Waratahs wary of overconfidence ahead of winless Sunwolves clash
THEY’RE winless in five outings and are conceding an average of 44 points per game, but the Sunwolves won’t be easy fodder for the Waratahs, winger Alex Newsome believes.
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THEY’RE winless in five outings and are conceding an average of 44 points per game, but the Sunwolves won’t be easy fodder for the Waratahs, winger Alex Newsome believes.
Japan’s woeful Super Rugby outfit hosts NSW in Tokyo tomorrow and many predict another rout.
But Newsome, who replaces the injured Israel Folau, says the visitors will not be complacent as they seek to win three in a row.
“The Sunwolves are a very dangerous team,” Newsome said. “If you’ve been watching their footy, they’ve got a lot of attacking flair, some dangerous outside backs and they play the quickest rugby in the competition in terms of ruck speed.
“We’re aware of their dangers and there’ll be no danger of complacency from us this weekend.”
The Waratahs (three wins, one draw, one loss) have had their best start to a season since 2009, and can close the gap to Australian conference leaders Melbourne to one point if they can orchestrate a bonus-point victory.
Newsome replaced Folau in the fourth minute after the Wallabies ace injured his hamstring in last weekend’s 24-17 win over the Brumbies in Canberra, which followed the Tahs’ 51-27 victory over Melbourne, giving them back-to-back wins for the first time since 2016.
“It was a good win (against the Brumbies but) we were somewhat discontent in the fact that we probably didn’t play our best game,” Newsome said. “There was a lot of dropped ball and we probably didn’t work as hard off the ball as we would’ve liked.
“So, that’s the big message going into this week, just really focus on our game and probably just try and work a bit harder in our own roles and contribute to the overall performance of the team.”
Newsome, who was playing for the Western Force last year, said the Tahs were always going to be his preferred destination once the Perth franchise was axed from Super Rugby.
“Being a NSW guy I’ve played with a lot of the guys in the squad through NRC and junior teams coming through the ranks, so it wasn’t a completely foreign environment to me,” he said.
“Playing with guys in the backline like Jake Gordon, Andrew Kellaway through Country Eagles and other guys coming up through the age groups, (it) makes it easier when you know guys off the field and then you can work on combinations once you start playing with them.”
The Sunwolves were moved into the Australian conference in place of the Force.
SANZAAR officials remain concerned about their lacklustre performances while Japanese Top League clubs are pulling support from the franchise.
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Originally published as Waratahs wary of overconfidence ahead of winless Sunwolves clash
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