Star Metro - Brumbies confident of snapping 26-year Christchurch drought

The Canberra-based side last won at Christchurch in 2000, losing their next 12 away games against the current Super Rugby champions.

They meet again on Sunday and six-Test Wallaby Toole said they were brimming with confidence after opening their season with a 56-24 thrashing of Western Force in Perth a week ago.

"We're building quite nicely as a team," the winger said.

"We briefly spoke about it (not winning in 26 years) at the start of the week. We also said we had a poor record against the (Auckland) Blues at Eden Park, and we broke that record last year.

"We can take a bit of confidence from that against the Crusaders."

The Brumbies snapped their 12-year losing streak at Eden Park last year when they beat the Blues 21-20.

Coach Stephen Larkham has named an unchanged team with a strong pack led by James Slipper who will become the first Australian to play 200 Super Rugby games.

The veteran prop is on track to surpass the all-time appearance record of 202 held by retired All Blacks great Wyatt Crockett.

"They've got a lot of history around (Christchurch), so the opportunity is there for us to try and put a performance in that we saw last year against the Blues over in Eden Park," Larkham said.

Crusaders coach Rob Penney has kept faith with much of the group that lost their season-opener 25-23 to the Otago Highlanders.

"They're a pretty complete side. We're going to have to be right on," said Penney of the Brumbies, pointing to their physicality, skill and speed.

The match will be played on the 15th anniversary of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake that devastated the city and left 185 people dead, with a moment of silence to be held before kick-off.

"The best thing the boys can do to honour that event is play really well," said Penney.

S.Lapointe--SMC