ACT Brumbies flanker Rob Valetini's vow to lift the intensity leads to Wallabies call

A man who took the No. 6 jersey to new dimensions, a brutal enforcer renowned for a physical and confrontational style. Or Frenchman Sébastien Chabal's ferocity in the No. 8 jumper.

These are the kinds of players ACT Brumbies flanker Valetini is modelling his game on as he looks to become a leader at both club and international level.

"That's what I'm trying to do, just be physical out there and be a leader through my actions," Valetini said from Wallabies camp in Coogee on Monday.

Watch Valetini suit up for the Brumbies on the road to the Super Rugby AU finals and you'll see him doing just that amid an outstanding run of form and agenda-setting aggression.

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Indeed it was national team coach Dave Rennie's voice ringing in his ears when he return to Brumbies headquarters this season, after the Wallabies mentor demanded an improvement in fitness and work rate.

Valetini has delivered in spades, having been one of the Brumbies' best this season to emerge as a certainty for Rennie's 40-man squad for a three-day camp this week.

"I'm learning to train at an intensity where I can transfer training straight into a rugby game," Valetini said.

"I've been training pretty hard down at the Brums, just trying to train at a good intensity. I'm just trying to do the one per centers at training, recovery, stretch, anything I can to stay in good nick.

"I had feedback from the [Wallabies] coaches where they wanted more involvements from myself through work rate and repeat efforts.

"That comes through training, so I sort of said to myself 'if I can train at this intensity and work hard here, then I can definitely do it on the Saturday', so that's something I've been working on and seeing it pay off on Saturdays and Fridays."

And this week, on a Sunday.

Because the Brumbies will face their final test of the regular season against the Melbourne Rebels at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

It is the reigning champions' final match before the playoffs begin, with a round 10 bye wedged between the Rebels clash and a preliminary final on home soil.

The Brumbies will face either the Rebels or the Western Force for a spot in the grand final, which will be hosted by the Reds at Lang Park on May 8.

Valetini says the Brumbies are hellbent on redemption after dropping two games to the Reds this year, both by a margin of two points despite trailing for a collective five minutes throughout.

"We had a chat after the game on the weekend and talked about how we gave them another game to get on top of us, how we let them off the hook," Valetini said.

"For us, it's about playing the whole 80 minutes and not thinking we've won the game already or getting complacent during the game.

"Our goal is to win the next couple of games and hopefully face them again up at [Brisbane] and be champs again. Now we have that rivalry, it's a good test. Hopefully we can get one back on them over the next couple of weeks.

"I think [the competition is] stronger than last year. Especially for us as the Brumbies, coming off as champions last year and having a target on our back, every team is trying to get at us, get at our strengths, and challenge us.

"It has definitely gone up."

SUPER RUGBY AU ROUND NINE

Sunday: Melbourne Rebels v ACT Brumbies at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium. Broadcast: Live on Stan Sport.

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