Buoyed by the signing of Wallabies drawcard Kurtley Beale and their own emerging players Nick Phipps and Hugh Pyle, confidence is high in the Melbourne Rebels camp.
Those signatures mark a momentous time for Melbourne, which faces the Highlanders on Friday night at AAMI Park after chalking up its first away win of the season, against the Western Force in Perth.
There had been whispers that the impressive Phipps was in the Waratahs' sights as a replacement for France-bound Wallabies half Luke Burgess.
Tipped by some critics to go through their debut season winless, the Rebels have already done enough to convince that trio of talented youngsters their future is bright in Melbourne.
Veteran Mark Gerrard says the last-ditch win against the Force had boosted the belief of the players.
"It means belief," said Gerrard, who will play in the centres with Richard Kingi at full-back.
"What happened over in Perth when we did beat the Force was a whole amount of belief to know that we can do it, and we didn't even play that well.
"The boys are a lot more confident than what we have been, it's a real morale boost to know that we can win away from home."
Like the Rebels, The Highlanders are also third in their Super Rugby conference, but have five wins to the Rebels' three from eight rounds and are pre-match favourites with the bookmakers.
That comes despite the impressive record of the Rebels at AAMI Park.
Apart from their huge opening round loss to the Waratahs they have won two and narrowly lost a third there.
"They (the Highlanders) were obviously playing quite good in the first four to five rounds and have fallen away in the past few weeks apart from their win over the Brumbies," Gerrard said.
"They present a whole new different dynamic ball game to how we've been preparing for other sides.
"They're pretty clinical and they're pretty hard at the breakdown so we're going to have to be switched on."
- AAP
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