THE NSW scrum had little time to savour their demolition of a Reds pack that a week earlier had given title favourites the Crusaders an unexpected tussle.

After sending Wallabies selectors a message on Saturday night that after a consistently good season their best may be yet to come, the Waratahs pack woke yesterday to hear reports of a similarly impressive annihilation of the Chiefs scrum by the Sharks eight.

Which all augurs well for a titanic clash when the two packs engage at the Sydney Football Stadium in Saturday night's semi-final.

NSW tight-head prop Al Baxter, who earned coach Ewen McKenzie's praise for controlling the Reds' wheeling scrum, was promptly warned of what to expect by captain Phil Waugh.

"He said the Sharks demolished the Chiefs … and the Chiefs have a good scrum," said Baxter, who played 30 minutes off the bench when NSW beat the Sharks in round 11.

"We went all right last time, but this is finals footy. This will be a step up, a real challenge."

Against the Reds, Baxter said the NSW forwards were intent on scuppering the Queensland scrum swiftly, and lived up to the challenge.

Their imprint on the Queensland pride was left firmly in the first half. But even after Rodney Blake helped the Reds get some parity in the second, NSW were still the dominant pack.

McKenzie, who counted "three or four" tight-head wins, two of which came in the first half, praised the NSW scrum for paving the way for the Waratahs' 18-11 victory.

"It was very decisive," he said. "I thought one of the areas where they could trouble us was their wheeling scrum, which they used the week before against the Crusaders.

"They seemed to do it very effectively against the Crusaders. Al Baxter coped with that side of it really well."

Baxter said the NSW pack drew strength from the momentum of their first-half superiority.

"We went really well early on, even though there were a few tired ones [scrums] later on," he said. "Benn Robinson [Waratahs loosehead] was killing it. But it was something we had been working on, as you do for a local derby.

"But they [the Reds scrum] are good at being disruptive and are happy to be so all night. They are very good at spinning it around and being troublesome for the backs."

McKenzie also commended winger Lachie Turner for his best game of the season.

"I thought he was really good. All the detail work he did was great, given that everyone was battling a bit after 30 minutes," McKenzie said. "He was head and shoulders [high] with chasing, and kept going."

McKenzie believes Turner, 21 and in his second Super 14 season, has needed time to learn how to finetune his pre-match preparation.

"One of the tricks in sport is to know your own preparation. The trick is to know what are the triggers," McKenzie said. "The young guys are still learning, whereas the older players have already worked it out."