Queensland Reds skipper James Horwill says his side have no doubts heading into the Super Rugby final with the Crusaders despite being branded as underdogs.
The Reds are the Cinderella story of the 2011 season. They finished minor premiers, have lost just once at Suncorp Stadium this season and came out on top when the sides clashed earlier in the year, but the bookies have installed the Crusaders as clear favourites to take out their eighth Super Rugby title.
Just over 24 hours out from one of the biggest matches in the franchise's history, Horwill said the Reds had enjoyed proving people wrong all season and were fully confident that a top-draw performance would see them cap their incredible year in style.
"(Being considered underdogs is) with the bookies. We're confident that we can go out and do the job that we need to do, but I guess the public out there see it otherwise," he said.
"I think the players have been working hard this year to put perceptions of the team that were different."
"We've been putting things to bed throughout the whole year and ticking boxes the whole way. I guess we've still got area to make up there."
"In the end, the bookies' prices don't make a difference to us whatsoever. We don't really pay attention to that."
"It's about going out there tomorrow night and putting our best performance of the year on the park to get the result."
"We're certainly not going out there with any sort of doubt, we're going out there to play rugby and that's the way that we've been successful this year, so that's what we're planning to do."
Earlier in the week coach Ewen McKenzie claimed he would rather go in as favourite, and the Reds certainly appear to have taken some affront at the gap in the betting lines, but the captain was taking nothing away from their Saturday night opponents.
In every area of the game the Crusaders are among the best in the competition.
Their scrum has the power to move mountains, their playmaker Dan Carter is still the code's top dog and their backline sparkles with All Black talent.
Horwill lauded the opposition and admitted that to an extent every side in Super Rugby attempted to emulate aspects of their game.
"I think most teams in the comp throughout the years have modelled parts of their game on what the Crusaders have done," he said.
"Obviously they've been so successful, so they've been successful for a reason."
"There are parts of our game that you could say are similar to the way the Crusaders like to counter-attack off spilt ball and things like that."
"With the attacking weapons that both teams have and the ability to make something from nothing that both teams have, there's every chance that it could be a very entertaining game of rugby, like the last time we played here."