Dave Porecki is hungry to make the most of his time on the field following his return from a calf muscle injury - and he hopes to put in a strong performance to steer the Waratahs back into finals contention.
The Tahs will play their final match of the year at home against the Crusaders this weekend before trips away to Perth and Auckland - and with the men in sky blue sitting four points outside the top six, the side will need to win at least two of those fixtures for a shot at making finals.
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Porecki is confident the Tahs can turn their form around, and was happy to be finally back on the park against the Reds.
"It was good to finally run out," Porecki told reporters.
"With the Achilles, it was different because it was sort of like a build-up and I was playing with it for a fair while. But with this one, it sort of was just a straight running out of training, and just sort of felt like a strain, almost.
"Every week just feels a bit longer because you're trying to get a return date. I just said to myself, I'm going to go as hard as I can for as long as I can."
Porecki will be aiming to do the same this weekend against the Crusaders, with the Tahs getting two wins over the men from Christchurch in 2024.
Rob Penney's men are much-improved in 2025; however, currently sitting third on the ladder.
However, Porecki revealed the club was taking a calm, collected approach for the match, despite it being a must-win fixture.
"I don't get up [for this game] more for any other game," Porecki admitted.
"It's a pretty neutral level for every game, because every game you're running out. You want to put your best foot forward, and you want to perform to a certain level.
"It's heightened for us in the fact that it's essentially a must-win.
"You get to challenge yourself as a group, not so much against the Crusaders, but more so on our performance.
"Can we replicate in the collision area and defensively what we did on the weekend? Can we do that back to back?"
Focusing on getting back to Wallabies selection in some ways is part of Porecki's goals, the former Wallaby captain's injury woes having seen him fall down the national pecking order.
With Joe Schmidt turning up at Daceyville on Tuesday, Porecki is optimistic his match-by-match approach will lead to results.
"I'm always trying to put my best performance in," Porecki admitted.
"If that's good enough to warrant selection, then that's good enough to warrant selection. Test level is based on performance.
"...If you're performing well and you're consistent throughout the year, then you put yourself in the window. For any player, that's what you're after. If you can perform well, then you might get the tap on the shoulder."
Despite the disappointment on the weekend, Porecki is optimistic the Tahs fans will keep coming out and the side can regain its strong home form, with attendance figures around 20,000 fans turning up for both the Reds and Brumbies clashes this season.
"I was watching a couple of the home games this year, and the way that the fans got around us in big defensive moments was pretty good," Porecki added.
"Stick with us and believe in the process of what we're going after as a club."
