Just like Wednesday night at the same venue, it will be state against state and mate against mate, as the Waratahs look to stitch up a finals berth with victory in the last round encounter.
Nothing less will be good enough for the Waratahs and coach Chris Hickey and centre Tom Carter on Thursday urged all their fans to get behind them.
"If we can get a good crowd behind us and plenty of support, like you saw last night at Origin with the Blues, I think we can get the job done," Hickey said.
"The reality is, if we don't perform on Saturday night, that's the end of our season.
"Saturday night will be a matter of doing whatever needs to be done to get the result we're looking for."
Hickey is a former Brumbies assistant coach and knows his former club will be looking to end their own season in style by ending the Waratahs' tilt.
"I'm sure it will be running around in some people's heads there," he said.
"It may not be their prime motivation and they're coming off the back of two really good wins, so they're bringing a lot of momentum into this game."
Carter, a three-try hero in the 33-7 win over the Highlanders last Saturday night, says there is never any love lost in Waratahs-Brumbies duels.
"They don't like us," he said.
"You only have to speak to Burgo (Waratahs half-back Luke Burgess) and Hangers (fly half Daniel Halangahu), who spent a bit of time down there in Brumbyland for a while.
"We know they're going to be out there to put an end to our season. They're claiming that it's not about that, but it definitely is.
"The reality is that the Brumbies and Waratahs derbies are pretty spiteful and there's a lot of passion there.
"The way we won our last game in Canberra (in the last minutes) as well, I think, will be in the back of their minds.
"It's an all-or-nothing game and we realise that if we don't win this week, then our season is judged by that.
"If you don't make the finals, it's not good enough, so we're under no illusions."
With Berrick Barnes taking the rest of the Super Rugby season off to recover from footballer's migraine, Carter will move to inside centre with Ryan Cross to start outside him after overcoming a knee injury.
Skipper Phil Waugh (hamstring), Benn Robinson (ankle) and Tatafu Polota-Nau (knee) once again sat out training on Thursday, but Hickey expects all three to participate in Friday's captain's run and be ready come kick-off.
Although the Waratahs enter the final round in seventh position, victory would guarantee them a play-off spot due to either the fifth-placed Bulls or sixth-placed Sharks dropping out of contention after their all-South African derby in Durban on Sunday morning (AEST).
- AAP
Tags: sport, rugby-union, super-14, sydney-2000 First posted June 16, 2011 15:54:00
No comments:
Post a Comment