Tahs hooker serves punch punishment in a trial game

The NSW Waratahs have expressed relief after Tolu Latu “got off totally” for a punch in the loss to the Brumbies.

Waratahs hooker Tolu Latu will serve his suspension in a trial game for Sydney University

The NSW Waratahs have expressed relief after reserve hooker Tolu Latu “got off totally” for a punch in the 32-15 loss to the Brumbies in Canberra last Friday night.

Latu was cited after the game and received a one-week suspension after pleading guilty before a SANZAAR judiciary on Sunday.

As the Waratahs have a bye this weekend Latu’s only punishment will be missing a trial game for club side Sydney University this Saturday.

“Any time anyone goes into those situations you want the best-case scenario and totally getting off is the ideal situation,” Waratahs defence coach Nathan Grey said. “The process has gone through. He is able to play. He was going to play for Sydney Uni anyway. We wanted to get all the guys who didn’t get much time in the first two weeks to get time playing club footy.”

With starting Waratahs hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau sidelined for six to eight weeks with a fractured wrist, the loss of Latu for their match with the defending champions, the Highlanders, in Sydney on Friday week would have been devastating.

Asked whether Latu had to maintain his discipline, Grey said: “I don’t think he (head coach Daryl Gibson) would be saying to maintain his discipline. Just do what we want to do and go about doing it the way we do it.

“It’s not an issue in our side at all. It’s just a matter of making sure we are making the right decisions at the right time and trusting what we are doing to put an opposition under pressure with our defence and also our attack and not feeling as though they have to force the issue at the breakdown or getting off-side or taking the law into their own hands.”

The loss of Polota-Nau will put further pressure on a Waratahs scrum that has struggled in the opening two games against the Queensland Reds and Brumbies as they come to grips with the departure of Wallabies tighthead prop Sekope Kepu.

Wallabies loosehead prop Benn Robinson will return for the Highlanders game after a bout of concussion, but Grey indicated the Waratahs would stick with the new-look front-row of Angus Ta’avao and Paddy Ryan.

“The guys who are there at the moment we back them and trust them to do the job,” Grey said.

“We will be working with them and Bladesy (forwards coach Cameron Blades) and making sure we can put our best foot forward.”

Grey said the Waratahs would focus on their set piece during the bye week.

“There are certainly things from the first two games we want to work on,” Grey said. “We want to continue to develop what we are doing in terms of our set piece and general play. We are going to use the bye week to sharpen the focus and get ourselves ready for our next bloc.

“The Brumbies were able to put us under pressure at the set piece and not allow us to get that clean, structured ball. The Reds did a little bit as well. In saying that we also got dominated in a few other areas on the field as well.

“The contact area as well against the Brumbies was something where they got a bit of ascendancy over us and didn’t allow us to play the way we wanted to play. That’s something we certainly need to work on.”

Another area the Waratahs needed to work on was Grey’s area of responsibility, defence, after leaking four tries to the Brumbies.

“Not happy at all,” Grey said. “They got a penalty try and two tries from simple one-on-one misses. Joe’s (Tomane) try and Christian’s (Lealiifano) try. We can control all those situations.

“I take responsibility to do my job better to make sure the side’s performing and defending in a way that we know we can.”

Grey was still confident the Waratahs would be among the title contenders at the end of the season.

“We have a lot of confidence in the way we want to play on both sides of the ball,” Grey said. “I’ve got no doubt after the bye we’ve got a good opportunity to take our medicine and prepare ourselves accordingly and approach the next three-game bloc with real confidence and purpose.

“We got a lot of confidence out of the game. There were lots of things we did well. We were able to stay in the game even though we weren’t playing that well.

“To go in at halftime at eight-all and then to be 25-15 down with a short period to go in the game, we were certainly in it. The game was there for us to win, but we weren’t good enough.”