Waratahs forward Jed Holloway says this week’s Wallabies camp won’t disrupt their derby preparation as all four Aussie teams begin their weeks without their Test stars.
The Wallabies are holding their first in-season camp of 2019, ahead of September’s world cup, with roughly 40 players in camp together until Tuesday.
While all the Super Rugby teams agreed to the plans in the preseason, it leaves the four franchises with limited time to train together ahead of round five.
The Waratahs and Brumbies will have one and a half days together before their clash while the Rebels Wallabies will join them in South Africa on Wednesday morning, AEDT and the Reds' contingent will meet up with the rest of the Queensland squad in Tokyo mid-week.
It could be the Rebels who are most impacted when it comes to selection, with coach Dave Wessels saying the travel delay could impact his selection decisions in the first week of a two-leg Africa tour.
Lock Matt Philip is the only Rebels Wallabies contender under an injury cloud, yet to leave for Africa and was not in Test camp on the weekend, after undergoing treatment for an infected foot.
Philip initially played through the injury against the Brumbies, coming off just after half-time in their 29-26 win.
The Rebels take on the Lions on Sunday morning (AEDT) before taking on the Sharks in Durban in round six.
Holloway said the changes wouldn’t affect his side too much ahead of the Canberra clash, with only minor tweaks on the cards for NSW this week.
“It'll be a challenge but the coaches are setting us up, I think our week's changed. We'll train today and back in on Wednesday and Thursday with the whole group.
“We'll get a couple of full sessions to be able to get through our reps but we're at a point in our season where no, we're not going to change too much in our game.
“You probably saw on the weekend that we don't really need to in terms of if we focus on ourselves, we'll just keep on building on that and hopefully get the result.”
With the Emerging Waratahs taking on the Brumby Runners ahead of the Super Rugby on Friday, Holloway said there would be more opportunities for the next generation to step up in training.
“Feels like preseason again actually with all the Wallabies boys missing but it'll give guys a good chance to get a lot of reps in training today,” he said.
“Everyone's playing this weekend with the NSW academy playing before vs Brumby Runners so it'll be a good opportunity for those boys.”
The Waratahs take on the Brumbies in Canberra on Friday March 15, kicking off at 7:45pm AEDT, LIVE on FOX SPORTS and via RUGBY.com.au RADIO. Buy tickets here.
