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Giteau just another player wearing No 10: Lealiifano
13/05/2008 10:00:00 AM Giteau just another player wearing No 10: Lealiifano - Local News - Sport - Rugby Union - The Canberra Times
Matt who? That's the approach fearless ACT Brumbies flyhalf Christian Lealiifano will adopt against Western Force opposite Matt Giteau in Friday night's Super14 match in Perth.
Despite a below-par performance against the Wellington Hurricanes last weekend, Giteau has been one of the most consistent performers in the competition all season.
But Lealiifano, while rightfully giving the Force No10 the respect he deserves, believed his best chance of outplaying Giteau was approaching the challenge as if he was still playing John I Dent Cup rugby in Canberra.
''He's obviously a quality player, I mean he's played 50-odd Tests for Australia so he'll be a very tough opponent but I'm just going to worry about me,'' the 20-year-old Brumby said.
''I don't look at him and say, 'Ooh it's Matt Giteau'. He's just another guy with a No10 on his back.
''I'll just go out there and the key thing for me to play my best footy is to play my game, play the way I want to play, not the way to specifically try to stop someone else playing.''
Lealiifano has never played against Giteau, but knows a lot about his game, both from watching him when he used to play for the Brumbies as well as tapes of his time at the Force.
This is Giteau's first full season at flyhalf. He spent most of his early career at inside centre, as well as a few games at both Super14 and Wallabies level as scrumhalf.
But his move to pivot hasn't made him less dominant and Lealiifano understands the magnitude of the challenge facing him at Subiaco Oval on Friday night.
''I have huge respect for Gits and I've watched plenty of vision of him. You have to study your opponent so much these days so you are aware of what they do, when they're likely to do it and how they do it,'' Lealiifano said.
''While you can never expect things to happen, you have to be aware of the possibilities.
''The Force run everything through Gits. He's far and away their main man in the backline when it comes to plays but they've also got some other options we need to be on top of.''
The Brumbies had their backs and forwards review sessions yesterday morning before training in the afternoon.
The reviews highlighted glaring issues with the backline's lack of communication against the Pretoria Bulls on Saturday morning, a game the Brumbies lost 28-17.
Lealiifano accepted the backs needed to improve as a collective unit. However, he disputed any suggestion they were playing with a lack of confidence.
''Anything but, I'd say, and I think the fact we're making a lot of line breaks and getting a lot of possession shows we have a lot of confidence in ourselves and each other,'' he said.
''We gave ourselves a lot of opportunities against the Bulls but we need to learn to capitalise on those chances more regularly.
''We can see we're creating and after review we can see what's going wrong, we just need to fill in the gaps and hopefully the Force will cop the brunt of it on Friday night.''
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Originally Posted by KenyaQuin
Haha- good call Ox!
"Remember lads, rugby is a team game; all 14 of you make sure you pass the ball to Giteau." 
Was the wait worth it - Ya betta baby 