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Emirates Western Force hooker Tai McIsaac is the only player for the team to play all 50 of its Investec Super 14 matches and he desperately wants to finish his career with a finals appearance.
The Force will play their 50th match in the Super 14 competition this Saturday night against the Bulls in Pretoria and must win that, and the following two games against the Stormers and Highlanders, to be a chance of making the top-four for the first time.
At 34, McIsaac will leave the Force at season's end to take up a coaching role in Japan and would love nothing more than to finish on a high with finals action.
"I'm really enjoying this year knowing that it's my last so I have enjoyed every week. I'm just looking forward to the next few weeks and hoping the team get to where we need to be," McIsaac said.
"Playing a final would be everything to me and that's what you play for. The next three weeks are vitally important for us to make it, and if we do it will be a great way to finish."
While playing the second-placed Bulls at Loftus Versfield is intimidating for many visiting teams, the Force won their only match there in 2007 and have won five from eight games in South Africa, so McIsaac is confident of coming away victorious.
"We bond as a team when we are away and enjoy each other's company, so that is part of why we do well away," he said.
"All the boys are very positive and confident at this stage, but they are sensible enough to focus on a week by week basis because we know the Bulls are right up there and it's a big game. It's one of the biggest challenges because they are very strong at home, have a vocal crowd behind them and it's always hard to play at Loftus."
The Force's scrum is also in great form and McIsaac is backing it in against the big Bulls frontrow.
"At the moment, the boys are working well as a unit and have grown in confidence the last few weeks," he said.
"That will certainly help this week because the Bulls have a massive pack and we are looking forward to the challenge."
McIsaac was a late comer to rugby and believes that has helped him stay healthy later in his career, and he feels the time is now right to retire before anything turns sour.
"As a frontrower, it's helped that I haven’t had a lot of injuries at my age and because I started quite late. The young frontrowers tend to gain a lot of injures in scrimmaging, so I avoided that," he said.
"I'm not too sure I've had a secret, but age is probably the thing that's got me there. At my age, you have to prepare a little better than the young blokes. I've been fairly lucky with injuries as well and have only had a couple of niggling type things to deal with.
"I want to make sure I retire before things do start going wrong and I start suffering some injuries. I feel that you might as well give something up while you still enjoy it, and that's the case with me this year."
Coaching is something that McIsaac has only recently considered but he's excited about his new career path and as forwards coach in Japan, will plenty from what he has learned plenty from his Force boss John Mitchell.
"Initially I didn’t think I'd be a coach, but I have a teaching background and that held me in good stead to move into coaching," he said.
"I'm going to coach up in Japan and hopefully will carve out a career for myself. I'll start with the Honda Heat team in Suzuka and I'm looking forward to what that holds. I'll be the forwards coach and see what happens from there."
http://rugbywa.com.au/news/article,55560.html
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Was the wait worth it - Ya betta baby 
