Brumbies big guns stampede in for Hurricanes battle
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The ACT Brumbies have welcomed back Wallabies stars Allan Alaalatoa and Len Ikitau for a blockbuster clash with the Hurricanes on Saturday.
Alaalatoa regains the captaincy after completing his return from a ruptured Achilles that ended his World Cup campaign.
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He last featured in the Wallabies July's Bledisloe Cup defeat to the All Blacks, starting alongside fellow Wallabies James Slipper and Billy Pollard.
Ikitau slots back into the centres after a leg injury suffered last month in their win over the Highlanders.
Both provide a substantial boost to a Brumbies side hurt by a 46-7 defeat to the Blues.
“It was a brutal review. Not a whole lot of things went right," stand-in captain Ryan Lonergan said.
“…We’ve shown we can be physical. It's there, it's just being able to extract that so I think it's more of a mentality thing.
"The attitude side of it, not saying our attitude was poor, but I think it's an easy fix for the physical side of things, particularly from what we showed on the weekend. We get our attitude right throughout training, then it will transfer into a game."
It was their second big defeat to a New Zealand side this season, going down 46-12 to the Chiefs in Super Round.
"You never want to roll over," Lonergan said.
"While it might look like that, if we took a few other opportunities there early on, we keep ourselves in the game.
“I don't really want to say we rolled over on the weekend, (against) the Chiefs maybe a little bit (in round two), but it's definitely an attitude thing we can fix up."
The return of Andy Muirhead is also a big boost, with the vice-captain named on the bench, whilst Rory Scott starts for the first time in 2024.
BRUMBIES (1-15): James Slipper, Billy Pollard, Allan Alaalatoa, Darcy Swain, Cadeyrn Neville, Rob Valetini, Rory Scott, Charlie Cale, Ryan Lonergan (c), Noah Lolesio, Corey Toole, Tamati Tua, Len Ikitau, Ollie Sapsford, Tom Wright
RESERVES: Connal McInerney, Blake Schoupp, Sefo Kautai, Tom Hooper, Jahrome Brown, Harrison Goddard, Jack Debreczeni, Andy Muirhead
