Giffin no certain starter for Brumbies
Brumbies coach David Nucifora won't be pressured into rushing ACT lineout kingpin David Giffin back into his starting side for Saturday's despite the Bulls' inclusion of Springboks lock Victor Matfield.
The beefed-up Bulls called their captain into the squad for the round four clash in Pretoria a week earlier than expected, after his recovery from a shoulder injury which has sidelined him this season.
"For them to rush him back, he's a pretty key player for them," Nucifora said.
"You can see that they're really eager to do well and not drop another game otherwise I would have felt that Matfield probably would have had another week off."
The Brumbies, currently second on the Super 12 table, will name their side overnight, but Nucifora didn't feel the lineout needed changes to counter Matfield and Bakkies Botha.
Test lock Giffin has been relegated to the bench this season by the emergence of the physical Radike Samo and Mark Chisholm, although he made a positive impact on the Brumbies lineout when he came on in their three-point win over the Sharks.
"Giff did well when he came on, he got on the field with a specific role of just steadying our lineout, that's his area of expertise and he did it very well," Nucifora said.
"He's been improving each week but I'm still really happy with Samo and Chiz, they've continued to play well."
Brumbies five-eighth Stephen Larkham is a certainty to play after recovering from the elbow injury which forced him out of last week's game.
He will regain the No.10 jersey from Mark Bartholomeusz with the remainder of the backline expected to remain intact.
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