The Super Rugby trophy may mean nothing to the defending champions but it means everything to the teams they play. As the Reds before them experienced, after their 2011 triumph, everyone lifts to topple a giant.

"It's inevitable that there's going to be some of that, especially when you travel away from home and they're saying 'come and see us play last year's champions'," Cheika said.

"That's going to lift the whole thing. But at the end of the day it's not one-way traffic, we get the chance to lift as well. We want to improve parts of our game - even things we were good at last year - we want to make them better.

"Just because you were good last year doesn't mean that's going to be good enough again this year. There's a totally different dynamic."

The Waratahs have their first of two bye rounds this week, before heading to Brisbane to play Queensland in the same week as the Reds' high-profile fullback Karmichael Hunt is required to appear in Southport Magistrates Court to face charges of drug supply.

The legal drama could overshadow the on-field clash but there is no doubt Queensland will once again circle the wagons in search of a hunger similar to that which allowed them to prevail over an in-form Western Force on Saturday.

The Waratahs, meanwhile, will be in the middle of a challenging run of fixtures, their second of three away games in a row, and only a few weeks out from their next bye.

Cheika and his athletic development staff have been forced to be creative with their preparation. The players who participated in the Wallabies spring tour last year will have four days off this week while the rest of the squad prepare to play well-drilled Argentinian team the Pampas in a friendly on Friday.

Then, to weather a run of at least 10 back-to-back games - more if they make the finals - at the end of the season, the Waratahs coach will ask his squad to endure some early "pain".

"Knowing we're going to take some small periods of time off while we're playing so much later in the year, there'll be a bit of pain early on to hopefully help later in the season," he said.

"You can't go full tilt for 10 or 12 weeks with full training, non-stop and games every week. Not the way we train anyway, with a lot of intensity."

The pressure may be off the defending champions and their coach after Friday's 38-28 victory, but Cheika said consistency was what he was after.

"Just as we mourned after that first loss, we're not going to be cracking champagne after the first win either," he said.

"I'd like to think we will have a more upward curve than last year's start, which was up and down and up and down."