NSW must lift against Brumbies: Hoiles

Former Brumbies captain Stephen Hoiles says his inconsistent NSW Waratahs team needs to improve their attitude and lift mentally and technically for a potential season-defining Super Rugby battle against his old side.

Defending champions NSW go into Sunday’s match in Sydney 10 points behind the Australian conference-leading Brumbies having played a game less than the Canberra-based franchise.

The Tahs have a 2-2 record, but have conceded a four-try bonus point in three of their four games.

The Waratahs excelled defensively last season and backrower Hoiles felt it was more a case of individual lapses that were the problem this season, rather than anything structural or different.

“It’s kind of a good summary of where we are at, at the moment, because a lot of defence is about attitude and we’re probably just off a little bit there,” Hoiles told AAP.

“Technically we can improve and probably mentally we can certainly add a little bit more focus to our game, so that’s what we are looking at this week.”

He said it wasn’t so much the mistakes, but how quickly they reacted after turning over possession.

Hoiles, who spent several seasons with the Brumbies, acknowledged the importance of Sunday’s game to the Waratahs.

“They will be pretty confident and that will make it harder for us,” Hoiles said.

“But we probably need something like that at the moment. We need a big challenge.

“We let ourselves down last weekend and we’ve been a little bit patchy so far, so it’s certainly our biggest challenge.”

While a loss could leave the Tahs trailing the Brumbies by as much as 15 points on the table, Hoiles stressed his team wasn’t obsessed with ladder position.

“We don’t really look too far ahead or look at the ladder at this stage of the season,” Hoiles said.

“Not even necessarily from a points point of view, but just from a performance point of view we need to start putting some really good form together.

“We do it for 20, 40, 60 minutes but we need to be able to do it for 80 minutes and against the Brumbies, I think this will be our best test.”

Former Wallaby forward Hoiles isn’t fretting over being used off the bench this season, saying he trusts the judgment of coach Michael Cheika.

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