George Smith admits it feels "strange" that the Queensland Reds are still in Super Rugby finals contention despite a 3-8 win-loss record.
But the Wallabies great isn't complaining, instead urging his teammates to take full advantage of Super Rugby's complicated and convoluted system.
Since the expansion to 18 teams last year, the winner of each conference in Super Rugby is given an automatic finals berth.
That means one Australian side is guaranteed to be there - even though no team has won more than four games, and the lowest-ranked New Zealand team has a better overall record than the highest-ranked Australian team, currently the Brumbies.
"It is strange when you look at the whole of Super Rugby," Smith said ahead of Friday's must-win home clash against the Western Force.
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"But I guess that's the way it is. If you top your conference you have the opportunity.
"And anything can happen there.
"For us (it's) just fortunate we still have the opportunity to be in contention to top the conference and we need to be performing well this Friday. It's a non-negotiable."
The Brumbies lead the Australian conference on 23 points but the Waratahs (19 points) and Reds (16) are still in with a strong chance of overtaking them.
However, for that to happen, Smith said Queensland's back-rowers need to completely turn the tables on the Force, who beat them 26-19 in the second week of the season.
"All of them were hard on the ball. I'm not ashamed to say it - they did dominate us in that area of the breakdown," he said.
"That's an area we have to fix up, myself in particular, because I felt I didn't have the impact I should have had."
Smith did, however, have a few words of praise for Reds No.8 Scott Higginbotham, tipping him for Wallabies selection next month even though he has not been invited to any of coach Michael Cheika's lead-up camps.
"It is a surprise, but do I believe he'll be involved? Yeah, I do, because it's hard to leave a player out of the squad who's performing exactly like he is," Smith said.
"He has been playing awesome."
