowers Darcy Swain and Nick Frost and the more experienced Blake Enever and Murray Douglas as potential replacements for Arnold and Carter. But that would be to sell Neville short. Robbie Deans included him in the Wallabies squad in 2012 and, as McCaffrey himself has shown, veterans aren’t to be discounted.

Leulua’iali’i-Makin has the misfortune to be sitting on the bench behind Test tighthead Allan Alaalatoa but, after bringing up his 50th appearance for the Brumbies against the Argentinians in the semi-final, he is still young enough at 28 to be eyeing off his century.

McKellar insisted that even though the players would not return before next Monday, he would have no hesitation in playing them in the trial. “Match-hardened? Yeah, I would think so,” he said. “They are all boys who have been around professional rugby for a while and they’ll bring experience back. It will be a nice boost to have a week or two before our round one clash (against Queensland in Canberra).”

The Brumbies have been training for the past week in Newcastle to escape the smoke-laden air in the national capital but are set to return to Canberra on Wednesday to complete their build-up.

McKellar was unapologetic in insisting that the Brumbies would not be changing their game and would continue to exploit their driving maul, which last year earned them 16 of their 65 tries.

But as important as the maul is to their attacking stats, what is often unrecognised is that the side has not conceded a try to a driving maul since their May 2018 defeat by the Lions in Johannesburg, when they were reduced to 13 men.

“We take pride that we had zero scored against us last season,” said McKellar. “We focus on it in training and we put as much emphasis on our maul defence as we do on our maul attack.”

Given the Brumbies, who were Australian conference champions last year, will have only one trial ahead of the season-opener means McKellar will probably play close to his best side against the Rebels.

“I don’t see us mixing our teams,” he said. “But the 23 for round one is far from finalised.”