As his NSW Waratahs coach gets closer to deciding whether to persevere with playing him at outside centre, Israel Folau has warned of the dangers posed to his team by rival No.13 Tevita Kuridrani.
Tahs' coach Daryl Gibson as made it clear he would review the experiment to play Folau at 13 after their round seven bye.
Folau occupied the Tahs No.13 jersey for most of last season while continuing to play at fullback for Australia.
He has averaged close to a try a game at outside centre and had arguably his best game in the position in last weekend's loss to the Sharks.
Folau views the looming deadline as an opportunity to keep improving rather than something which imposes pressure.
"It's a good challenge to take on," Folau said.
"I'm always trying to look for that perfection.
"Trying to work towards that seven game mark is a good point to start for me."
This Saturday's derby with the Brumbies could see him line up directly against Wallabies teammate Kuridrani.
The hard-running back reasserted himself as Australia's premier outside centre on the spring tour, when he scored a try in each of Australia's first four Tests.
"I'm really close with Tevita , he's certainly one of the great players in Australia," Folau said.
"It's going to be a great challenge for me. I respect TevIta on and off the field and look forward to always coming up against him and some really good challenges.
"I'm always looking to learn things off guys like himself.
"Defensively he is very strong and so he reads the attack really well.
"He's a strong carrier of the ball and can break tackles so I guess those are things that as a team we've got to be wary about."
Asked if it would be beneficial to play the same position for both the Wallabies and Waratahs, Folau said: "I don't really mind to be quite honest.
"I'm really comfortable in playing that 15 role and if I have to get dropped back there it doesn't make too much of a difference for me.
"Right now it's a great thing for me at this time of my career when I am learning a position I'm not all that familiar with, but I'm really trying to take the challenge on and embracing it.
Folau could find himself at fullback this weekend if boom youngster Andrew Kellaway doesn't recover from a knock he suffered last week.
"He (Kellaway) has probably been one of our most consistent players thus far and I think he's done a great job," Folau said.
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