Entering his sixth year as captain, Jake Gordon is still trying to figure out whether trial wins matter heading into a season.
He got a grim taste in his first game as Waratahs captain in 2021 when they defeated the Queensland Reds 45-33 in their annual trial.
Catch the NSW Waratahs take on the ACT Brumbies live and free on NSW Rugby TV
It was the only win of their year as they didn’t record a single victory in Super Rugby AU and trans-Tasman, the only time it’s happened in their history.
“I've played years where we've gone well in trials and it's gone not so well and we've had years where we haven't. I think the result is somewhat important, but it's not everything,” he told reporters.
“We know there's going to be clunky moments in there. We don't want to put any extra pressure on ourselves.
“We want to play some of our rugby. I'm pretty confident you'll see that in large parts of the game. It's more our work rate and our fight and our energy more than some of the tries that we will be scoring throughout the year.”
Gordon is one of ten Wallabies in the starting side for the trial against the Brumbies, with the side excited about the return of Dave Porecki, who missed the entire 2024 season after an injury in the corresponding trial against the Rebels.
“Last year for Dave was a really frustrating year…Dave's a funny guy and a great leader in our group. He was in last year, training throughout the whole year and it would have been a really tough year for him, but we're happy (he’s back).
For the Brumbies, they find themselves in a different stage of their pre-season, with coach Stephen Larkham opting for a rotated squad with next week’s trial against the Western Force their focus.
It’s a similar approach to what the Waratahs took last week against NSW Pacifica, with ACT’s heavy Wallaby contingency to be eased back into action after a gruelling season.
Larkham will unveil a trio of new signings in Feao Fotuaika, Tuaina Taii-Tualima and David Feliuai, whilst backing his Academy players to step up across the park
“Those young players that have come up from the Academy, they’ve fit in really well and for all of them, it’s not their first pre-season program since they were a part of the program last year,” Larkham said.
“Some of them missed out on trial action last year so they’re be a few nerves for those guys coming into the week but they’ve trained exceptionally well through the pre-season.
“We’ve got a couple of players from the Rebels as well that’ve joined us so those guys will get that opportunity to pull the Burmbies jersey for the first time who have trained exceptionally well in the pre-season.”
