Confident Brumbies coach Jake White planning for Super Rugby grand final CONFIDENT: Brumbies coach Jake White. Picture: Kym Smith Source: The Daily Telegraph IF there was any doubt over the confidence of a Brumbies team playing their first playoff match in nine years, it was shattered by coach Jake White's revelation he has already started planning for the grand final. A brutally honest White said the Australian trait of rarely talking more than a week ahead is not for him. While they must first get through the Cheetahs in Canberra on Sunday afternoon, White had no qualms talking about his plans for next week's potential semi-final against the Bulls and then the decider a week later unlike other coaches who seize up at the mere thought of hypotheticals. It's an Australian thing, I'm just amazed by how sensitive they are about 'Should we say this?', 'Shouldn't we say that?', 'Do you think different players will read differently into it? White said on Saturday. I can only use the term of reference I come from, which is if you believe you're going to play in the final in three weeks' time and you've prepared until the 3rd of August and you know what your training program looks like and what your conditioning is like, which injured players you'll be getting back, then surely you'll be playing until the 3rd of August. Some people take it as - maybe it's superstitious, maybe it's sensitive. I just see it as making sure you've ticked all the boxes It's about the players believing they're going to win the tournament, and if you believe you're going to win the tournament then surely we're going to Pretoria next week. I'm thinking of going to Pretoria, and if I don't think we're going to Pretoria then we might as well not pitch up tomorrow. Without being arrogant about it, if the coach and the team don't believe we're going to be playing semi-finals next week in Pretoria, then I tell you we won't have any chance of winning tomorrow. You've got to think ahead because we want to win the tournament. We've got three games, we've got to make sure we know what days we're off, which days we train, what we're doing. As the final whistle blows you can't then start preparing for next week. Veterans George Smith and Clyde Rathbone, who both played in the Brumbies' last finals match, a grand final win over the Crusaders in 2004, presented jerseys to their teammates on Saturday. White has asked various public figures to present jerseys to the team in the past, but deferred to the flanker and winger for the club's most important Super Rugby match since that triumph. It's real, I thought about who we should get, who should say what, what message do we want to get across? White said. You think of motivational speakers, a politician maybe, you think out of the box, we've had Bryce Courtney the author before. When I summed it all up I thought the people that are going to be the most apt to talk about finals are the people that have been there and done it, and at this club as well. Smith and Rathbone spoke about the need for this playing group to appreciate the achievements of their predecessors, but create their own history starting against the Cheetahs.