Armidale Blues are aiming to rebound from their three-point loss to Robb College in round nine when they take on St Albert’s College. Blues co-coach Luke Stephen believes the coming game is crucial to keep their lofty second-placed position on the table.

“With five weeks to go towards finals, this game has massive implications for both clubs,” he said. 

“We finish as high as first or finish as low as third or fourth depending on how we play and how results go so it is really important if we are treating ourselves seriously as premiership contenders that we play well.”

Stephen said their last start against Robb was inconsistent but they have put that performance behind them and are ready to step up a gear. 

“Our last performance was Jekyll and Hyde in terms of our best footy and our worst. We talked about putting forward the best footy we can for 80 minutes and that is the goal. We treat each week as it is, we can't focus on last week, we can only focus on what we can do this Saturday,” he said.

Albies have suffered a disrupted preparation leading into the game due to university holidays and aren’t expecting a full squad back.

While they still have troops missing, co-coach Jas Lincoln is confident the squad can step up to the task. 

“We are missing three or four key players but such is the depth of Albies, we have complete faith in the guys that are coming through that will step up to take their places,” he said. 

“They have just had three weeks away so it is going to be a huge ask for us on Saturday when we know the Blues have been working consistently in the break and our kids have been away on tractors. I think Blues have got a fairly comprehensive team, they have strength in their outside backs and a very big forward pack so we are going to have to come up with a game plan to focus on our strengths and what we can do as a team to combat their strengths.”

Coming off a 20-all draw against Tamworth in round 10 on Saturday, the Barbarians sit in fifth spot on the table and will be hoping to lift when they face ladder leaders Robb College. 

Robb’s thorn in their side has been the ability to put together two consistent halves with their last two wins against Albies and the Blues coming from strong second-halves. 

The students will return from their break but will be missing a handful of players. Co-coach Sam Ditchfield said they will have some returning from injury and believes they can get the job done against the Baa Baas. 

“We have to match their physicality in the forwards. It is about having possession and if we can get enough possession we will look to play the same sort of footy we have playing,” he said. 

After a handful of games where Robb secured wins in the second-half, Ditchfield is hoping his team can avoid another nail-biter. 

“Hopefully we will play footy for 80 minutes this week,” he said. 

“We have been doing 40 minutes performances all year.

“At the start of the year our 40 minute performances were in the first 40 and then we had to defend in the last 40 to get the wins and in the last three games it has been the other way where we have put the 40 minutes into the second-half.

“I would like to see us play for 80 minutes.”

Despite the Baa Baas’ lowly position on the ladder Ditchfield is wary of the threat they possess. 

“That draw that Baa Baas had with Tamworth shows the tightness of the comp,” he said. 

“Equally we have to match them in the forwards and match their physicality across the park.

“It is about having possession and if we can get enough possession we will look to play the same sort of footy we have playing.

“I saw them play Tamworth last weekend and them sand Tamworth play a very similar sort of game and obviously Albies and Robb play a different sort of game to that.”