Bester – fully-fit side set for crunch time

The Titans are the bottom seeds in Pool B on zero points after Bester prioritised keeping his players fresh over gaining results at the end of the regular season.

Ahead of the visit of Bedford today, Bester said: “This is crunch time – this is what we have been building up to all season and we won’t shy away from the importance of it.

“It is the first group of matches that is important, not just the Bedford game. The first three matches are very important in terms of positioning yourself. Nothing is terminal, but it can become terminal if we have issues against Bedford and do not respond in the right way.

“We need to put ourselves in a position after the first three play-off matches so we give ourselves a chance of making the semi-final.

“That’s why during the season we rotated heavily and why we planned things the way we did. We now have a fully-fit squad that’s eager to get out there and give it their best shot.

“We have picked our strongest team for this game and we’ve worked terribly hard for what we want to do.

“We know more than anything else it’s going to be a mental challenge, the top six inches will determine the outcome.”