hree teams are left fighting for two positions in the Southern Inland top six but one Wagga club will miss out after Saturday’s action packed final round before the competition splits.
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The equation is simple – win and you’re in – but there’s a few more factors that could make things harder.
In two all-Wagga clashes Ag College tackles Wagga City while CSU and Waratahs face off.
The winner of the latter clash is guaranteed to finish at least fifth but if f Ag College loses it will only the door for both Reddies and Waratahs to qualify.
However Aggies coach Nick McCarthy believes he has his team primed to take their last chance.
“We understand the position we are in now," McCarthy said.
“We worked hard on Tuesday night at trying to be more composed when we are in an attacking position and just making the right choices.
“We’ve proved this year when we execute we have the points in us that we need and our defensive work has kept us in an nearly every game we’ve played this season.
“We are hoping this weekend is the time where things start to go in the right direction.”
Ag College just scrapped into the premier division last season and find themselves in the same position 12 months on.
With a lot of fresh faces and a new coaching staff this year, expectations were high but they’ve failed to deliver.
Ag College had the chance to seal its premier division berth against Tumut last week but didn’t have enough fire power to tame the Bulls.
With the pressure mounting, Aggies made a number errors and went away from the game plan but McCarthy expects better against Wagga City.
“We came up just short against a pretty good rugby side,” McCarthy said.
“With Tino (Manuelvao) they’ve got the ability to turn the scoreboard over and they did that well on us in the second half when the game was in the balance and we stuggled to turn it over with them.”
The Boiled Lollies have lost its last three to slip out of contention for the premier division but could still be the thorn in Ag College’s side.
Tanian Naude returns for the clash which will be a big boost.
The coach is looking for him to step up.
“Tanian is back in the forwards and was immense for against Cootamundra and we will be asking him to do the same job for us this weekend," McCarthy said.
McCarthy believes his forwards need to step up to take away the impact of Rambo Lagaali early.
