The Canterbury Crusaders have denied departing ACT Brumbies Stephen Larkham, George Gregan and Jeremy Paul the chance to train at their home ground one last time after booking the venue for themselves - but don't expect the New Zealanders to turn up.
Under SANZAR laws, the visiting Super 14 side has first rights to the match venue for its final training session.
The Crusaders have booked Canberra Stadium for their captain's run tomorrow morning - forcing the Brumbies to Viking Park in Erindale - but the New Zealanders are unlikely to use the venue at the designated time.
Canterbury will have its captain's run at its home ground Jade Stadium in Christchurch this morning before flying to Canberra tonight, leaving the Bruce venue empty the morning before the do-or-die match.
Crusaders coach Robbie Deans told The Canberra Times yesterday his side would have completed its training schedule before arriving in Australia.
"We might go for a walk there or something [Friday] afternoon to get a feel but as for actual training, I don't think we necessarily will," he said.
"We'll train [this morning], fly over [tonight] and have a fairly quiet day before the game."
It's not the first time this season the Brumbies have been forced from Canberra Stadium for the captain's run. The Pretoria Bulls and Auckland Blues also did a no-show after booking the venue.
However, Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher said he wasn't too concerned.
"We've had to do it before so we'll be OK," he said. "We could have used the stadium in the afternoon but the guys prefer to have the captain's run in the morning.
"Doing it before the Crusaders would have been too early, which doesn't suit either, so we'll just go to Viking Park, have a game of touch and finalise things out there."
Meanwhile, Fisher said he didn't care if the match turned into a kick-a-thon - as long as his side kicked intelligently.
The coach denied he would instruct his players to avoid getting sucked into a kicking duel with the top-of-the-table Canterbury, despite doing so last weekend against the Western Force in a game they almost lost.
The Crusaders possess arguably the world's best general kicker in flyhalf Dan Carter. Larkham and Julian Huxley will largely share the kicking duties for the home side.
Fisher said he wanted to make sure that if the contest came down to a battle of the boot, his side was not outclassed.
"If you try to run the ball out of your 22 all night, you're going to get stung guaranteed against the Crusaders," he said.
"You need a good tactical kicking game against them and we just need to kick better, particularly with Aaron Mauger coming back in for them [alongside Carter]. He adds another level of skill to that Crusaders backline so we need to be at our very best.
"They kick it as much as us, there's no big difference in numbers, it's the quality of your kicking game that's important and we need quality on Saturday night."
The Brumbies are preparing for a dry Canberra Stadium at the weekend, but have a back-up plan should forecast rain eventuate.
Fisher said drizzly conditions would hinder his side's chances and allow the Crusaders' unique attacking style to potentially take control.
"They play more of a short-passing game than us so their handling is impeccable in all conditions," he said.
"We tend to play more of a long-passing game so we might be slightly disadvantaged, but that said, we're working on the short pass."
However, Canterbury coach Deans disagreed that rain would favour his side.
"It doesn't matter what Laurie or myself or any of the players think, it's just going to be a matter of what unfolds on the night and which team turns up to the conditions the best," Deans said. "I don't really see how rain makes us a better chance."