The Brumbies are still without injured duo Fotu Auelua and Joseph Tomane and coach Jake White said it was not work risking the two influential players with the team on the cusp of the finals.
White backed his line-up to break a Sydney hoodoo after only beating the Waratahs just once in Super Rugby history.
‘‘[Auelua and Tomane] aren’t 100 per cent yet. If it was a play-off game or a final or last game of the season, I would probably risk them both,’’ White said.
‘‘But at this stage we’ve still got a lot of rugby left. There could be four weeks so we just decided to keep the same group.
‘‘It’s great as a coach to keep the same 22 and keep that momentum going.’’
The Brumbies can lock in a drought-breaking finals berth if they secure a bonus-point win against the Waratahs.
The Waratahs have lost their past six games in a row.
But they have a commanding record over the Brumbies in Sydney, only suffering a loss in a 2002 semi final.
‘‘At this stage there’s still a lot of rugby left for us, potentially we still have four games to play so in that regard it’s great to have been able to keep the same team together,’’ White said.
‘‘To be fair to those boys they had a very strong first half last Saturday night.
‘‘They’ve got 1069 Super Rugby caps and probably 400 Test caps, 11 Wallabies and they are a formidable opponent. Even though they’ve made some changed to their halves, they still have Wallabies on the bench and will pose a massive challenge for us.
‘‘We’ve got to focus on executing well, doing the things we’ve done well all year both defensively and in attack and things should take care of themselves.’’