KEY POINTS:
The wild, bulging eyes of captain Phil Waugh will poke out the top of a sky blue jersey for the hundredth time tonight when the Waratahs host the Sharks in the second Super 14 semifinal.
Waugh, the archetypal war-horse flanker, has seen it all since making his Waratahs
debut in 2000.
Almost.
One thing he's never seen is a Waratahs captain holding the Super 14 trophy aloft at the end of a triumphant campaign. The closest the Sydney team has come to the title was three years ago, when they made the big show but went down with a whimper to the Crusaders in Christchurch.
Another finals campaign followed in 2006 but that one was snuffed out even quicker, by the Hurricanes in a Wellington semifinal.
Tonight, after rebounding from a 2007 campaign when they finished second-last, Waugh and his vastly experienced forward pack have another shot at redemption.
Waugh is banking on the experience gained in defeat by pack stalwarts Adam Freier, Al Baxter, Dan Vickerman, Rocky Elsom and Matt Dunning to prove the difference against the resurgent Sharks. All of that mob have well in excess of 50 Super Rugby caps.
"The most important thing is for those experienced guys to play well and lead everyone else," Waugh said. "It makes it a lot easier for the less experienced guys to play when the older heads are showing the way and performing themselves.
"It's also about having the confidence to play how we've been playing all year and take risks when they're worth taking and knowing that the team is behind you, and, above all else, having that confidence to back yourself and know the team is standing behind you."
Neither team has a flash finals record but the Sharks will need to rewrite history if they are to deny the Waratahs a place in the final. No South African team has won a playoff match outside the republic since the Sharks' forebears, Natal, downed the Reds 43-25 in Brisbane in the competition's very first semifinal in 1996.
Since then South African sides are 0-9 outside of Africa. That fact won't be lost on the Sharks and, having lost last year's final at home to the Bulls by a single point, they will also be chasing redemption.
They have been in hot form, running in 12 tries in two games, and have recalled fit-again points machine Francois Steyn to second five-eighths. Epi Taione, the Tongan international who was banned for six weeks after being sent off for headbutting Hurricanes lock Jeremy Thrush, is also back on the bench.
Having seen his side towelled up in Sydney once already this season - 25-10 in round 11 - Sharks coach Dick Muir knows they must improve significantly.
"The Waratahs were probably the only side that gave us a hiding this year," Muir said. "They out-muscled us in the breakdown, and showed themselves to be a side who retain the ball well. We went there wanting to play a certain way and they beat us that way." There is a fair amount of disquiet in the Sharks camp about the appointment of Kiwi Bryce Lawrence to referee the match. Lawrence was a central figure when the Sharks suffered their first defeat of the season in Canberra in round 10, sinbinning Ryan Kankowski and Steyn within moments of each other as the visitors coughed up an 18-7 lead.
Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie has made two changes to the team that defeated the Reds in Brisbane last week, with Rob Horne and Adam Freier moving back into the starting line-up.
Matt Carraro shifts back to the bench, while Al Manning joins the squad as the backup hooker after Tatafu Polota-Nau was ruled out with a hand injury earlier this week.
McKenzie said he had gone with his most-experienced players and most-trusted combinations.
"Those combinations have performed in the big games; this is a big game so we're confident the players and combinations which have done the job already can do it again [tonight]."