Liam Gill will face Wallabies great George Smith for the first time on Saturday night © Getty Images

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Brumbies captain Ben Mowen has identified the first back-row battle between veteran George Smith and outstanding young Queensland Reds flanker Liam Gill as key in Saturday's Super Rugby showdown in Brisbane.

It's shaping up to be an epic battle between Australia's leading ball scavengers when the Brumbies head to Suncorp Stadium for the first time this season with top place on the ladder the upshot for the winners.

Brumbies Smith, Ben Mowen and Fotu Auelua have created a formidable, yet well-balanced, back row this season with only Smith's ineligibility preventing all three from being called up to the 30-man Wallabies camp on Sunday.

The Reds' back row, on the other hand, has been led by openside flanker Gill - arguably the standout player in the Australian conference - with Jake Schatz and Ed Quirk also impressing. The Brumbies' forward pack got the wood over the Reds in round one but have since lost Wallabies captain David Pocock to a season-ending knee injury.

Mowen on Tuesday hinted that they'd be using their back row to look at controlling the flow of the game to limit the match-winning combination of halves Will Genia and Quade Cooper.

"The back rows certainly will have a lot to do in terms of the way the ruck is played and the speed we're going to allow the nines and 10s to play it," Mowen said. "We're aware their back row is an extremely hard-working back row. They've got basically three very good on-ballers and good ball carriers in there. But saying that, I like the balance of our backrow and we know the work we'll have to get through to get the result."

Smith, 32, and Gill, 20, will play against each other for the first time after the veteran Brumby was drafted back to Canberra on a short-term contract after three years in Japan.

Rookie Gill has already played eight Tests for Australia despite his tender years and is positioning himself nicely as Smith's long-term Wallabies successor, with fellow No. 7 Michael Hooper not standing out as much as expected in a struggling New South Wales Waratahs side.

Mowen said he saw his side going into the match against as underdogs after the Reds' 31-23 domination of the Chiefs in Hamilton on Saturday.

"The fact that the 2011 champs went over to the 2012 champs' backyard and knocked them over says a lot about where their mindset is at," Mowen said.

Despite coming off a confidence-boosting 30-19 win of their own against the Highlanders in Dunedin, Mowen said if the Brumbies were even the slightest bit off their game this weekend they were going to walk away from Brisbane empty-handed - as 24 of the past 28 visiting sides have discovered.