Avoiding the wooden spoon should be the Waratahs’ goal now after a disastrous start to the Super Rugby season
Waratahs supporters should not be disappointed with whatever happens in the rest of the season because expectations are now so low that even climbing off the bottom of the table will be a cause for celebration.
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Three weeks into the new Super Rugby season, Waratahs supporters can relax.
Anyone who was thinking about taking holidays or getting married during the finals series can go ahead and make their bookings now, safe in the knowledge they won’t be missing out on seeing the Tahs making a run at the title.
Fans shouldn’t be made to feel disloyal if they’ve already given up hope because not even the truest believers should be disappointed with whatever happens in the remainder of the season.
The blunt reality is that expectations are now so low that the Waratahs should reset their goals for 2020 so no one gets too down as the losses keep mounting up.
Ensuring this isn’t remembered as NSW’s worst season since Super Rugby began 25 years ago is one good goal to consider.
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To do that, they will need to win at least four of their remaining 13 matches — which is by no means a given, so maybe the bar should be set lower, just in case.
How about not finishing as wooden spooners, which is where they sit on the ladder after conceding 99 points from their first 240 minutes of action
There was a glimmer of hope during the pre-season that the exciting crop of youngsters joining the senior ranks for the first time could magically transform the side into a competitive outfit, but that notion has been blown away by the three straight losses.
It’s just not happening, at least not this year, so everyone can sit back and wait for the storm to pass because it’s going to take a while.
Straight-shooting skipper Rob Simmons wasn’t kidding when he said the team’s “in a hole” and the head coach Rob Penney wasn’t bothering with PR spin, either, when he called a spade a spade after Friday’s 26-10 loss to the Rebels at AAMI Park.
“There’s a group there that's lacking a bit of confidence now,” he said. “So it won’t be a revolution of any sort.”
Penney was never under any illusions about why the Waratahs signed him so he won’t be surprised by the team’s start to the season.
NSW Rugby isn’t exactly flush with money so they wanted someone to develop the team’s best young players as they transition into the professional ranks.
Patience, more than anything else, was the key trait they were looking for and Penney is going to need a truckload of that if the first three weeks are a guide.
One of the main things he wanted to teach his players was to play a more reactive game — seizing opportunities as they unfold rather than trying to manufacture them through some sort of preordained plan.
It’s not rocket science but it simply doesn’t work unless a team can retain possession long enough, and that’s where it’s all falling down right now, leaving Penney with no alternative other than to go back to basics and remind his players how to crawl before they walk.
“It's been a bit of an issue for us this early part of the year and we’re trying to address it, but it’s something that, I guess, is just a time factor,” he said.