IN the lead up to our first game of the Super Rugby season against the Queensland Reds at Canberra Stadium this Saturday, it's been another interesting week at training with the 'Bitlong' Brumbies.
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For a while there, the seven African-born lads in the squad were getting away with telling secrets by speaking in Afrikaans.
But having heard so much of the dialect over the last two months, I'm starting to understand a bit and managed to decode one of Ruan Smith's messages to Etienne Oosthuizen the other morning.
I was embarrassed to find Ruan had been borrowing Etienne's toothbrush for three weeks.
Getting back to this weekend's game though, ever since the Super Rugby competition started the Queensland Reds have always been a side we love to beat.
I made my debut against the Reds at Canberra Stadium in 2010, so the fixture is always one I've got circled before the season starts.
We're expecting a big crowd there on Saturday night for our Super 15 season opener against the boys from up north, so anyone thinking about making the trip out to Bruce should throw on their yellows and make it happen.
The big game kicks off at 7.40pm. It's a pleasure to see the great Clyde Rathbone back in the team after three years away from the game, while David Pocock will make his Brumbies debut against his native Australian state.
Some of the boys have also been showing off their skills away from the rugby pitch lately. Earlier this week, Peter Kimlin and Ian Prior made the trip down to Royal Canberra to have a hit with some of the pros who will be taking part in this year's Australian Women's Golf Open which got underway on Thursday.
Kimo was first up and crumbled under pressure. With the cameras and professionals looking on, the big-red unit fudged his first drive, with the ball dribbling onto the lip of the driving range. A few tips later and Kimo was firing, smacking it well over the 200m mark.
Thanks to the ladies and organisers of the Open for having a few of the boys out there. Closer to home and this Saturday will see the Queanbeyan Sevens kick off at Campese Field.
This year will the sixth running of the event and having played there in the past, it's one of my favourite tournaments in Australia.
Sevens gave me my break and I owe plenty to the short form of the game. Recently, the Whites have produced one of the Australian team's up-and-comers in Lewis Holland.
Lewis was first spotted while playing in the Queanbeyan tournament a few years back and let's hope there's another batch of super-stars spotted this Saturday morning.
As a final note, as part of my weekly column I'll be giving the punters out there a tip and this week I've gone for a multi.
Robbie Coleman plays fullback with the ACT Brumbies and is a Queanbeyan Whites junior.