The New South Wales Waratahs and Wellington Hurricanes will face traditional stumbling blocks as they attempt to secure play-off places on Friday in Super 12 rugby.
The 11th — and second-last — regular round of the competition serves up a number of derby contests that will determine how the six teams in play-off contention compress themselves into four semifinal places.
The Waratahs have a chance to make the play-offs for only the second time in 10 years — and confirm a home semifinal — when they host the archrival Queensland Reds.
The teams are separated by 19 points and seven places on the championship table. But New South Wales has historical baggage to deal with — the Waratahs haven’t beaten the Reds in nine Super 12 meetings.
And those eight losses and a draw over the years have often belied the teams’ respective placings on the table.
Coach Ewen McKenzie has given the Waratahs a light week, training only once since Saturday’s impressive win over the Otago Highlanders at Carisbrook. He wants his players to be mentally prepared for the much-hyped ”State of the Union” match.
The ninth-place Reds are using the game as a chance to retrieve some pride from a disappointing season. The Sydney match is a sellout and the Reds have attempted to engage the Waratahs in a distracting war of words, billing them ahead of the match as the ”Choke-a-tahs.”
Wallabies winger Ben Tune, who is likely to start for Queensland after overcoming a shoulder strain, said the Reds would use their history of success in the interstate match to pressure the Waratahs.
If they could restrict their scoring early in the match ”they’ll start to think ‘are we goners again’?” Tune said.
Queensland captain John Roe said defensive pressure would be essential.
”We’ve got to be in their faces like there are 20 of us out there,” he said. ”And we have to belt them every time they get the ball.”
Waratahs captain Chris Whittaker, who passed 100 Super 12 games last week, said New South Wales had been guilty in the past of letting the hype around the Reds game distract them.
”I suppose maybe we’ve been guilty of being too switched on for it [in past years] with all the hype, and going away from all the rest, and that’s playing football,” Whittaker said.
The Hurricanes, in third place after last week’s win over the ACT Brumbies which ruled the defending champions out of the title race, face a similar psychological stumbling block against the Blues.
Wellington has never beaten Auckland in Super 12 and must do so on Friday to clear their path to the semifinals.
Hurricanes captain Tana Umaga, who will be making his 100th Super 12 appearance, said it would be ideal to mark the milestone with a win.
Victory in the Eden Park match will prevent the Hurricanes from having to beat the Canterbury Crusaders in the last regular round to confirm their semifinal place.
”It’s going to be a proud moment for me and my family. First and foremost we have to concentrate on our game and the Blues,” Umaga said. ”If we get this one we are pretty secure for the semifinals and that’s been our major goal.”
The Crusaders and Otago meet in Dunedin on Saturday in a South Island derby between teams placed second and fourth in the championship.
The Highlanders, with 27 points, have to win to hold off challenges from the Blues and South Africa’s Bulls for a place in the top four while the Crusaders, with a bonus-point win, could seal a home semifinal.
The Bulls beat the Blues last week to move to 25 points and sixth place and will edge closer to the play-offs if they can beat the Sharks at Durban on Saturday.
In matches on Saturday that are unlikely to affect the semifinals, the Brumbies host the Waikato Chiefs at Canberra and the Stormers play the Cats at Cape Town. – Sapa-AP