Jake Gordon smoothly slides into the NSW captain’s chair

It may have been a foretaste of what’s to come as Jake Gordon slipped smoothly into the Waratahs captain’s chair.

Waratahs halfback Jake Gordon is still searching for consistency

It may have been a foretaste of what’s to come, it may have been pure coincidence, but either way, Jake Gordon slipped smoothly into the captain’s chair at yesterday’s press conference and predicted the Waratahs wouldn’t be changing their game against Melbourne on Saturday night, no matter what.

If the Tahs lose to the Rebels at Leichhardt Oval, their Super Rugby AU season is over. Simple as that. One would think that would introduce an element of caution into their tactics but Gordon announced that the same tactics that had got the Waratahs in this predicament were the very same ones that would extricate them.

“We will be playing an expansive game no matter what the conditions,” Gordon confirmed. “Looking at the times that we did play the Rebels and not play that well, we kind of fell into the trap of playing the game that they want to play. We gave away poor discipline so we couldn’t exit from our own end. Both games were quite wet so we didn’t quite get the chance to throw the ball around. We have a few little tactics that will help that but it comes down to field position and not giving away easy penalties for us to stay in the game.”

Given that the Waratahs will not play during the final round of the regular season next weekend because they have the bye, this could well be the Tahs’ last match for 2020, so it was more than a little unusual that regular skipper Rob Simmons did not conduct the pre-game captain’s run press conference.

He is leaving for London Irish once his Australian commitments are over while long-time skipper Michael Hooper will be taking a sabbatical with Toyota Verblitz in Japan next year, so it did not take the media long to zero in on the fact that coach Rob Penney had sent along Gordon, the man he recently likened to Irish and British Lions halfback Conor Murray, to speak on the team’s behalf.

“This is normally the day the captain’s speaks,” the question began. “Is this coming a year early? What’s the story? Will you be captain next year?”

Gordon rolled his eyes. “I knew that was coming,” he quipped before launching into a spiel that 2021 was a long way away. Still, if it was indeed a dry run, Waratahs supporters should know that Gordon handled himself with aplomb, projecting the right mix of humour, self-deprecation, insight and fierce determination. If he plays as well as he speaks, NSW’s fortunes might just be in for a turnaround.

He did, obliquely, mention the one reservation observers have of him – his lack of consistency. Sometimes he play very much in the dynamic mould of the halfback Penney likened him to, Murray, but other times he shovels the ball out from the ruck base with smooth efficiency but does little to shape the game to the Tahs’ advantage.

“Consistency is a big thing at the moment,” he said, perhaps echoing what he was told by Wallabies coach Dave Rennie. “I don’t want to be known as a halfback who plays one good game and then three bad ones.”

Watch every game of Super Rugby AU Live & On-Demand on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly

While there has been great fixation on the Tahs’ predicament in this match, the Rebels too are facing a milestone of sorts. If they win, they will enter the playoffs for the first time in their 10-season history. They have come close in recent years under coach Dave Wessels but stumbled at the death and while it will not be such a cause for celebration if they achieve it this year – after all, three of the five teams will make it through to the finals – it still will be a wonderful achievement for a team which has played every match away in a nine-week odyssey out of Victoria.

Wessels took careful note of where the Brumbies attacked the Tahs last weekend, targeting their strong point, the lineout, repeatedly, and getting inside the head of young NSW hooker Tom Horton, but one wonders precisely how much of those lessons the Rebels intend to apply tonight. It’s not a Brumbies-style game Wessels intends to play but very much a Rebels one.

“I feel really confident with where our game is at,” Wessels said. “When we are playing at our best, when we are playing Rebels rugby … and we’ve only done that a handful of times this season, that Waratahs game one of them … we are hard to stop.”