chiefs and brumbeis front row to outside backs vs front row to outside backs

front row
ben taumafuina 140kg, hika elliot 110kg, toby smith 112kg vs scott sio 116kg, stephen moore 112kg, ben alexander 120kg
362kgs of chiefs power against 348kg over half a ton of brawn and power will do battle this weekend and theres some serious class floating around the teams big boys.
ben taumafuina is impressive with his ability to get round the field and contribute that mass with a heavy work rate, IMO only connie is a better prop with ball in hand. hika elliot and toby smith arent the best in their positions, but they know what to do and how to do it, their synergy with the rest of the team will be key for the chiefs.
brumbies have got a real star on the rise with scott sio, hes a great scrummager and like the top forwards in the comp, gets through a ton a work.
stepehen moore is australias best hooker by a country mile, a real professional with a wealth pof experience who gives it his all every time, hes been one of the comps best hookers in 2013, right up there with strauss and robinson.
ben alexander like moore is class, while both were schooled by the lions when playing for the wallabies, they both have the necessary tools to get the job done.
advantage brumbies (more high level experince and class)

locks
brodie retallick, craig clarke vs scott fardy, sam carter
fardy and carter are decent players, but retallick and clarke are the 2nd best lock pairing in the entire comp behind the crusaders dynamic duo of whitelock and romano. jager and uys come close, but the number of games the two have played together factored them into thrid best.
retallick last week against the crusaders was insane, dont know who was man of the match (prob masaga) but my man of the match last week wa retallick, i think there was only 10 breakdowns the whole game that retallick wasnt involved in, o_O
advantage easily to the chiefs

loose forwards
tanerau latimer, liam messam, matt van leven vs peter kimlin, george smith, ben mowen
good rumble going on here, messam and latimer were outstanding last week, their heavy involvment on attack and defence was part of the foundation the foprwards laid down to help the chiefs beat the crusaders.
their form as whole all season has been at best adequate, always doing the bare minimum. messam in particular who IMO has failed to live up to the impressive high standrds he set last year and latimer winning the battle over cane to rightfully start this match.
matt leven has been nicely consistent though, so much so that he has become the incumbent 8, a position which the chiefs struggled to fill after the depature of kane thomoson.
the brumbies loose trio on the other hand have been outstanding in 2013, especially ben mowen. george smith has countered the injury issues that the brumbies faced whent hey lost pocock early on in the season, hes been in outstanding form and one of the top 5 open side flankers since his return.
the loose forward rumbles is what im looking forward to the most, but the presence of gorgie porgie gives the brumbies a slight advantage.
advantage brumbies (long term form and the class of mowen and smith in 2013)

flyhalf
tarewa kerr barlow, aaron cruden vs nick white, matt toomua
both sets of halves are in a way the back ups to their respective bledisloe nations (assuming cooper will be 10 of course).
cruden and toomua are very similar in the way they play, but the experience factor makles cruden the more dangerous of the two, also something about hamilton makes cruden a real game breaker, even more then usual.
the halfbacks have very contrasting styles though, barlow has  avery strong running game and is surprisingly strong with an above halfback average passing game. nick white on the other hand is a very smart technical kicker, on attack and defnece he can and will most of the time be very efficent with his kicks on both attack and defence. whiote had a belwo average game against the bulls though, not quite as onto it as he usually is, and i will be surprised if he is that bad this weekend.
advantage chiefs (chiefs pairing is just more experinced)

centers
andrew horrel, charles ngati vs chirstain leilafano, tevitak kuridrani
the most even battle IMO and going head to head, the similarties bettwen the players in their poosition and their counterparts is uncanny.
leilafano and horrel are both renown flyhalves in their own right, both have a very strong kicking game with an attacking ability to match. horrel is  about 3 inches taller, but leilafano is about 2kgs heavier, so both a very equal, but chirtsain is the best 12 in the comp, ironcially goign up against the defending champs who last year had the best 12 in the world.
ngatai and kuridrani are also very similar, despite kuridrani being 3 inhces taller. both are effective ball runners of the same mould as jj englebrecht, a ton of pace, some decent foot work and a lot of power. kuridrani has played more games in 2013, but ngatais few perforamnces for the chiefs have been of the highest order.
advantage tied (very evenly matched)

outsidebacks
asaeli tikorotuma, gareth anscombe, lelia masaga vs clyde rathbone, jesse mogg, henry speight
jesse mogg has been a great player for the brumbies this year, same goes for speight, rathbone unfortunately has not, and his form in the finals has been down right poo, maybe jake whie is gambaling on the fact that hes due a good to great game, cos picking him on his experience dosent hold any water.
anscombe like mogg has been great for the chiefs, IMO hes been the best buy of any team, as the chiefs by thier own words said they got him dirt cheap, but injuries to then incumbent fullback robbie robinson  saw anscombe for the first time in his career take up the fullback role where he has been one of the comps best.
masaga and tikrotuma have been like speight great in 2013, all three know how to find the try line and do it with flair.
should masga not play, then the chiefs get another techn ically proficent kicker of the ball and great counter attacker in robinson, either way, all of the chiefs options are better then rathbone.
advantage chiefs (expereinced x-factor vs x-factor plus rathbone)

last week i did a similar thread, the crusaders on paper were better then the chiefs, beating them in every position for a white wash, but the chiefs in hamilton laughed my review away.
the brumbies on the other hand were better then bulls, but i still thought the loftus factor would be too much, but i forgot the SA conference aint all that aye sharkbok, -_o
LMAO just kidding, bulls were still a good strong team, but come finals time, u got to be more then good and strong, especially as the cream of the competition are playin g finals for a reason.