WARRINGAH Rats trio Sailosi Tagicakibau, Mahe Vailanu and Emmanuel Meafou spent a tough day on the tools on Friday getting rid of stubborn undergrowth.

On Saturday afternoon they want to clean up Sydney University in the Shute Shield grand final at North Sydney Oval.

While Saturday may be the biggest game of the season, Friday was just another day earning a quid for the three players who work with Fork and Spade landscapers on the northern beaches.

“This is what we do the day before a game, we don’t have the luxury of a professional (rugby) career so we have to turn up and do the same as everyone else,” said powerhouse No.12 Tagicakibau, the player dubbed “The Exterminator”.

“A hard day’s work is just the way we have been brought up”.

Tagicakibau, who has represented Samoa in three World Cups, said having a regular job helps them grounded.

“Like anything you always have to do the hard yards and turn up to work to make those special moments more enjoyable,” he said.

“You know you have earnt it at the end of the day.”

The players’ boss, Will Osmond, is very happy to have the three Warringah players on his team.

“I suppose there might be a perception out there about footy players always concentrating on footy but they are great workers,” Osmond said.

“And more importantly they bring a great morale to it, landscaping is very taxing on the body, so when you have good banter on site it is great.”

Osmond was not at all surprised that they wanted to work on the eve of the grand final.

“They have even hit me for weekend work and I said ‘on a Saturday morning’ and they said they could probably work until 11.30,” Osmond said.

“They just want to get extra cash, the Rats don’t have deep pockets like Uni.

“Uni would all be having cafe lattes while these boys are all doing what they are doing.”

Tagicakibau believes the Rats are now a better team than the one which beat Northern Suburbs in last year’s memorable grand final.

And he is not bothered about University’s decision to bring Wallabies Nick Phipps and Tolu Latu into their squad.

“We spoke at the beginning of the season we want to beat the best Shute Shield team and if that means a fully stacked Uni team with Wallabies then that’s what we need to do to win this competition,” he said.