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NEW South Wales hooker Adam Freier believes Western Force will be armed with inside information about the waratahs' game plan courtesy of former teammate Brendan Cannon.
Buoyed by his man of the match game in NSW's 50-3 win against the Cats last week, Freier is bracing himself to lift again tomorrow night against the winless Force.
And Freier is expecting nothing less from Cannon with whom he endured a sometimes tense rivalry for the NSW No.2 jumper before Cannon defected to the Perth-based Force.
"Brendan is a pretty good operator and I don't just mean about [passing on] information about me, but about everyone the coaches, the water boys, everything," said Freier.
Tomorrow night's round-six Super 14 game at Subiaco Oval will be the first time that Freier and Cannon will have played each other since 2001.
That last confrontation, said Freier, was in club rugby, with Freier playing for Randwick and Cannon for Sydney University.
Freier has now cemented his No.2 jersey thanks to performances like that against the Cats, against whom he scored two tries and bagged a tighthead scrum feed.
But he realises the contest between him and Cannon will be a talking point up until fulltime.
"This is one clash they are probably putting more attention on," Freier said. When asked how he will get the better of Cannon, the NSW rake played down the tussle, saying: "To be honest. I don't think you try and change your game too much.
"Last week [with the Force] against Queensland there were a lot of positions where people were targeting each other.
"If you have those one-on-one battles, it automatically means you are on the back foot. You should be working as a team."
But Freier admits that due to the physicality of their positions, it is unrealistic to expect an incident-free clash between the two hookers who contrast in size and style of play.
With Freier at 175cm in height and 98kg in weight, the NSW hooker concedes 13cm and 10kg to Cannon, who is a master at set pieces but fails to match Freir's ballrunning ability.
"We will smash against each other probably 25 times a game in the scrum, so it is not as if I will be running around trying to avoid him," said Freier.
View Original Article - Fox Sports
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