MELBOURNE, May 14 (Reuters) - The Waikato Chiefs will look to keep the pressure on the leading Wellington Hurricanes with victory over the Otago Highlanders on Friday as the playoffs race heats up in Super Rugby Pacific.
Five points behind Wellington with three rounds to play in the regular season, the second-placed Chiefs have already locked up a berth in the finals but will be eyeing the Hurricanes' top spot with envy.
Finishing number one would give the Chiefs a path to a home Grand Final, and having lost the last two away, Jono Gibbes' team will be desperate to bring the championship match to Waikato Stadium.
A bonus-point victory over Jamie Joseph's seventh-placed Highlanders would help the cause but the Chiefs will likely need a couple more big wins and for the machine-like Hurricanes to slip up in their last three matches.
Like the Chiefs, who face the Canterbury Crusaders away and the Blues at home in the last two rounds, the Hurricanes have a tough road ahead, starting with a trip to Eden Park to take on the third-placed Auckland Blues on Saturday.
Back home after a stinging defeat away to the defending champion Crusaders, Vern Cotter's chastened Blues will look to flyhalf Beauden Barrett to spark their attack in place of Stephen Perofeta.
Australia's teams can only wish to be part of the top-of-the-table battles, with the fifth-placed ACT Brumbies on a bye and the Queensland Reds two points behind the Canberra side before their trip to Western Force on Saturday.
The Reds can leapfrog the Brumbies into fifth with a win and bridge the gap to the fourth-placed Crusaders, who are five points ahead and resting with a bye week.
As it stands, though, all signs point to a top-four lockout by New Zealand teams for the first time since 2009.
The Reds will need to improve their discipline after racking up a pile of penalties in their defeat by the Chiefs last week.
Carter Gordon returns as starting flyhalf against the 10th-placed Force, whose late-season rally hit a brick wall at the Brumbies last week.
The eighth-placed New South Wales Waratahs could see their playoffs' hopes fade further when they travel to steamy Suva to take on Fijian Drua.
Jack Bowen has been given the Waratahs' number 10 shirt for the first time this season among eight changes to the starting 15 that lost to the Highlanders and left Dunedin with a number of injuries.
The Waratahs, based in Australia's best-resourced rugby state, have again disappointed in Dan McKellar's second year in charge.
"I knew it was going to take time and we needed to be patient but, I'm not going to lie, it's been frustrating," said McKellar.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
