The NSW Waratahs are refusing to talk finals football despite continuing on their impressive roll towards the Super Rugby playoffs with a gritty win over the stumbling Brumbies.
NSW’s 28-22 triumph earned the Waratahs three straight wins for the first time in three years, bumped the Brumbies off the top of the ladder and raised the possibility of three Australian sides qualifying for the finals.
The Waratahs remain eighth on the table, but only three points adrift of the top six, after backing up victories over the defending champion Chiefs and last year’s runners-up the Stormers with yet another backs-to-the-wall comeback win.
For the second week running, Wallabies playmaker Berrick Barnes came off the bench to spark a second-half revival and winger Peter Betham clinched victory with a converted try six minutes from fulltime at ANZ Stadium.
But resigned to being without Tatafu Polota-Nau for possibly the rest of the tournament after the Wallabies hooker suffered a suspected broken arm, coach Michael Cheika continues to play down NSW’s finals prospects.
“Look, we’re still from what I can gather, well down the ladder and we’re trying hard to become competitive,” Cheika said.
“I’ve learnt as a coach that predicting all that stuff only leads to disappointment. There’s no point in me predicting it.
“It’s about planning for our next game and trying to get it right because, if I predict it and it’s wrong, I look like a goose.”
Both coach and captain Dave Dennis are focusing solely on the Waratahs’ next must-win derby on Friday night in Melbourne against the Rebels, who are brimming with confidence after downing the Stormers 30-21.
“It’s a very, very important game for us on Friday,” Dennis said. “It’s a big game and they’ll be up for it.
“Until we’re in that finals position at the end of rounds, we probably won’t be talking much about the finals.”
Cheika acknowledged Polota-Nau was “pretty crook” and likely to be sidelined for six weeks or more.
“Hopefully he’s not, but we’re preparing for that situation,” he said.
Table toppers for most of the season, the Brumbies have now lost three of their past eight matches and risk missing the finals in a repeat of last year’s late-rounds fadeout.
But coach Jake White and captain Ben Mowen remain upbeat, believing they retain control of their own destiny.
“All the work’s been banked. We’ve done the work, we’ve got the belief. We’ve just got to tap back into that,” Mowen said.
“For the first 55 minutes, it was really good. That’s exactly how we want to play, up tempo, put pressure on sides through our defence.
“We got two tries from really strong field position and we probably let the foot off the gas.
“We feel in a good space. But we’re certainly not going to gloss over the fact that the game was in the balance and we didn’t take it.”
But like the Waratahs, the Brumbies are likely to be without a forward trump for the rest of the season after champion flanker George Smith sustained a suspected a medial knee ligament strain.