The Brumbies' defence is improved this season, with someone "there to pick up the crumbs" © Getty Images

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The Brumbies' defence looks so much better this year: it's a common belief that's pervaded Australian rugby circles, and Super Rugby more broadly, this season. The belief is based on fact, as the Brumbies sit atop the table with the best defensive record as well as the best attacking record in the competition, having conceded only three tries in their opening five games.

The popular belief is that the improvement has coincided with the arrival of dual code back-rower Peter Ryan as the Brumbies' contact coach. But there's a little more to it, even though Ryan is remembered as a player and known as a coach for his defence. A hard-tackling State of Origin rugby league player for Queensland, Ryan also enjoyed success as a blindside flanker in the Brumbies' 2001 Super 12 championship side. He has also coached in both codes, starting out with Queensland Reds as a consultant before taking on defence roles with his former NRL club, Brisbane Broncos, and North Queensland Cowboys.

"I love it," Ryan says of the Brumbies logo on his chest. "It's great to be back." The decision to come back to Canberra was easy, he says, made "in a heartbeat" for the commencement of pre-season.

"We'd been running a mining machinery part exporting business in Brisbane, but with the market downturn, the industry was becoming less viable. Stephen's [Larkham] call came at the perfect time.

"I wish I was on his money though," Ryan quips, quickly living up the very apt description I was given before meeting him, that he's "as casual as thongs and board shorts".

Talking to Ryan in person only confirms that nothing really fazes him - including players slapping him around the ears as they walk past during our interview. And it's also clear that, like all good coaches, Ryan is quick to deflect credit.

"I'd like to be able to take more credit, I really would," he says, when I bring up the common perceptions of the Brumbies' defensive improvements in 2015. "There has been a lot of talk about [the changes] being because of me coming in, but, honestly, with Steve [Larkham] and Dan [McKellar], our overall focus prior to Christmas was mainly on defence. So that probably clears it up a little. As much as I'd like it to be because of me, the focus was all about defence and hard work.

"We've enhanced a few minor things that the players were already doing, just to make those few little points better, or clearer, and the group themselves have really taken ownership. Once you get that genuine ownership and understanding of your role, and what you're supposed to be doing in your position on the field at any given point, then that ownership becomes habit. And that's the biggest thing you can possibly get; working for each other."

Peter Ryan would "like to be able to take more credit" for the Brumbies defence © Getty Images

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The funny thing about the perceptions of the Brumbies' improvements in defence, though - and this is something we've discussed on the Scrum5 podcast in recent weeks - is that their overall tackle success rate is not really that different to their 84% in season 2014. Ryan's explanation expands on his point about enhancements, rather than any great change.

"Without wanting to give too many secrets away, what I have worked on with the guys is what we do in general play and phase defence. That sort of 'ad-hoc' defence, so that once one player does something, everybody else knows what the players inside and outside that person are doing. And that knowledge is passed on through body language or communication. We do it as a weekly event, and the understanding is building, making sure we're on top of it. It comes back to the communication and having the gas in the tank to be able to make the tackles when they're needed."

While Ryan loves the work rate and effectiveness of his seemingly unstoppable back-rowers, Ita Vaea and Jarrad Butler, he's equally impressed with the work ethic of midfielders Matt Toomua and Christian Leali'ifano, and they way "they just know" what the other guy is doing in defence. The glue to what Ryan calls "one of the most cohesive backlines in defence" he's seen, Toomua and Leali'ifano quickly create and hold the shape of the Brumbies' defence wide of the ruck.

"Matt Toomua's line speed is exceptional. His contact might have even dropped off a little from last year because he's moving so fast, but what it does is create pressure and plus, whatever he does, his outsides are doing as well. So that means once he gets past that advantage line, and the ball's passed, well Christian's already up at that point, and then Tevita [Kuridrani] and Henry [Speight] or Joey Tomane are following. They have a great knowledge of what they're supposed to be doing and where, and even if they stuff up, someone's there to pick up the crumbs."

Stuff ups don't go unpunished, though. Ryan was "really hard on them" after the last-minute loss to the Chiefs in Round 2, and he had no hesitation in pointing fingers and naming names during the review of the loss. "The video doesn't lie," Ryan adds, pointing out that all the players identified in front of the group admitted to their 'one percenters' lapses, and conceded they hadn't quite made the required effort in that moment. It all adds to the defensive accountability and work ethic Ryan is instilling in the group.

The follow-up defensive efforts against the Rebels and there Force - where they made 163 and 262 tackle attempts in respective one-sided possession games - were particularly pleasing for Ryan. The belief the players got out of those two games was enormous, particularly around phase defence. If anything, the mammoth effort made the Brumbies realise they perhaps needed to "put more bodies on the ball," so as to slow the attacking ball and to save energy levels for when it was needed late in games.

That was certainly evident in the 29-0 win over the Queensland in Brisbane, where the Reds very rarely mounted attacking pressure on the Brumbies' defence and got past seven phases only three times in the match. Ryan says the hard work the team put in against the Rebels and Force proved they could defend for long periods, and that, coupled with "sheer desperation", was what kept the Reds out in those final minutes in Brisbane. "It was a real show of, 'you're not coming through us'," Ryan says.

The Brumbies simply refused to be breached by the Reds © Getty Images

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In terms of defensive preparations, Ryan was a little disappointed to find on arriving at Brumbies HQ that the tackling sandpit was way too small and unusable. Coming from the Cowboys' infamous 15 metre square sandpit in Townsville - where tackling reputations are torn apart and rebuilt - Ryan was shattered to find a pit barely three metres wide.

"I can't use it, it's too dangerous," Ryan says with equal parts annoyance and enthusiasm. "Otherwise they'd be in there every day. The one up in Townsville had rubber edges, but this one has wooded edging. Some of these guys here, the size of them; if they hit the edge they'd break a bloody a leg or something.

"The way I coach, in terms of tackle technique, quite often relates foot speed into contact. So sand is the perfect ally for it because you have to work so hard to keep your feet moving to get through the sand, and that's all about having good forward body lean, and that foot speed is what creates good contact."

And so to the Waratahs in Sydney, perhaps the biggest fixture on the Brumbies' calendar: former Brumbies players love 'Tah Week' as much as the current crop, and it's no different for the former players within the coaching staff; it's clearly a contest the Brumbies are eager to test themselves in, providing a chance for the current Austalian conference leaders to make a statement against the reigning champions.

Ryan agrees shutting down the Waratahs midfield and around the fringe of the ruck - something the Brumbies had major success with this time last year - remains the key.

"Yeah, I think so. They're a very big, mobile pack. Their playmakers are excellent - [Kurtley] Beale and [Bernard] Foley are unreal, and 'Izzy' [Folau] at the back. They've got some wonderful talent. Even though they lost to the Highlanders, the Highlanders had to play extraordinarily well to beat them, and that's the sort of team they are. We'll have to be absolutely on our game 100% and getting everything right, and everyone doing their job in defence to get anywhere near beating them."

But the former tackling machine is never far away, a grin slide across Ryan's face at the mention of the prospect of Jacques Potgieter and Will Skelton coming around the corner.

"They're massive men, they're 115-plus [kilograms], and they're so mobile as you know. They come around the corner hard. But then again, you know, if they come around the corner hard and Ita's there waiting for them ... I'd like to see those battles.

"I'm looking forward to them."