![Darcy Swain will get his first start of the season when the Brumbies play the Drua on Friday night. Picture by Karleen Minney Darcy Swain will get his first start of the season when the Brumbies play the Drua on Friday night. Picture by Karleen Minney](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/j2iwCiKfwhVWJky39Vsdpt/aaae8b8b-841b-44e0-9700-ac50f16af4b2.jpg/r0_22_4896_2775_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
ACT Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham has backed Darcy Swain to make a statement in his first start of the year after overcoming an injury that threatened to curtail his World Cup hopes.
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Swain is set to be recalled to the Brumbies' starting side on Wednesday, with Larkham expected to tinker with a winning team to adhere to Wallabies resting requests.
Cadeyrn Neville will miss the clash against the Fijian Drua on Friday night and Nick Frost will be on limited minutes as the Brumbies edge closer to locking up a finals spot with two months of the season to play.
There are plenty of reasons why the Brumbies have lost just one match this season. But the selection scenario and need to rest Wallabies highlights why they're near the top of the ladder.
Swain, a Wallaby himself, will be parachuted straight into the second row to run the lineout after playing just three of seven games and battling a foot problem for most of the year.
He has been used off the bench with Neville and Frost starting every match so far, and the game against the Dura is an opportunity to remind everyone why he was a Wallabies starter last year.
Larkham praised Swain for his calm and upbeat attitude despite an up-and-down 12 months, which included a six-game suspension for a dangerous cleanout on Quinn Tupaea in a Bledisloe Cup clash.
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"It would have been nice to get him on the field a little bit longer last weekend knowing that he's got a big task ahead this week," Larkham said.
"But he's been training exceptionally well, he's a really good operator around the lineout space and one of the leaders there. And he's just a good footy player.
"He knows where he needs to be in the system and fits the mould of a Brumby really well.
"He was trolled [on social media] a bit after the incident [with Tupaea] last year, which was an accident. He's not the sort of guy to go out there to intentionally injure someone.
"I've seen him grow as a really resilient player. Always happy, always enjoying the environment and very passionate about going about his work in the Brumbies organisation.
"Even with his foot injury that he's had over the past month, he's been really positive about it, testing it every day even when it wasn't 100 per cent and just knowing that it wasn't going to be long [before he was back]."
The Brumbies thrashed the Queensland Reds after a second-half demolition last weekend, but Larkham has persisted with changes most weeks.
He has named the same starting XV just once so far this season as he tests squad depth, and he'll update the squad again this week.
Corey Toole (concussion) is out, paving the way for Ben O'Donnell to start while Ryan Lonergan is set for another crack in the No. 9 jersey in a halves partnership with Noah Lolesio for the first time this year.
The Brumbies will have to rest more players later this season to meet Rugby Australia requirements, but Wallabies coach Eddie Jones gave the club dispensation to keep playing Neville and Frost while Swain and Tom Hooper were injured.
"The program's in a really good position at the moment. The players are an amazing bunch of guys who are really well connected, and there's really good quality and depth in the squad," Larkham said.
"It's pleasing to see that even with all the competition for spots and the super competitive environment that the players look out for one another. We're lucky in the second-row department, to have three Wallabies is pretty unheard of.
"And that's a huge reason why the players have been performing so well this year."
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