Super Rugby AU: Waratahs blow away Reds with incredible first-half to give Dave Rennie a nudge
It’s bad enough that the Broncos are the punchline for every gag in the NRL but now the Reds are the laughing stock of Super Rugby AU after a defeat to the Waratahs that almost defies comprehension.
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If Queensland’s defence on the field was as tight as their border lockdowns they wouldn’t be the butt of every joke in Australian footy right now.
It’s bad enough that the Broncos are the punchline for every gag in the NRL but now the Reds are the laughing stock of Super Rugby AU after the baby Waratahs - the team that everyone else has written off - smashed the visitors 45-12 in the most lopsided match at the Sydney Cricket Ground since the Kiwis were demolished in the New Year’s Test.
It was NSW’s biggest win over their oldest rivals since the code turned professional in the mid 1990s and one of the biggest floggings since they first locked horns way back in 1882.
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“We were up, we were excited and played bloody well, while the Reds have had a tough week so emotionally they might not have been on song,” NSW coach Rob Penney said.
“Every time we have a step forward like that we’ve just got to try to make sure we don’t have two steps backwards. That’s our challenge next week to make sure we are able to keep the momentum.”
With the bonus point win, the Waratahs moved to third on the ladder, ahead of Queensland on points difference.
“Very happy with that,” Waratahs skipper Michael Hooper said.
“We got off to a hot start and kept the foot on the throat.”
The Waratahs led 38-0 at halftime after Jake Gordon helped himself to a hat-trick of tries while Jack Maddocks and Alex Newsome bagged one each and were up 45-0 early in the second when Tom Horton plowed his way over.
With The Bob Templeton Cup assured, the Waratahs effectively declared, failing to score again as the Reds replied with two consolation tries, the first to replacement Jack Hardy - who was called in at the last minute when Jordan Petaia withdrew following the sudden death of his father - then the second to James O’Connor after the hooter.
One of the biggest decisions Dave Rennie still has to make should be the easiest of the lot after that flogging.
Whether he wants the job or or not, Michael Hooper has to be retained as Wallaby skipper.
Rennie is going to have enough sleepless nights just figuring out who should be in his squad for the end of year internationals because there’s too many players contending for the positions Australia already has covered and not enough in the spots the Wallabies are weak in.
Hooper is one of the few certainties to be selected because he’s still the best openside flanker in Australia and that alone should be enough to give him the captain’s armband because none of the other contenders for the captaincy are assured of being picked.
You won’t hear a bad word about Hooper from any of his team-mates because he commands everyone’s respect, but the elephant in the room is his appalling record as Australia captain.
His numbers are abysmal: just 19 wins from 46 Tests in charge.
That’s a winning strike rate of 44.56 per cent - the lowest of any Wallaby captain since David Codey lost his one and only match in charge way back in 1987.
He’s been accused of making dumb decisions, going for tries when penalties were the better option and taking the kicks at goal when it was time to roll the dice but his past failures as a captain come with a massive disclaimer.
The Wallaby team he’s been in charge of for the past few years has been a laughing stock, led by a coach who thought he was driving a Ferrari when he was really in an old bomb.
No-one took Australia’s embarrassing early exit from last year’s World Cup harder than Hooper and it was no surprise when he gave up the Waratah captaincy this season though he’s the leader of the team in every other manner.
It was no coincidence that NSW turned in their best performance in years to smash the Reds after Hooper took over as captain, replacing Rob Simmons when he was ruled out with injury.
Hooper hasn’t spoken to Rennie about the Australian captaincy but he has made it clear that he won’t turn it down if he’s offered it and that should make the new coach’s decision for him.
Rebels find their cause in coach’s special milestone
The Brumbies juggernaut was spectacularly derailed on Friday night as the Melbourne Rebels produced one of the great performance in the club’s history to blot out their arch-rivals 30-12 in the rain in the Super Rugby AU clash at Leichhardt Oval.
Appropriately Rebels coach Dave Wessels became the most successful coach in Melbourne’s history — scoring his 20th win — after he masterminded a performance in which his side out-enthused the Brumbies from the first minute to the, well, next to last. As it happened, the Brumbies dominated right at the death, with replacement flanker Will Miller crashing over for a consolation try after receiving five penalties in the last 10 minutes.
The Rebels victory pushed them up to second place on the ladder on 15 points, three behind the Brumbies, although the Reds could still regain second spot with a bonus point victory tonight over the Waratahs at the SCG.
In a sense, this result was coming — even if it did take all involved by surprise. The Brumbies may have gone undefeated through their first four matches of the Australian-only edition of Super Rugby but the reality was that they could have lost to the Rebels, the Waratahs and the Reds, who they only beat after the fulltime siren.
It was a sign of the maturity of the ACT side that they could tough out the wins even when they weren’t playing particularly well but the Rebels picked up on the unmistakeable signs: the Brumbies weren’t playing particularly well.
What they had to do was put them under pressure and in that endeavour they never let up. They dominated early territory and possession and after only three minutes Rebels captain Matt Toomua sensed some confusion on the Brumbies left edge, linked up with five-eighth Andrew Deegan and put fullback Reece Hodge away for a sliding try over the line.
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That rocked the Brumbies but not as much as the try which followed just 11 minutes later. A kick ahead was charged down — that would happen on a fairly regular basis as the Brumbies kickers were crowded for time and space — and Test winger Marika Koroibete hacked the ball downfield.
He made a meal of toeing it a second time, the ball squirting off his boot at right angles, but he scooped up Brumbies winger Andy Muirhead’s fumbled attempt to gather the ball in, and quickly offloaded to busy flanker Brad Wilkins for a stunning try.
The Brumbies needed to restore some order and it was no surprise that they turned to their driving maul for the first — and as it happens only try — in the 18th minute.
Technically speaking it was scored by the backs but the only one outraged when he snatched the ball out of Folau Fainga’a’s hands was the Brumbies hooker. That broke his run of having scored in his past six matches.
But until Miller’s try right at the death, that was it for the Brumbies on the night in the points-scoring department.
The Rebels, though, had another two tries in them before halftime, with Hodge scoring a second from a Toomua grubber and a slow Tom Banks reaction while right on halftime Jordan Uelese sneaked over the line after No. 8 Isi Naisarani had taken a quick tap just five metres out.
Indeed, they looked like scoring one minute after the halftime hooter only for Naisarani to knock-on at the back of the Rebels scrum as he spotted an opening.
Still, at 27-7, it was the most first half points the Rebels had scored away from The Stockade, AAMI Park in Melbourne.
If the Brumbies intended to win, they would have to make a record comeback. Their previous best was 19 points and it had to be said that they never looked like doing so.
The Rebels might not have been able to maintain their extraordinary composure and handling in the wet as the second half unfolded but it mattered little as all the other parts of their game remained rock solid — their defence, their set pieces and, most of all, their enthusiasm.
“It just felt comfortable in that sense,” said Toomua. “It’s a simple game when you win the contact. We knew our defence was good, particularly in the wet. Sometimes it’s more about territory than possession and I thought we did that well.”
He was quick to single out Deegan, even though he had displaced him from five-eighth for this match. “His kicking was outstanding. He might have pushed me out of a job. He was great, he really was. A calm head and he was exactly what we needed.”
Yet Deegan was far from alone. Every Rebels player contributed, and heavily. As for the Brumbies, this might be the loss they desperately want to forget as they head to the bye, although not before they have learned the many lessons from it.
TAHS CALL OUT REDS’ THOR – SAYING HE BENDS THE RULES
Stopping short of calling Taniela Tupou a con artist, the Waratahs say it’s time to explode the myth about how the Queensland strongman dominates opposing scrums.
If you listen to anyone north of the border, they’ll tell you the 135kg tighthead prop is a one-man wrecking ball with such incredible power that no other front rower in the country can cope with him.
But listen to anyone who’s played or coached against him and they’ll say Tupou’s greatest asset is not his in his enormous biceps but the way he dupes referees into believing he’s always the innocent victim each time a scrum collapses.
Trying to fool the whistleblowers is all part and parcel of the dark arts of scrummaging so the Waratahs don’t have any beef with Tupou for trying, but they reckon it’s time the referees were let in on the joke that he’s pulling the wool over their eyes.
“He is immensely strong and that gets him out of a lot of situations but he’s also got some technical things that he needs to address,” Waratahs forwards coach Matt Cockbain said.
“He’s got issues that he needs to work on but that doesn’t really change anything for us.
“All we can do is show that we’re doing everything correctly, and that means always packing low and straight and square and not coming in from the angle.”
Taniela had a field day when the teams met at Brisbane earlier this year with referee Nic Berry — a former Reds halfback — repeatedly penalising the Waratahs scrum, and eventually sin-binning NSW’s junior Wallaby prop Angus Bell.
Tupou has done the same to other teams — both at home and away — and Cockbain said he sympathised with the whistleblowers trying to work out who the culprit was.
“It can be very difficult for referees to adjudicate about who’s in the wrong because sometimes scrums just go down,” Cockbain said. “The key part for the referee is to look at the cause of it and figure out who’s at fault so again, the picture we’ll be presenting is that we’re packing properly.”
Tupou may not be the only giant the Waratahs have to deal with at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday after the Reds named teenage prop Zane Nonggorr on the bench for his Super Rugby debut.
Nicknamed “Baby Thor’ by his teammates, Nonggorr has been trending on social media after Rugby Australia released a video compilation of some his rampaging runs and Reds’ coach Brad Thorn is excited about his prospects.
“We think he‘s a really good young talent and here’s an opportunity for him off the bench. We’ve got a lot of belief in Zane and it’s a good little story, another guy coming along,” Thorn said.
“He‘s not a little lad, he’s 126 kilo or something, he’s got some ability … and whatnot but he’s done a lot of work and he’s getting an opportunity hopefully this week.”
Michael Hooper will resume the captaincy of the Waratahs after Rob Simmons — who broke a rib against the Rebels two weeks ago — failed a last minute fitness test. Tom Stanifth was promoted off the bench to replaced Simmons at lock.