Tom Carter will captain Sydney University this weekend. Photo: AJF Photography

by Brendan Bradford –

By coach Haig Sare’s own admission, the Rats have gone off the boil in their two matches since beating Manly at Rat Park in Round 16. A 32-22 loss to Randwick two weeks ago, followed by a 37-3 defeat to Eastwood isn’t the form you want to be taking into the finals.

“The boys are down a little bit on confidence, we’ve had two losses after a big one against Manly but the boys are looking to turn it around and we’ll be up for it for sure,” said Sare.

“We’ve had that pressure for a while and these blokes have had to scrap for every victory so pressure in tight games is nothing new to them and hopefully that’ll work in our favour.”

The Rats also have a great record against Uni recently and beat the Students 31-30 earlier in the season.

“This is another home game against Uni, so hopefully the crowds will come back because we let them down last week,” said Sare.

“We always get up for Uni and it’s semi-finals time so there’s that extra motivation and we’ll definitely be looking to replicate what we did against Manly.”

Uni coach Chris Malone knows what awaits his team at Pittwater and says the Rats will be up for the challenge.

“They had a great win against us up there last time around and are coming off a couple of losses but it’ll be a whole new level of intensity this time around,” said Malone.

“Being a semi at home and being their 50th year, it’s going to be very difficult for our guys to go up there and get the job done. I think they’ll get a huge crowd which will be good for the game and good for all the guys.”

While the Rats are coming off a couple of losses, Uni’s last outing was an 85-19 thrashing of Easts and Malone is unsure whether that’s good preparation or not.

“Obviously it’s going to be a different kettle of fish this weekend,” he said.

“Last week gave us an opportunity to work on some of our attacking game which we’ve shown glimpses of but haven’t put together for the 80 minutes, but then there’s the added risk of people thinking that’s how easy points will come. We’re going to find out that’s not the case on Saturday.”

Fullback Angus Roberts will play for the Students for the rest of the season after finishing up with the Rebels while Tom Carter will captain the side from inside centre.

Sare named a familiar looking line-up to the one he’s fielded all season but will be boosted by the inclusion of experienced second-rower Cam Treloar.

Sydney University: 1. Tomas Robertson, 2. Gerard Ellis, 3. Sam Talakai, 4. Thomas Boidin, 5. Jordan Chapman, 6. Samuel Quinn, 7. David Hickey, 8. Hugo Dessens, 9. Jock Merriman, 10. Daniel Kelly, 11. Henry Clunies-Ross, 12. Tom Carter (c), 13. Jim Stewart, 14. James Dargaville, 15. Angus Roberts.  

Warringah: 1. Richard Southan, 2. Luke Holmes (c), 3. Wayne Borsak, 4. Cameron Treloar, 5. Vincent Wright, 6. Martin Collins, 7. Boyd Killingworth, 8. Samuel Ward, 9. Joshua Holmes, 10. Hamish Angus, 11. Bradley Dixon, 12. Tui Tuisavaii, 13. Michael Adams, 14. Sireli Tagicakibau, 15. David Feltscheer.  

Referee: Ed Martin