Former Western Force and current Waratahs lock Fergus Lee-Warner knows he must put any personal feelings aside if he wishes to keep the club’s finals hopes alive.
Lee-Warner is a cult hero of the Force, claiming the 2020 Nathan Sharpe Medal in their return to Super Rugby competition.
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The 31-year-old got a taste of being the enemy in the west in 2024 but the stakes are even higher this time around.
The Waratahs must win to stay in touch with the top six. They are six points behind Moana Pasifika, who face the Chiefs this week.
Victory would then set up a winner-takes-all match with the Blues should the Ardie Savea-led Moana lose again to the fifth-place Hurricanes, who are at their own risk of dropping out of finals contention with a loss to the Reds.
“It'll be strictly business for myself. We just want to go out and put in a performance that we can come off the field and be happy with,” Lee-Warner said.
“Definitely believe the finals are within grasp. We just need to put in two good performances to finish off the season, then the cards will fall where they will.”
The Force are out of finals contention after last week’s loss to the Fijian Drua but there are still plenty of Test hopefuls that can significantly further their case with a strong performance on Saturday.
“I think their big goal would be to ruin our season,” Lee-Warner believes.
“They're definitely going to throw some tricks at us. They've got nothing to lose, they can't make finals now, so they'll want to come and upset our run home.”
Lee-Warner is fresh off bringing up 50th Super Rugby games after a long injury process left him on the sidelines for the majority of this season.
“It was a pretty special moment for me. I don’t think too much about personal achievements but to able to finish your career and say you’ve played 50 games of Super Rugby is nice,” he added.
“I didn't want to do the whole year of just rehabbing, it's not the reason you play. So my motivation was just to get back playing and I was lucky that Dan backed me and threw me back in against the Reds in that dogfight after a week of Shute Shield.”
