Stephen Brett goes on Twitter battle before semi-final: Super Rugby news
Blues and Reds will lock horns in the first semi-final of the 2011 Super Rugby championship on Saturday, July 2 at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane. However, both teams’ fly half have already gone into attack mode via Twitter.
The incident occurred on the social networking site after Stephen Brett exchanged a few tweets with his Reds’ counterpart Quade Cooper on Friday, June 24 after their win over the Waratahs in the Super XV play-offs.
The tweets later changed more into taunts, a move that was readily and purposely initiated by the Blues Japan-bound fly half. Brett may not be a match for Cooper, particularly on Twitter, as Cooper is a regular user and easily outnumbers Brett on tweets,
following, followers and listed categories.
On the rugby field, Cooper is all set to become the highest point’s scorer in the 2011 Super Rugby Competition. Cooper currently is in the second spot, six points behind the Bulls Morne Steyn’s 216 points. As compared to Cooper’s 210 points in the season,
Brett has managed only 48 points.
Commenting on his chit-chat with the Reds impressive fly half, Brett termed his posts as a “couple of cheeky comments”. He added, “Me and Quade are friends on Twitter, we've been giving a bit of grief to each other; he's a great player, I enjoy playing against
him.”
Brett has termed the combination of Will Genia and Quade Cooper as one of the dangerous combinations in the game now days. He said, “They're such great players, and if they get good gain-line they're hard to stop. Quade has got such jinky feet and Will throws
those wide passes, If we can eliminate them, hopefully it's going to be an even game.”
When asked about the Blues’ plan to tackle the Will and Cooper combination, Brett replied, “Line speed; Getting up on them, putting a bit of pressure on them, and whenever their forward runners come round, try and smack them back behind the gain line.”
Brett is aware of the fact that the line speed and line breaking strategy can also applied on him by Reds utility back Digby Ioane. Brett acknowledged the skills and physical attributes of Ioane. He said, “He's a pretty powerful and explosive man, and he's
got good feet as well. If we get good line speed up against them, hopefully we can eliminate that.”
Blues have also announced their squad for the Saturday’s clash which includes
Starting XV: Jared Payne, Joe Rokocoko, Benson Stanley, Luke McAlister, Lachie Munro/Rene Ranger, Stephen Brett, Alby Mathewson; Charlie Faumuina, Keven Mealamu (captain), John Afoa, Chris Lowrey, Ali Williams, Jerome Kaino, Luke Braid,
Peter Saili
Replacements: Tom McCartney, Tevita Mailau, James King/Mat Luamanu, Daniel Braid, Chris Smylie, Munro/Ranger, Winston Stanley/Sherwin Stowers.
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