Banks wary of Kiwi threat

Brumbies full-back Tom Banks is relishing the opportunity of playing his first game against a New Zealand team when his side clash with the Blues in Canberra on Friday.

Banks comes into the starting line-up for Aidan Toua who moves to the bench. Toua has played in the Brumbies' last 26 consecutive games and it is the first time he starts on the bench for the Canberra-based side.

Banks is not altogether fresh at Super Rugby level having made his debut two years ago for the Reds. However, he has never played against a Kiwi side and is aware of the challenge at hand especially as he is the last line of defence.

"This will be my first game against a New Zealand side, it is a different challenge because they've got such an attacking mindset," Banks told watoday.com.

"But the biggest thing is to avoid getting sucked into what they do.

"But I'm feeling pretty good… it will be good to have a bit more space and opportunity at the back.

"I'm looking forward to that chance to roam a little bit more. We like a structured game [at the Brumbies] but [coach Stephen Larkham] has told us that when there's a chance, he wants to see what we can do.

"Coming in to replace someone like Aidan does come with a bit of pressure, but for me it's just about roaming and playing with that freedom.

"Obviously I want to be a starting player every week, that's the main goal of everyone and it's the reason of why I came to the Brumbies.

"We've had a good week of training and we worked on some things that we lacked in the game last week.

"It's about not having lapses in game play, dropping off and letting the Kiwi teams build phases. We need to go for 80 minutes because they punish any small error.

"We've got to weather the storm, stick to what we know and then hopefully go on our own attack."