Waratahs defence coach Nathan Grey charged with stopping David Pocock, Scott Fardy
AUSTRALIA defence coach Nathan Grey knows the games’ of David Pocock and Scott Fardy better than most but the Tahs assistant says stopping the duo is a different beast.
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NATHAN Grey has mixed feelings about David Pocock and Scott Fardy.
“You love them and you hate them. It depends which hat I have got on,” Grey said.
The superb backrowers were firmly in Grey’s good books last year when he was an assistant coach of the Wallabies and Pocock and Fardy were terrorising World Cup rivals at the breakdown.
But this week Grey — now back at his job as defence with the Waratahs — is one of those rivals too, with the Tahs travelling to Canberra for an early-season blockbuster with the Brumbies on Friday night.
The double act of Pocock and Fardy produce the toughest on-ball pressure in Super Rugby and it helped the Brumbies hammer the Hurricanes last week. If NSW’s pack doesn’t negate the duo’s influence the Tahs’ Formula One backline will be left stranded on the start line.
Grey came to understand Pocock’s brilliance up-close in the Wallabies’ World Cup campaign but he rates Fardy so highly as well, the NSW defence coach doesn’t single out the Brumbies’ famous no.7; rather he speaks about Fardy and Pocock as a unit.
So is there anything that can done to eliminate their threat?
“There are things you can do. Good luck with it, but you can try them,” Grey said.
“Clearly from a defensive perspective, both those guys are exceptional. They train it and they practice it, and that’s why they’re good at it.
“If you want to negate that you have to get your ball carry right to start with and you need to have your support so quickly to that ball, that the little window of opportunity is as small as possible.
“You have to close down those opportunities but if they are good enough to earn them, you learn from that and get onto the next thing.”
The Waratahs say it is a team effort to stop Pocock and Fardy and the fact they named a six forward-two back bench - including fit-again no.8 Wycliff Palu - indicates they have plans to use heavy artillery.
But their primary weapon will be no.7 and skipper Michael Hooper, who was the third man of the Wallabies’ backrow last year.
Fardy said he was looking forward to watching Hooper and Pocock go head to head; one of the few positional duels that often lives up to the hype.
“They are both very special players so it will be exciting to watch them play against each other,” Fardy said.
“They’re both really different but they just have that huge workrate and love to get involved in the game. I love playing alongside them. I guess I have a front-row seat to watch them so I’ll look forward to it.”
But far from being viewing the Pocock-Fardy threat as a negative, Grey said the upside of playing such dangerous players is they give you a simple equation: bring your A-game or suffer.
“That’s the beauty of it. It brings the best out of you,” Grey said.
“You need to be on your game against those blokes.
“It brings the best out of you if you are playing with them, and it brings the best out of you if you’re playing against them.
“That’s the benefit, for all of us, of having world-class players in Australia playing against each other.
“It’s a great learning environment, for all the young players in Australia, to look up to and test yourself against. Bring your A-game and get ready for battle.”
The Waratahs stuck with their same starting XV as last week, with Palu and uncapped prop Matt Sandell on the bench. The Brumbies name their side on Thursday.
NSW: Israel Folau, Matt Carraro, Rob Horne, David Horwitz, Zac Guildford, Kurtley Beale, Nick Phipps, Jed Holloway, Michael Hooper (c), David Dennis, Will Skelton, Dean Mumm, Angus Taavao, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Paddy Ryan.
RESERVES: Tolu Latu, Matt Sandell, Jeremy Tilse, Sam Lousi, Wycliff Palu, Jack Dempsey, Matt Lucas, Bryce Hegarty.
Originally published as Waratahs defence coach Nathan Grey charged with stopping David Pocock, Scott Fardy
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