The NSW Waratahs are under mounting pressure to attack more but coach Chris Hickey has warned his Super Rugby side against neglecting their defensive duties on Saturday night.

The Waratahs play the Lions at the Sydney Football Stadium and Hickey has identified 21-year-old five-eighth Elton Jantjies, who ripped the Brumbies apart last week, as the dangerman.

"He's a good young player and we don't want to give him room to move," Hickey said on Tuesday.

"He's got a good step and he takes the ball to the line, so he's a player that we'll obviously have to have some awareness around.

"We'll need to be aggressive in defence and put plenty of pressure on the Lions.

"We've got the second-best defence in the competition and that's a strength that we need to keep developing."

The Waratahs are sixth overall on the Super Rugby table, one point clear of the Highlanders and the heat will be on against the bottom-placed side to score tries and secure a bonus point.

Hickey is confident there'll be no repeat of the shocking performance last time the Waratahs came off a Super Rugby bye.

The Waratahs were beaten by the Cheetahs 23-3 in round five after a weekend off, handing the South African franchise their first win of the season.

Hickey believes the bye has been good for the injury-hit Tahs after their scrappy 20-15 win over the Western Force in round 12.

"There's lot of ways you can manage the bye and all the key physical indicators that we measure indicate that the bye has been really good for the players both physically and mentally," Hickey said.

One player who will appreciate the extra time off is Waratahs five-eighth Berrick Barnes, who is nursing a tight hamstring.

Barnes trained separately from the rest of the squad on Tuesday but Hickey said it was just a precautionary measure.

"He had a bit of a tight hamstring and reported to the medical staff before training," Hickey said.

"He warmed up with the medical staff and it was still tight, so there's no point trying to push it with the day off tomorrow (Wednesday).

"Avoiding a heavy training load today and with the day off tomorrow he'll be right to train on Thursday.

"It's just a precautionary thing, with the injury load we've had we're not going to risk anymore injuries."

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