KEY POINTS:
Ewen McKenzie has got to like the omen. After all, the last time regional rugby administrators in Australia had the temerity/courage/good sense/stupidity/guts/gutlessness to flick their coach mid-season, the team went on to win the Super rugby title.
That was 2004 and seemingly on the back of player power (and Brumbies player power was not insignificant), David Nucifora was given his DCNS (Don't Come Next Season).
The Brumbies beat the Crusaders in that final and Nucci had a trophy but no job. He found a job, is now en route to another, and will always be linked to the history of that trophy.
Is the same thing in store then for the man universally known as "Link"?
The Waratahs of 2008 don't quite have the rugby royalty of the 2004 vintage Brumbies, but anybody who underestimates the team and the coach (the NSW board included), is setting themselves up for ridicule.
They might not be the Harlem Globetrotters but nor are they anybody's fools. For all the brashness, bravado and big talking often associated with Sydney, McKenzie's Waratahs are a working man's team with similar values.
Work hard, get the basics right, have a bit of fun if you're not risking the house, and grind away until you get a decent pension or win Lotto.
To snare Super 14s equivalent of the latter, they will need the favour of the odd bouncing ball and refereeing interpretation - but that's no different from what the supporters of the other contenders will be seeking.
The Waratahs strength is that they don't have major weaknesses, and apart from the experienced personnel who have no excuse for not handling the pressure, they have a couple of players in key positions who look as if they're ready for the big time.
Unless he flips out over the next fortnight, Luke Burgess should be rewarded for his 2008 form with a Wallaby No 9 jersey while flyhalf Kurtley Beale is truly improving every game. He's not the full package yet, but he's dangerous and getting tougher with every outing. The members of the New South Wales scrum that hurt the Reds last week are nominating Sharks prop Tendai "Beast" Mtawarira as the key man they have to overcome to ensure victory, but front row types would say that, wouldn't they?
You'd rather be in charge at scrum time than not, but there are other names like Pienaar, Steyn, Kockott and Kankowski who could make life uncomfortable if the Waratahs key figures aren't at their best.
Ben Perkins, the slightly eccentric but very astute former Wallaby kicking coach, wrote this about the Sharks. "They are big, fearless, good defenders, and they lost what they should have won last year. That is important to remember."
He is spot on. Bad memories can extract mighty efforts and the Waratahs are the first step in the Sharks search for 2007 redemption.
On the one hand a grand final win snatched away, on the other a board that wrote off its own team mid-season. If you want to bring recent history into the motivation of either side, there's no chance of these teams turning up tonight anything less than ready.
* Andrew Slack is a former Wallaby captain.
