Waratahs captain Phil Waugh has warned his troops to brace for a second-half onslaught in Saturday's Super 14 clash against the winless Sharks at the SFS, after coach John Plumtree dropped several of his stars to the bench.
Regular scrumhalf Rory Kockott, hooker Bismarck du Plessis and prop Tendai 'Beast' Mtawarira will all warm the pine from the opening whistle after the coach wielded the axe.
But a suspicious Waugh believes the Sharks' bizarre team selection is all part of a cunning plan designed to break their recent habit of falling in a heap late in games.
"It's interesting and I think the guys they've got on the bench will come into the game pretty early," Waugh said at Waratahs training on Friday.
"If you look at the history of their games recently they've been in the games for the first 60-65 minutes and then fallen away at the end, so perhaps having that depth on the bench for them and bringing them into the game for that back-end of the game will work for them."
The reshuffle sees Ruan Pienaar shift from flyhalf to scrumhalf allowing former England international Andy Goode to earn his first Super rugby start in the No.10 jumper, while the visitors will also field a new-look front row that includes Springboks Deon Carstens, John Smit and Jannie du Plessis.
Waugh expects the widespread personnel changes will result in a highly physical encounter, and admits he remains wary of the visitors despite the fact the men from Durban have scored just one try in three matches.
"I think it'll be pretty combative, obviously the forward pack's a big forward pack with strong ball runners, and bringing (Ruan) Pienaar in at No.9 he'll be looking to run around the ruck a little bit and obviously Andy Goode can direct their team around the field," he said.
"They're a dangerous side, obviously after three losses first up they'll be desperate, and I think we've got to be fairly desperate as well in the way we play."
"I think we played pretty desperate last week and didn't get the result so this week's a big game for both teams. It's shaping up for a huge clash, obviously we both need a victory and both sides will be extremely desperate."
Meanwhile, Waugh reinforced his side's commitment to playing an attacking style of game after showing promising signs with ball-in-hand in last week's 38-48 loss to the Bulls.
"We got a lot of confidence out of last week's game in Pretoria and we just need to move forward, so we're looking to play a highly skilled game of rugby," he said.
"That's the way we want to play the game and that's the way we scored points and scored tries last week and we want to continue playing that way."
"It's about executing the skill well and not necessarily throwing the ball from side to side, it's about executing what you do well."