The New South Wales Waratahs face the ultimate dilemma in their final Super Rugby clash of the regular season against the Auckland Blues at Eden Park, knowing they not only need to win, but win well to ensure themselves of advancing to the playoffs.
The problem, however, is if they play the game chasing the bonus point, they could well end up on the wrong end of a big defeat, as the ACT Brumbies found out last week in Auckland.
“To go there with a mindset that we’re just going to play helter-skelter rugby would be foolish,” Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson told reporters in Sydney yesterday.
“Our first priority is to win the game and then search for that bonus point.”
The message should resonate.
The Waratahs are second in the Australian conference, locked on 39 points, the same as the Brumbies, who face the last-placed Western Force in Canberra tomorrow.
Only one of the two sides will advance to the quarter-finals as the winner of the Australian conference with the Waikato Chiefs (51), Canterbury Crusaders (50), Otago Highlanders (48) and Wellington Hurricanes (48) having locked up four of the five places available to the Australasian group.
Despite Gibson’s reservations, the Waratahs have looked the most dangerous of the five Australian teams in Super Rugby this season, with their players looking to put team mates into space by off-loading in the tackle.
That approach had paid some dividends for the 2014 champions, notably a 45-25 victory over the Waikato Chiefs before the June international break, though flyhalf Bernard Foley was aware they needed to be more effective.
“There’s a couple of times we’ve probably let teams off the hook by playing that sort of style,” Foley told reporters.
“But it’s something we’ve been persisting with and it’s something we’re not going to shy away from.”
Foley, however, was well aware that if they did not get their defensive pattern and structures right they could suffer the same fate as the Brumbies, who lost 40-15 against the Blues last week.
“I think the Blues can really feed off the crowd atmosphere, especially when they play an attractive style of rugby,” he added.
“That’s where we’ve talked about our defensive systems and our structures in nullifying their attacking threats and in that regard you take away the crowd.”
The Brumbies will have the luxury of knowing exactly what they need to do when they face the Force about 24 hours after the Waratahs’ game.
They were, however, taking nothing for granted.
“If we don’t turn up especially this weekend it could be the end of it for us,” prop Scott Sio told the Brumbies’ website.
“We’re going to have to make sure that our execution across the board is good.”
While the New Zealand sides have already sealed their playoffs spots, the fact they play each other this weekend will ultimately determine their final finishing places.
The Crusaders host the Hurricanes in Christchurch in the early game on Saturday before the Chiefs travel to Dunedin for their clash against the Highlanders.
The table-topping Lions have already sealed the African group and have rested several players for their trip to Buenos Aires, which could backfire if they don’t secure a win against the Jaguares.
Any one of the four New Zealand sides could overtake them as top qualifier and secure home advantage for the final.
The Sharks (39) hold the advantage for the wildcard from the African group as they face the last-placed Sunwolves, though they could still be overtaken by the Bulls (37), who are away to the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.