I'm not so sure about that logic. one of the things that used to kill the 'Tahs early in the comp against the Reds in particular was this nonsense that they were treating like any other game.
Meanwhile, the Reds, even if they were playing terribly throughout the year, would treat it like it was Origin or a GF and play with immense intensity. For this reason, the buggers beat us 8-0 for the first 8 years of the comp in spite of often having teams that looked weaker on paper.
It took the arrival of Ewen McKenzie at the 'Tahs for us to start actually treating the game as a sort of pseudo final before we started winning a few.
Personally, I'm hoping the Crusaders treat this game like the one they played against England ;-) .