Beale: Confident Waratahs can cope

Burgess injured his hand in training on Tuesday and x-rays revealed he had broken a bone, ruling him out of the Eden Park clash.

"Luke's an exceptional player, very unpredictable," said Beale. "It doesn't really matter who is inside me or who is outside me - a lot of them I have played footie with before and I've got confidence in Josh Holmes or Brendon McKibbin.

"They're great players within themselves so whatever the selection is there I am pretty happy to go with either."

The change in roles forced on Beale as a result of injuries to five-eighths Berrick Barnes and Daniel Halangahu allowed him to have more responsibility in controlling the game as opposed to the role at full-back which allowed him to pop up anywhere.

Now he is looking forward to the very different challenge that knock-out rugby presents.

"We're pretty confident this week, we all understand our roles and hopefully we can take that out onto the field," he said.

"When you're in this finals football it is a totally different ball game, anything can happen. The Blues are an exciting team but we are pretty confident we can match them up front.

"We've come here to do a job and a lot of the boys are pretty keen to get out there."