ACT Brumbies to open Super Rugby Pacific season on home turf

The Brumbies will kick off the season at home after their round one clash was shifted from Perth to Canberra with the Western Force relocating to the east coast.

The Brumbies will host the Western Force at Canberra Stadium on Sunday February 20, with a kick-off time of 2pm after Super Rugby Pacific officials were forced to overhaul the fixture again.

The Force were initially slated to host the Brumbies on February 19, but rugby bosses scrambled to make a change due to Western Australia's border restrictions.

Now the Force will base themselves on the east coast for the opening rounds of the competition after WA Premier Mark McGowan backed down on his promise to reopen the state to the rest of the country on February 5.

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With no date set on when free travel to WA would resume, the Force have agreed to switch home games with the Brumbies and NSW Waratahs. The Brumbies will now host round one, before travelling to Perth to face the Force in round six on Friday March 25.

Brumbies chief executive Phil Thomson says swapping games "was the only option" to ensure the round one fixture went ahead, with the round six clash to be played in Perth pending border restrictions.

"We'll see how the lay of the land is in WA when we're due to play over there in round six, whether we get in there or not," Thomson said.

"It's wait and see at the moment. We're taking it with the first five weeks and getting that out of the way."

White says you can "ask any rugby player if they want to play arvo footy, and they lick their lips", desperate to play in front of big crowds to kickstart the season with afternoon games slated for rounds one and two against the Force and Fijian Drua respectively, before a Saturday night game against the NSW Waratahs in round three.

"It's going to be awesome. It's a great opportunity to set up our season with round one at home, we've got our first three games at home," White said.

"That's a good chance for us to get people out to the games when the weather is good, it can get pretty cold later on in the year so there's no excuse in that weather to not come out. We'll be looking to throw the ball around in good conditions.

"We love playing footy at this time of year so with three games at home in front of our crowd, it's a good chance to go three wins on the trot and really get the runs on the board to put ourselves up quite high on the table.

"It's a little bit lucky but we'll take that, that draw has really set us up well. We'll have that home crowd advantage, hopefully big crowds, there's a real opportunity for us there to hit the ground running."

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