Warringah Rats coach Mark Gerrard has dismissed suggestions that his side won’t be able to match Sydney University at scrum time in Saturday’s grand final. 

Gerrard acknowledged that the University forward pack was impressive on paper, he said he was confident his big men will hold their own at Bankwest Stadium. 

“Everyone said that we’d struggle against Eastwood, so I guess I’ll let you take what you want from that. 

“We’ve heard the same things all year but our guys have lifted at scrum time when they’ve needed to and I’m confident they’ll do that again this week.”

The Rats produced their best scrummaging performance of the season in last weekend’s preliminary final against an Eastwood side who statistically had the best scrum all season. 

Uni and Warringah’s scrums ranked second and ninth respectively but Gerrard said that numbers won’t mean anything on Saturday. 

“Don’t get me wrong, they’ve got a red hot scrum and a forward pack full of Super Rugby players but we’re confident in the group we’ve got, both starting and coming off the bench,” he said. 

“I reckon our scrum is as least as valuable as theirs and to be honest I wouldn’t swap any of our guys for theirs if I had the option.”

The former Wallaby said it wasn’t difficult to work out what Sydney Uni would throw at them this weekend. 

“We know they’re going to be physical and abrasive and we’re looking forward to that. 

“Before our session last night, I spoke to the boys about enjoying the physical side of the game because that’s why we play rugby and that’s what we need to do to beat Uni this weekend. 

“The teams that have performed well against them this year have taken them on up front. They’ve been physical and their set piece has been strong and I’m confident we can do both.”