Australia's most successful rugby franchise won't let their underdog status ankle-tap their run to trans-Tasman glory.
Skipper Emily Chancellor doesn't want to play alongside people debilitated by past mistakes as the NSW Waratahs eye a daunting clash with Auckland Blues at Sydney's Leichhardt Oval on Saturday.
The Waratahs earned their chance to challenge the New Zealand premiers after netting a three-peat Super Rugby Women's title - the club's seventh - against a rampant Fijian Drua.
The Blues are fresh from their fourth straight victory in the contest's Kiwi iteration - Super Rugby Aupiki - and smashed the Waratahs 36-5 in 2025 when the Super Rugby Champions crossover clash was first played.
But a self-belief boot camp between then and now would give NSW the psychological edge, according to Chancellor.
"People feeling like maybe they didn't deserve it ... that they weren't good enough, and so we talked a lot about that," she said on Friday.
"I don't want to go into a game standing next to someone that's worried about the contact they had in the week before and then I've seen them do nothing to get better."
Wallaroos winger Desiree Miller will miss Saturday's match with a calf injury with Amelia Whitaker taking her place in an otherwise unchanged line-up.
She has linked up with deadly halves pairing Tia Hinds and Waiaria Ellis as stand-out 2026 performers with feet in both the rugby sevens and 15-player codes.
Chancellor said Whitaker was finding her feet and enjoying the 15s a lot more after not being sure what she was supposed to do in her first game last year.
"The more games you play, the more you fall in love with it. She's just fearless," the captain said.
The Waratahs and Blues approach the bout at Leichhardt having dropped two games each in their respective competitions, with third-placed NSW leapfrogging the Western Force (second) and the Drua (first) in two away games to clinch the title.
For their part, the second-placed Blues also had to dispose of South Island-based minor premiers Matatu to earn their shot at the trans-Tasman showdown.
"We have not had the perfect season at all," Auckland captain Maia Roos said on Friday.
"In moments where our backs have been against the wall ... we knew that our connection would get us through, and we were brave."
Watching from across the ditch, Chancellor was hopeful those imperfections were exploitable as chinks in the Blues' armour.
"We've found some opportunities that we think we can attack," she said.
