The Brumbies are refusing to treat Sunday's clash with the desperate Melbourne Rebels as a dead rubber, despite having already wrapped up second spot and a home preliminary final.
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While the Rebels must win to retain their grip on third spot, the Brumbies are no longer able to haul in runaway leaders Queensland, who they'll need to beat in Brisbane next month to retain their Super Rugby AU crown.
And with a final-round bye following the Rebels game the Brumbies could be forgiven for subconsciously relinquishing focus this weekend, but hooker Lachlan Lonergan said all of his side's attention was on doing the job against Melbourne.
"It's Super Rugby, you look forward to every game you play, everyone's pushing each other for spots, everyone wants to play," Lonergan said.
"It'd be good for everyone's mindset going into the finals with a good win under our belt. You don't want to lose games, every weekend we go out there and want to win.
"They need to win, we're still looking to win. We need a win after coming off that loss on the weekend, it's going to be a physical game like it always is.
"We've just got to stick to our game, do what we do best which is playing typical Brumbies footy. If we do that we should come away with a win."
Lonergan was in Sydney earlier this week as part of a 40-man Wallabies camp.
"It was good fun, light little trainings, little stuff behind the scenes, getting to know everyone," Lonergan said.
"Dave [Rennie] has got a different way, even just his catch pass stuff's completely different. I'll take a lot out of that and put it to what I've learned here as well, just the little things to improve my game."
The Brumbies were put through an intense field session on Wednesday and will train at their UC base on Saturday morning before flying to Melbourne.
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Dan McKellar's side is still reeling from the controversial loss to Queensland in Brisbane last week which cost them any chance of finishing top, and hosting a home final.
With seconds remaining, Referee Nic Berry raised his hand as if he was going to blow a penalty to the Brumbies for hands in the ruck, which would've given McKellar's side a shot at goal to win the game.
But he lowered his hand after seemingly changing his mind, and the Reds closed out the game.
Had the Brumbies finished top, they would've had to endure a three-week gap between games heading into the final.
"It's that dilemma isn't it, you don't know if it's a good thing to have a rest or not, we would've had a few weeks off if that had have eventuated," assistant coach Rod Seib said.
"There's pros and cons around that. As we move forward we're in a good position there of having a week's rest before we get into a playoff final."
Seib said a relaxed mindset wouldn't be a factor against the Rebels.
"We know that the Rebels are physically very good, they're really good at contact area, their line speed is fantastic, defensively they're going to throw a lot at us," Seib said.
"From an attack perspective we need to make sure we're really sharp, our execution needs to be right on."
James Buckley
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
James is a Queanbeyan boy enjoying his second stint at the Canberra Times, more than eight years on from his first. In between he's traveled the world, and spent time covering sport in Sydney.
