The run home in the Super 14 is as treacherous as the waters here off Cape Town which for centuries have seen many a seafaring campaign wrecked.

We have already seen the previously undefeated Sharks drop three games straight and put themselves back in the pack for the finals race. Our loss last week also brings the pack nearer.

While the finding of form or indeed the losing of it have some part to play, the actual competition draw is also a major contributor to the mayhem.

You tend to play the competition in blocks. This meant that the Waratahs for the first time in many years played the Kiwi block of teams first.

Historically this would suggest that these have included the harder games and thus the minefield is difficult. Getting through this section in reasonable shape would set you up. We negotiated this with three wins and two losses.

The Brumbies are also on the same rotation, while the Reds have the opposite. The Force have a mixture due to visiting South African teams stopping in Perth stop on the way there or home.

The rotation also changes referees and there are significant adjustments in playing philosophy.

South Africans play more point to point with strongly developed kicking tactics while the Kiwis generally use speed, continuity, power and skill to overcome their opponents.

For the Australian teams the change in tactics is significant. The Waratahs exist somewhere in the philosophical middle ground and we focus on adapting our tactics to suit the occasion.

We want to bring variety to the game and find ways to develop pressure on teams that are strongly orientated in their method of play.

If you can adjust the game in a way that the opposition team gets taken out of their comfort zone then you are a fair way to winning.

Teams that play predominantly one way tend to spend less time on their plan B options. Close down plan A and then the unpractised plan B can be messy.

In this year's Super 14 the Waratahs have been getting better at adapting and finding opposition weaknesses. When we talk about executing the game plan this has two parts.

Playing what we do well and what we think will work. On any given day we only employ specific patterns and plays and never take the full repertoire into the match because it would be impossible to successfully practice this in the training time in any given week.

Secondly the pressure points of the opposition might be obvious and sometimes they can be subtle.

The glue that holds the team together is where the pressure needs to be applied. This may not be the best players and it may not be the worst players.

It might be components of their game, skills that might be missing or gaps in the system of play.

The real coaching challenge is whether you can influence the game through psychology. Sports psychology has many uses and most people tend to use it to address their own individual or group problems.

Understanding the power of the spoken word, body language and the messages that can be sent is critical.

Understanding the mentality of your opponent takes masses of time. Combine the two and add it to your tactical and technical mix then you can have a busy coaching week training to win each week.

Tonight's game against the Stormers presents a terrific opportunity to match wits with one of the most creative coaches in super rugby.

Rassie Erasmus has a big reputation for working the edges of the law book, using what is not written and turning it into tactics to get results. He is infamous for sitting on the grandstand roof and signalling his players with coloured paddles.

This developed into a higher tech version the following year. Instructions to the players came via the flashing of coloured lights from the coaches' box.

His side to side game approach has produced some terrific tries in 2008. I'm not sure what he has in store tonight but I am spending a lot of time thinking about it.

It the meantime the team we have announced with some subtle positional changes will give him something to consider with Tuqiri at fullback, Carraro on the wing and Tahu on the bench.

Sometimes things are not what they seem or are they?