Waratahs refreshed but wary after bye

Posted May 17, 2011 12:26:00

New South Wales coach Chris Hickey is confident there will be no repeat of the shocking performance last time the Waratahs came off a Super Rugby bye when they meet the Lions on Saturday.

The Waratahs were beaten by the Cheetahs 23-3 in round five after a round four bye, handing the South African franchise its first win of the season.

This week they play the bottom-placed Lions, who are coming off their second win of the season, a 29-20 victory over the Brumbies in Canberra.

Hickey believes the bye has been good for the injury-hit Waratahs after their scrappy 20-15 win over the Western Force in round 12 but admits having the week off does have its challenges.

"There's lot of ways you can manage the bye and all the key physical indicators that we measure indicate that the bye has been really good for the players both physically and mentally," he said.

"They're quite refreshed, training yesterday was as good as we've trained ... coming off the bye you probably have to be a little bit more focused.

"You learn your lessons throughout this competition and coming off the last bye we didn't perform as well as we would have liked to.

"Players learn a lesson from that and I'm sure it won't be an issue on Saturday night."

- AAP

Tags: sport, rugby-union, super-14, australia, nsw, sydney-2000

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