Super Rugby: Sunwolves beat Waratahs 31-29
If Scott Johnson ever needed a reality check on the enormity of the job he faces fixing Australian rugby then he got it with Friday night’s Waratahs’ horror show.
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If Scott Johnson ever needed a reality check on the enormity of the job he faces fixing Australian rugby then he got it with Friday night’s Waratahs’ horror show.
Just hours after he was talking up the Wallabies as World Cup contenders, his trip up the F3 to Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium was a sobering reminder of how much work needs to be done.
The Waratahs 31-29 loss to the bottom-placed Sunwolves was a humiliation for Australian rugby after last week’s confidence-boosting upset victory by the Tahs over the Crusaders.
The Sunwolves, still smarting after being told they are being booted out of Super Rugby after 2020, had never won a match in Australia before Friday night’s deserved triumph.
WEAK DEFENCE
Statistically, the Waratahs matched their best attacking performance of the season, scoring four tries, but defensively, it was a nightmare as they produced their worst showing this year.
After crossing for two early tries, the Waratahs overplayed their hand, showing little respect to the struggling Japanese franchise until they found themselves trailing.
They scored two more in the second half but lost any momentum they tried to build with 23 turnovers and some senseless kicking out of hand.
Until last night, the biggest improvement the Waratahs have made this year has been with their defence but perhaps they’ve been reading their own glowing press reports because they had a shocker on Friday night.
Not only did they give up four tries for the first time this season but they missed a whopping 19 tackles.
ROTATION CURSE
The Waratahs’ embarrassing defeat underlined once again the stupidity of the rotation policy.
Why professional players need to be rested now for a tournament taking place at the end of the year remains a source of irritation to every club player in the game and it’s having a disastrous impact on NSW.
With more Wallabies than the other Australian sides, the Waratahs have been chopping and changing their starting line-up all year so have been unable to get any continuity.
This was never more evident than Friday night as the Waratahs badly missed their absent stars, especially Bernard Foley, whose calmness and accurate kicking game was sorely missed.
His replacement Mack Mason has been earmarked as a player of the future but the 23-year-old had a nightmare in just his second Super Rugby start before being dragged midway through the second half.
FORTRESS
The Sydney Cricket Ground might be a terrible place to watch Super Rugby because the sideline is so far from the stands and the atmosphere is horribly flat but at least the Waratahs win there.
The Waratahs have only won three matches this year and two have been at the SCG. The other win, ironically, was in Tokyo against the Sunwolves.
They have taken two of their home matches on the road this season — to Brookvale Oval and now Newcastle — but lost them both.
SUNWOLVES 31 (Semisi Masirewa 3, Grant Hattingh tries Hayden Parker 4 cons pen) NSW WARATAHS 29 (Kurtley Beale, Cameron Clark, Michael Hooper, Nick Phipps tries Mack Mason 2, Beale cons Mason pen) at McDonald JonesStadium. Referee: Paul Williams.