Waratahs team news: Damien Fitzpatrick dropped with Tolu Latu coming in at hooker
TOLU Latu has been recalled to the NSW starting lineup for the first time this season as the Waratahs gamble on his brute strength in the set pieces countering the threat posed by the Lions’ master thief Malcolm Marx.
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UPDATE: TOLU Latu has been recalled to the NSW starting lineup for the first time this season as the Waratahs gamble on his brute strength in the set pieces countering the threat posed by the Lions’ master thief Malcolm Marx.
Fit again after being told to lift his work ethic, Latu got the nod over Damien Fitzpatrick as the starting hooker for Saturday’s semi-final in Johannesburg after impressing in his recent cameos off the bench.
Fitzpatrick had a mortgage on the number two jersey this year, chalking up his 50th cap for NSW in last week’s rollercoaster quarter-final win over the Highlanders at Allianz, but Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson said Latu’s skillset was what’s needed to tame the Lions in the bearpit that is Ellis Park.
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\“We see Tolu as a bigger body,” Gibson said. “He’s got some real strength areas around the breakdown and the scrum in particularly and we see that as the key battlegrounds for us this weekend,” Gibson said.
Fitzpatrick has been a model of consistency this season but has been under increasing pressure to keep the number two jersey after his lineout throws suddenly went all wonky.
With a smaller pack, the Waratahs can’t afford to give the Lions any free possession, particularly with the Lions’ rake Marx establishing himself as one of the great burglars in the modern game, making 23 turnovers this season, just one shy of David Pocock’s all-time Super Rugby record of 24.
“He’s Pocock-esque and we saw what Pocock did to us to a couple of a weeks ago so it’s something we’ve talked about as a team,” Gibson said.
“We’re going to have to be very good at our attacking breakdown and make sure there’s no daylight for Malcolm Marx to get into.”
The switch at hooker is the only change to the matchday 23 that overturned a 17-point halftime deficit to overrun the Highlanders at Allianz Stadium last weekend.
No. 8 Michael Wells and lock Rob Simmons were both cleared to start after having to pass head injury assessments while Alex Newsome retained his place on the right wing ahead of Cam Clark.
The Waratahs have never won a Super Rugby playoff match anywhere on the road and face one of the toughest challenges in the sport if they’re to end their drought in the suffocating thin air of Johannesburg.
At more than 1,700 metres above sea level, the spiritual home of South African rugby is a graveyard for visiting teams and the Waratahs haven’t won there since 2009, when the Lions were playing more like kittens.
But that’s no longer the case. Laden with Springboks, the Lions have made the grand final in each of the past two years and ran the Waratahs off their feet in an embarrassing 29-0 rout at Sydney during the regular season.
“It’s a real incentive for this team the fact that history is against us,” Gibson said.
“The side’s full of belief at the moment. We’ve come off a real emotional high from last Saturday, we’ve recovered well, the bodies are back in check and so we’re ready to go out there and give it everything we can.
WARATAHS team to play Lions
1. Tom Robertson
2. Tolu Latu
3. Sekope Kepu
4. Jed Holloway
5. Rob Simmons
6. Ned Hanigan
7. Will Miller
8. Michael Wells
9. Nick Phipps
10. Bernard Foley (Captain)
11. Taqele Naiyaravoro
12. Kurtley Beale
13. Curtis Rona
14. Alex Newsome
15. Israel Folau
Reserves:
16. Damien Fitzpatrick
17. Harry Johnson-Holmes
18. Paddy Ryan
19. Tom Staniforth
20. Brad Wilkin
21. Jake Gordon
22. Bryce Hegarty
23. Cam Clark
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