On the line is a guaranteed spot in the grand final, with the loser to slug it out with either Barbarians or Robb for the other spot next week.

The Blues head in with the form on the board.

They were clear frontrunners, have dropped just the one game and have won all three games against Albies.

The students, though, have been edging closer to them each time and will pose a real threat, especially early.

“We know the students will come out absolutely fired up,” Blues coach Anthony McMillan said. 

It’s a matter of weathering that and wearing them down, and keeping hold of the ball.

That’s the key for them – ball retention.

All three wins, they’ve been able to starve the students of ball for periods.

“Last time we played them they played quite good football in the first half,” McMillan said. 

“As soon as we reverted to what we’d been doing in the past it paid dividends.” 

They were tending to throw the ball wide too early and weren’t utilising their forward power.

That’s where they hold the aces, particularly with their scrum and rolling maul.

In the second half they went back to their structure and played it a bit tighter and overhauled a nine-point deficit.

Both sides head in with disruption in the halves. 

Blues half-back Brodie Rigby hasn’t recovered from his injury while the students will be without five-eighth James Reynolds.

Josh Croft moves into nine for Rigby with fullback Dan Sweeney set to steer the students around.

He has played 10 a bit in the past and the way Albies are looking at it, he’s their number one attacking weapon so the more he has the ball in hands the better for them.

Co-coach Tom Newsome is happy with how they are travelling and said they came out of the last game against the Blues feeling they beat themselves more than anything.

“We feel we’ve got the game to beat them,” he said.

The secret is keeping their discipline and keeping hold of the ball.

“We need to retain possession and play our game,” Newsome said. 

More than that, it’s important that the ball they do get is on their terms – on the front foot and in good attacking position.

They can’t afford to fall into the trap of defending for 80 minutes and feeding off scraps.

He is expecting the Blues to try to dominate them in the forwards.

But they are prepared for that and know what they need to do to counter it.

It’s about good attacking defence and stopping them getting over the gain line.

He felt they did that reasonably well that last game.

Barbarians and Robb will play in the minor semi-final at Alcatraz tomorrow.