Super Rugby
Brumbies trim leadership group
ESPNscrum Staff
January 18, 2011

Brumbies coach Andy Friend has streamlined his leadership group down to the trio of Stephen Hoiles, Rocky Elsom and Matt Giteau in a bid to bring Super Rugby success to the ACT.

The star-studded Brumbies were tipped as one of the competition favourites last season with their squad brimming with Wallabies talent, but they finished sixth in the last 14-team competition, and third out of Australia's four franchises.

Friend will name a captain from the aforementioned trio in the coming weeks, with his decision to be partly based on injury reports for his leading men. Hoiles, captain for the past two seasons, is convinced the move to reduce to number of players in the defined leadership group was the right one.

"We just thought that with this group in particular, we would be able to make things run just that little bit smoother," Hoiles told the Canberra Times. "We've got a lot of players that will have a voice and have a say. In our team we could have had 10 blokes who were leaders, what number do you stop at? But with strategy and discussion we just thought three was going to be the right number."

Forwards Hoiles (back and Achilles) and Elsom (hamstring) are fighting to be fit to face the Chiefs in the opening round of Super Rugby on February 19.

"We're just holding off on the captain for a while," Hoiles said. "We haven't made any decisions because of injuries and there are a few things that will come out in the next week or so. A lot of that is medical."

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