The Barbarians and Armidale Blues are both searching for their first win of the New England Rugby Union season.
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They face off this Saturday with the chance of one team kick-starting their season and the other remaining at the bottom of the table.
While the scorelines haven't favoured either side so far in 2019, neither have been far off the pace in their fixtures.
Blues co-coach Luke Stephen is expecting a tight battle and believes neither side can afford to drop off at any point during the match.
"Both sides have been playing some good footy, albeit unlucky so it will be a case of which side is able execute on Saturday for the full 80," he said.
"Both sides like to play a style of rugby that is a bit different to the college sides.
"It is going to be which team can play to that structure and discipline for the 80 minutes."
The Blues were beaten by St Albert's College last weekend 31-23 and Stephen is looking for more consistency throughout the match against the Barbarians.
"It is a case of getting back to playing Blues rugby," he said.
"We didn't play our best against Albies and against our opposition this weekend it is just important that we execute our game plan.
"Across the board, it wasn't our best performance and now it is a case of learning and moving forward."
Their opponents in the Barbarians were leading Robb College at half-time last Saturday and were within reach of a win until 15 minutes to go when the students surged home.
Troops have been falling left, right and centre and Baa Baas coach Greg Wynn has been forced to make some changes.
"We lost two of our front rowers in the first five minutes, that coupled with a few injuries we had blokes on the field who played a full game of second grade," he said.
That last 15 minutes we couldn't go with them.
"We are getting absolutely smashed with injuries at the moment.
"We have got six first graders from first grade out and seven in total.
"That hurt our lower grades and it is going to hurt this week."
Despite the injuries and the losses, Wynn said there has been encouraging signs so far this year.
"I am confident the wins will come once with get things come together," he said.
"We were very close against Tamworth, dropped the ball after the 80th minute and they scored to win.
"Against a quality side like Robb, we were within striking distance with 15 minutes to go so we are getting there and we are confident it will happen.
"Whether it is this week or next week, we are confident it will happen if we just keep doing what we have been doing."
Wynn also believes it will be a tight and physical affair.
"I said to the guys on Tuesday night, us and Blues are very similar sides in the fact that we both have good scrums and good solid forwards and try to make a fair bit of a ground through the middle, both teams flair have out wide," he said.
"We probably play a fairly similar style of game.
"We have always had good battles with them so I don't expect this one to be any different."