ACT Brumbies greats George Smith and Stephen Moore will aim to end their former club's record winning streak against Australian Super Rugby teams when they return to GIO Stadium as Queensland Reds.
The Brumbies will be shooting for 10-straight local derby victories in Saturday night's match in Canberra.
They come up against a Reds side desperate to arrest their decline after five-straight losses and eager to turn around recent history against the Brumbies who have beaten them in their past four encounters.
Stand-in Reds skipper Moore spent eight seasons with the Brumbies and captained the side before returning to Queensland last year.
For that reason he admits this no ordinary match.
"We know it's going to be a tough game," Moore said.
"But it's not about myself or George, it's about the team performing well tomorrow."
Reds coach Nick Stiles drew a line in the sand this week, dropping Wallabies halfback Nick Frisby and hooker Andrew Ready to club rugby.
"It's very tough when you go through that period of not getting a result because you feel like there's a need to change a lot of different things," Moore said.
"There's a lot of good stuff happening at the club, we're still not where we need to be but sometimes it does take a result and a win to validate what you're doing and that's been really challenging."
The Reds will be looking to build on the attacking flourishes which were produced in glimpses against the Hurricanes last week.
But running up points may be challenging for the Queenslanders with the Brumbies outscoring them 142-47 across the past four matches between two sides.
"We know you need to score points when you play away from home so that's important for us," Moore said.
The Brumbies have the best tackle success rate in Super Rugby (88 per cent) while the Reds (78 per cent) are better than only the Sunwolves.
Moore's opposing captain will be close mate Scott Fardy who is filling in for Sam Carter, the latest player to be rested due to the Brumbies' rotation policy.
"They've got a good forward pack and probably a young backline this week but they've got some quality players and it's a big challenge for all of us to go up against them," Fardy said.
The Brumbies top the conference but in a measure of Australian sides' season so far, the Reds can draw level with them with a bonus-point win.
"I think teams will start separating soon and no one wants to be in that bottom pack," Fardy said.
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