Melbourne captain Tom English expects his backs to give his side the edge against the Queensland Reds, as the Rebels seek to keep alive their hopes of a maiden Super Rugby finals appearance.
The Victorian franchise are four points behind the conference-leading NSW Waratahs with two rounds left and finish off with games away against the Reds and Highlanders.
They sit eighth on the overall log and providing they don't drop any lower will earn a qualifying spot. even if the Tahs win the Australian conference..
English and his teammates are trying not to dwell on the potential permutations going into Friday's match in Brisbane, .
"We get too far ahead of ourselves and start thinking about finals, we could lose an opportunity,'' English told AAP.
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"If we just focus on winning these next two games we'll take a lot of momentum after that if we end up in the finals.
'If we don't, it's good to have a couple of good performances to finish off the year."
The Reds have won just one of their last ten and lost all of their last five.
English expects the Reds to attack his side through their forwards.
"We know they are going to come at us through their setpiece," English said.
"I think the advantage for us is through our backs.
"We really need to capitalise on the experience and the form of some of our backs this year and I think that will be the difference for us."
The Rebels thumped the Reds 45-19 in Melbourne back in February, when Queensland had skipper Scott Higginbotham sent off early and played part of the game with 13 men.
"The motivation for us is to get one apiece with a same conference team that we lost to at the start of the year," Higginbotham said.
"With the red card and the yellow card it was a disappointing performance. This week we want to keep 15 blokes on the field and get a win."
The Rebels welcome back Wallabies Tetera Faulkner, Marika Koroibete and Richard Hardwick into their 23, while Test forwards Izack Rodda and Caleb Timu return to a Reds run-on side missing injured star centre Samu Kerevi.
"They are going to be a better side than they were that opening round, so I don't think we can take them lightly at all," English said.
