Andrew Mehrtens has expressed his surprise at the "provocative" and "aggressive" Brumbies mind games ahead of Saturday's Super Rugby AU grand final against the Reds.
Brumbies coach Dan McKellar this week moved swiftly to claim underdog status for the big dance, despite being defending champions and the club's proud history as Australia's Super Rugby pacesetters.
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https://twitter.com/RugbyOnNine/status/1390208459572875265?s=20McKellar, a Queenslander, said that the Brumbies had their "backs to the wall" but vowed to "prove a few people wrong and continue our reign as Australia's leading team over a number of years."
He piled pressure on the Reds, who will be playing in front of an expected Suncorp Stadium crowd of 40,000-plus, stating the "expectation within their own group is that they win."
McKellar also claimed that "the media's been talking these blokes up all year" in regards to the Reds and that "all the pressure's on them really."
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McKellar's approach fascinated Mehrtens, who won five Super Rugby titles with the Crusaders over 10 wildly successful seasons.
"I found it quite provocative actually," Mehrtens said on Stan Sport's Rugby Heaven.
"Normally when you're trying to talk yourselves 'up' as the underdogs, you're kind of like 'the other team's great, they're wonderful, we're just humble, little, we'll go up and see what we can do.'
"But he's just straight out coming quite aggressively – 'everyone's been talking these blokes up, let's see how good they are.'
"So while it's calling themselves the underdogs, it's like 'let's go'!"
Both teams are missing star-power for the grand final.
The Reds are without injured backline weapons Hunter Paisami and Suliasi Vunivalu while the Brumbies are down two Wallabies forwards in James Slipper and Pete Samu.
Adam Wallace-Harrison - a former Brumbies and Reds forward who won the 2011 title with Queensland - is well placed to offer judgement.
"The Reds rightly go in as favourites with the home crowd and they've had two wins, you can't take that away from them," Wallace-Harrison said, referring to the two epic comeback victories over the Brumbies this season.
"But I think the Brumbies enjoy that underdog status. They have that discard feeling so they'll be looking to come up here and get one up on them.
"From the Brumbies point of view, when I was there, you always took pride in beating NSW, Queensland – the rugby heart states.
"From a Queensland point of view you know you don't want to be beaten by the younger brother. It's Queensland's time in the sun at the moment."
https://twitter.com/wwos/status/1390471631764590592?s=20The grand final will be live on Channel Nine in Queensland, NSW and ACT and also ad-free, live and on demand with extended coverage on Stan Sport.
The clash will be live on 9Gem in other states and territories.
"We're delighted to see the switch in Queensland, New South Wales and ACT," Rugby Australia chief executive Andy Marinos said.
"This further re-enforces that rugby is on the rise and we are excited that an even wider audience will get to enjoy one of the most anticipated games in recent memory, after two thrilling encounters between the Reds and Brumbies earlier this season."
from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/rugby/super-rugby-au-grand-final-queensland-reds-vs-brumbies-andrew-mehrtens/16ac4cb9-4847-4303-9558-e7a72c8b2b8c
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