There is hanging on by your fingernails.
And then there is hanging on by just a couple of slippery fingertips.
The Waratahs used the latter to keep their faint finals hopes alive heading into the last round with a “miraculous” golden-point finish in rainy Perth, via a Darby Lancaster try that not only came in the final seconds, it came in the final seconds of the 90th minute.
And the try not only came in extra time, it came with a diving finish that saw Lancaster plant the ball in the corner, with barely an inch of grass to spare.
The acrobatic grounding even took a nerve-wracking review and sign-off from the TMO, who seemed to rule at one point that Lancaster had lost the ball, before finally determining there had been no loss of contact and a “press”, and thus gave the thumbs up.
Referee Angus Gardner delivered the news and the Waratahs players jumped onto Lancaster joyously. It was NSW’s first win on the road of the season.
If the try was disallowed, the game would have stayed a 17-all draw and the season would have been over for the Waratahs, who needed to bank at least four points to stay alive in the playoffs race.
But they got the five-pointer at HBF Park, and the four for the table, and now have to beat the Blues in Auckland in the final round.
They haven’t managed that since 2009, but at least the rubber will be live, and the Waratahs will get a chance to go down swinging.
“What was it, 90 minutes? It could have gone either way there. In the end I thought we were really calm,” Waratahs coach Dan McKellar said.
“In that five-minute break there, certainly that was the messaging that I was getting from Tom Carter. I thought Teddy Wilson and Jack Bowen really stood up and guided us around the park. A little line break from Jamie Adamson which put us in the right area of the field.
“And Darby once again showed that he’s got some pretty special finishing qualities.”
The Tahs’ victory in Perth was, to paraphrase Keating and Postecoglou, one for the true believers.
It was not a classic, free-wheeling night of entertainment. But that’s the way the Force were happy to play it, and for 89 minutes of it, the hosts looked the stronger side. They defended superbly in numbers and turned the breakdown into a dockyard brawl.
Darby Lancaster takes to the air to score the golden point try.Credit: Getty Images
The Force crumpled Waratahs runners all night, routed the sky blue lineout and via the heavy crew of Tizzano, De Crespigny and Williams, generally bullied their eastern state rivals in the contact zones.
But as has often been the case with pugnacious Force teams in their 20-year history, they didn’t have enough attacking threat to finish the job. Their discipline let them down in the second half, too, with too many penalties in their half that allowed NSW to hang in the contest.
They had two chances to win via game-winning penalty kicks; Kurtley Beale just missed from about 55 metres after the siren in regular time. And bench flyhalf Alex Harford missed a shot in golden point time from 45 metres, after he’d confidently waved away Beale to take the kick.
In a wet and ill-tempered clash that saw several off-the-ball scuffles and squadrons of flying cleanouts, the Tahs scored first via an intercept to Triston Reilly, but passive NSW defence then allowed the Force to build pressure, and it was no shock to see Carlo Tizzano take yet another pick-and-drive try in the corner.
It was Tizzano’s 13th try of the year, breaking the record for most Super Rugby tries in a season by a forward.
Another intercept began the play that led to the Tahs scoring a second try, though, with Lancaster fielding a crosskick, and after some smart hands from Hugh Sinclair in the next phases, Lancaster backed up to score his first.
Though trailing, the Force began to get on top thereafter, rumbling the NSW lineout platform with multiple steals.
Mac Grealy scored for the home team with some smart attack down the left edge, and with NSW’s defence mostly backpeddling, Hamish Stewart slipped through a Jake Gordon tackle to score again before the break.
A fight broke out between Fergus Lee-Warner and most of the Force team after Stewart’s try, and he was lucky to escape without a sanction for what looked suspiciously like an old-fashioned short right on Nic Dolly.
The second half saw the rain began to really come in hard - and the points dry up.
Taniela Tupou copped a yellow card for a silly slide tackle, but the Force didn’t take advantage of their extra man. They failed to score in his absence, and in what became a game of territory and kicking away your possession, NSW also botched their best chance with a first-phase trick play off a lineout in the 60th minute.
Somehow, the Waratahs’ turned to their best asset this season - hang-in-ability - and the game was there for either to take it down the stretch.
Jack Bowen was good off the bench for the Waratahs, kicking astutely and chasing well too. He provided good direction at a critical time, and was noticeable when the teams had a short break before extra time, young Bowen was doing all the talking.
Bowen nailed a penalty kick in the 74th minute to draw level, and after Beale’s long-ranger faded right, the game went into golden point.
The name of the game was getting the ball out of your half, and the Waratahs appeared to be doing it better but conceded a penalty just inside their half.
Harford missed it, but Bowen then also missed his chance to drop the mic with a penalty that sprayed right.
With less than a minute left, the Tahs got their hands on the ball one last time desperately kept attacking. A Jamie Adamson break saw Daniel Botha and Teddy Wilson get close to the line, and from the next phase, Bowen found Lancaster with a narrow shot at the corner.
It was enough. Just.
“It’s massive,” McKellar said.
“We’ve had a rough few weeks and you feel for the players. Reviews are always honest and they have to be because we want to get better. But their attitude has been excellent and we’ve bounced back.
“And tonight we can have a couple of quiet beers and celebrate a good win. I’m sure it wasn’t pretty. It won’t go down as a classic, but it’s four points in the bank and we stay alive.”
