Barnes ready for the hits

Braced: Berrick Barnes

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Teams

• NSW Waratahs
• Queensland Reds

Also see

• Veteran lock departs the Sharks
• Blues beset by Williams injury

Berrick Barnes is all too aware of the likely repercussions of his 'defection' from Queensland to New South Wales, which could be felt this weekend.

"I hear they are taking bets on who is going to smash me first," said Barnes on Monday, but in many ways, he's happy the encounter will be out of the way in the first week, just to put all the fuss to rest.

The crunch derby match is rarely an attractive one, being too keenly fought. That this one is the season opener, which is generally strewn with errors anyway, is not likely to help that. But there's no shortage of motivation to play and win well from either side.

"I can tell you right now, we want to win just as much and we will doing our best to bring some fire to the table as well," said Barnes, who made his Reds debut againt the Waratahs and is now making his Waratahs debut against the Reds, to AAP.

Waratahs coach Chris Hickey also said he had not been leaning on Barnes for insider secrets on the Reds and did not believe that Reds coach Ewen McKenzie would be able to do the same for the Waratahs after having spent time away.

"If you look at that time between 2008 (McKenzie's last season with NSW) and now, it (the NSW roster) has changed a fair bit, there's probably 50 per cent turnover in playing staff and I think the game has probably also changed a little bit," Hickey said.

"Ewen will have some insight into some (NSW) players, but I think he'd be more focused on his own players than worrying about what the Waratahs are going to do."

Prop Benn Robinson is not so sure about that. With McKenzie having mentored him, Robinson has noticed a few of the things he was taught popping up in the Reds' warm-up matches.

"If you look at the last two or three trial matches, they have disrupted a lot of teams," Robinson said.

"I think Link (McKenzie) will be keen to get on top of us, especially upfront.

"I think they will be throwing everything at us, especially up front. We expect there will be little curve balls."

Hickey will await hamstring injury reports on Tuesday on lock Will Caldwell, centre Rob Horne and another former Queenslander, outside back Drew Mitchell, before finalising his side for Saturday's game.