Sunwolves assistant coach Tony Brown said Friday he would allow his exciting back three to have a free rein Saturday when they take on the Brumbies in their Super Rugby opener in Tokyo.

"The back three are most dangerous when you give them a license to play rugby," the former All Black said of Hosea Saumaki, Jason Emery and Lomano Lemeki, who were part of the Japan sevens side that finished fourth at the Rio Olympics. "And for the Sunwolves that's no different. We are looking to attack space and where there is space we want the back three attacking."

Quite how much ball they will get, though, will depend on their athletic pack, all of whom showed deft skills with ball in hand Friday at the captain's run at Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground.

"We need to compete for the full 80 minutes and need to be ready, as Super Rugby is a lot more physical than Top League," Brown said.

There are questions, however, over how prepared the Sunwolves are, with the team having not played a single warm-up game.

Brown said while it was challenging to go into the competition cold, the team had "put together a game plan and now need to go out and execute."

Much of what they do with the ball will revolve around flyhalf Robbie Robinson, who is not only playing his first game of Super Rugby in four years but also has a couple of debutants either side of him in captain Yutaka Nagare and inside center Ryoto Nakamura.

He also has to mark a player who will be one of the fans' favorites Saturday, despite playing for the opposition.

Christian Lealiifano is making his full-time Super Rugby return following a successful fight against leukemia, an illness that saw him forego a contract with Suntory Sungoliath in 2016-2017.

"It's special to be playing rugby again and in Japan," Lealiifano said. "I've had fantastic support here through my journey and recovering from illness. So it will be a special time running out in front of the fans here."

Lealiifano leads a side packed with proven talent including hard-running backs Tevita Kuridrani and Henry Speight.

And with a number of the coaching staff well versed in Japanese rugby, the Canberra-based team are as prepared as they can be, given they had no footage of any pre-season games by the Sunwolves.

"(Brumbies assistant coach) Peter Hewat has some knowledge of the players and the style of rugby they play and that's been helpful," Lealiifano said of the former Suntory player and assistant coach.

"He brings a lot to our attack and we are looking forward to putting it out there tomorrow."

Hewat told Kyodo News, "There has been a change in mindset (at the Brumbies). We want to use the ball a lot more and be dangerous in unstructured play."

In the one and only meeting between the two sides, the Brumbies won 66-5 back in May 2016.

This, however, is a very different Sunwolves team with their third coach in as many years and 15 debutants in the 23-man squad.

"The Brumbies are a tough team, so having a challenger mindset and never being mentally defeated by the opponent is the most important thing," Nagare said.