Dave Dennis says Waratahs will target Rebels stars Scott Higginbotham and Luke Burgess

DAVE Dennis has vowed that his Waratahs side will “shorten up” Rebels rivals Scott Higginbotham and Luke Burgess in Friday’s Super Rugby clash.

Rebels skipper Scott Higginbotham will be a marked man at Allianz Stadium.

DAVE Dennis has vowed that his Waratahs side will “shorten up” Melbourne rivals Scott Higginbotham and Luke Burgess in Friday’s Super Rugby clash.

Coming off their first loss of the season, NSW is desperate to return to the winners’ circle ahead of their tough road trip to South Africa, and believe nullifying the Rebels’ No. 8 and halfback will lead to victory at Allianz Stadium.

“A lot of teams in this comp have key guys from who they gain a lot of momentum and confidence off, and Higgers is one of those guys,” Dennis said.

“They seem to feed off him, and Luke Burgess as well. When he’s on they tend to get a lot of momentum off Burgess.

“So they’ve got a couple of key guys who control the team, as the Brumbies did last week with (Stephen) Moore and (Ben) Mowen.

“We’ll be trying to shorten them up as well.”

NSW captain Dennis shifts to No. 8 this week, with the Tahs bringing Wycliff Palu off the bench, and the individual battle against Higginbotham will be defining.

“We’ve got to stop his involvement, he is a key part of their team,” Dennis said.

“It’s a good opportunity for me to try to challenge Higgers and limit his involvement in the match.

“It will be my responsibility along with the whole forward pack.”

Melbourne Rebels skipper Scott Higginbotham will be a marked man. Picture: Mark Stewart

The Tahs reiterated their ambition to finish in the top two of the competition despite losing 28-23 to the Brumbies last weekend.

Even at this early stage, it appears the undefeated Sharks and Chiefs will be the primary contenders for the top two places — a finish that guarantees home semi-finals — but NSW attack coach Daryl Gibson said his team would not waver from the goal.

“Definitely, probably if you asked every team they’d say they want to finish in the top two, because they know that’s where you need to be to win the competition,” Gibson said.

“I think this year, with the squad we’ve got, absolutely. We’ve got to set our expectations high.

“It’s an absolute given, you’ve got to win your home games in this competition and if possible get those bonus points, because what we’ve seen is that bonus points can very easily make up for a loss.”

Dennis said his side must fix their set-piece woes, which were exposed by the Brumbies, if they were to beat the Rebels.

“We don’t want to lose another game obviously, we were disappointed, we still felt we played some good rugby in that match, we’ve just got to be a bit more consistent this week for the whole 80 and get that result before we head to Africa,” Dennis said.

Halfback Luke Burgess is a key for the Rebels.

“We were very disappointed with our set-piece last week, I think that contributed to why we lost the match.

“The scrums were disappointing, the lineout was so-so, hot and cold. We’ve done a lot of work, we know we can be a lot better.

“We’ve got quality players there who, set-piece tends to be their strength.

“You’ve got to win the conference to finish in that top two.

“This is another Australian team, every time you look at it, it’s an eight-point game. Every time we play an Australian team we look to get the result because it goes a long way to winning that conference.”

Gibson added: “We’ve done a lot of work in the pre-season, and also through our trial form to warrant having expectations of ourselves heightened.

“While we’re disappointed to lose against the Brumbies, it certainly showed us what’s required to firstly top the Australian conference, but also looking towards making a bigger impact in this competition.”