Waratahs finally break free but wary after Super Rugby flogging

NSW Rugby boss Roger Davis warned: “The trick now is to keep the momentum going. We don’t want to be one-match wonders.”

NSW player Alex Newsome dives over for a try at the Sydney Cricket Ground

Roger Davis was doing a fair bit of chortling on Saturday night, as he was fully entitled to do as chairman of NSW Rugby, but he did sound a note of warning: “The trick now is to keep the momentum going. We don’t want to be one-match wonders.”

Meanwhile, down at the Waratahs’ press conference, coach Rob Penney was saying pretty much the same thing. “Every time we have a step forward like that, we just have to make sure that we don’t then take two steps backwards. That’s our challenge next week, to make sure that we are able to keep the momentum.”

The momentum, of course, all flowed from the 45-12 thrashing the Tahs had just inflicted on Queensland, a result so comprehensive it even brought a smile to the face of Michael Hooper, a man who had a good deal to do with achieving it. It was the 13th win in 15 interstate meetings for the stand-in NSW skipper and even a growing welt just under his left eyebrow wasn’t entirely blinding him to the enormousness of his own personal achievement or that of the team in general.

He had been deeply wounded by how the Tahs had performed against the Melbourne Rebels in their last game and wasted little time remaining on the field for idle chitchat at fulltime, so his relief on Saturday night that his side had bounced back was evident for all to see.

The 33-point margin was the largest winning margin by NSW over Queensland in 138 years and their biggest win over the Reds since the start of Super Rugby back in 1996, though not quite up to the 38 points Queensland registered over NSW in 1976 (42-4) and 1979 (48-10).

Waratahs interim captain Michael Hooper with the Bob Templeton Cup after defeating the Reds at the Sydney Cricket Ground

Still, it was a whopping defeat of an old enemy.

The match, as everyone soon became aware, was played out against the miserably sad backdrop of the sudden death of Jordan Petaia’s dad, Tielu, from a heart attack on Wednesday. Several of the Reds players had rallied around him but Petaia, who had only just returned from a long rehab from shoulder surgery to play brilliantly against the Brumbies the week before, understandably was inconsolable.

“I can’t seem to keep the tears away,” he wrote movingly on Instagram. “I ain’t ever felt pain like this. I hate feeling like this. I still can’t believe what’s happened. Your heart and mind were so pure. I’ll love and miss you forever, Dad.”

On rare occasions, a team can be galvanised by such a tragedy, everyone somehow summoning up powers they never knew they had to play brilliantly in his honour. The Reds tried to convince themselves they were such a team but from the moment they began the match by missing tackles and dropping passes willy-nilly, it was obvious their reaction would be all too human. As desperately as they wanted to play for Jordan and Tielu, as keenly as they wanted emotion to kick in for them, it just wasn’t happening.

So as much as Queenslanders would have been aghast at the first half performance of their side, it has to be remembered that players aren’t robots. As Penney readily acknowledged: “The Reds have had a tough week … emotionally they might not have been on song.”

True, for the second week in a row, the Reds lost a vital match in which their lineout fell apart so they have some major structural problems to rectify, and have had for quite some time. Indeed, probably since Izack Rodda and Harry Hockings decided to decamp.

And their game management, both against the Brumbies and the Tahs, it been deplorable. They were desperately lucky only to concede three points to NSW in the opening minutes when Will Harrison was held up over the line, so what they desperately needed was a chance to draw breath and regroup when they were handed a penalty within easy distance of the NSW posts a few moments later. But instead of taking the gift three points on offer to settle themselves down, they kicked to the corner and Brandon Paenga-Amosa threw directly to

Waratahs coach Rob Penney has a smile after the win over Queensland

Hooper at the back and that set the trend for the night.

Some really hard questions about the Reds’ set-up need to be asked but, right at this painful juncture, maybe now is not the time to ask them. Unfortunately, in professional sport, the amnesty rarely last long.

For the moment, let’s allow Queensland to regroup for their next challenges – the funeral this week, which for biosecurity reasons the Reds will not be permitted to attend, and then the Rebels at Suncorp next Saturday night – and focus instead on the Waratahs.

They are regularly pilloried and they have, arguably, the most demanding set of fans in Australian rugby. They are torn apart following every defeat so let’s make the most of this opportunity to piece them back together.

No 8 Jack Dempsey has looked out of sorts just about all season but he was on song on Saturday night. The pre-contact evasion skills were back, so too the aggressive running for valuable post-contact metres and he even brought a sense of humour to a threatening flare-up, giving Angus Blyth such a wedgie that even the Queensland lock burst out laughing. When he is on form, Dempsey is one of the most valuable ballcarriers in Australia, which made his display on Saturday particularly all the more inspiring.

Jake Gordon brought a welcome sense of threat back to the halfback position and the speed and energy he brought to the game made it so much easier for young five-eighth Will Harrison to get onto the front foot and steer the Waratahs to where they needed to be.

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Winger James Ramm, meanwhile, continues to make such improvement that he is now bringing into reach a very unusual possibility – a non-Fijian on the wing for a major Test nation. He leads or is in the very top bracket of just about every metric there is for evaluating wing play and yet he has done it without any fanfare. That may be about to change.

The Waratahs, it has often been said, are too big to be allowed to fail. But they are also too important to be just a middling Australian team. NSW is Australia’s most significant rugby state and sets the mood for so much of the sport.

Penney is doing his best to ensure they keep heading in the right direction but it is a massive job and there will be setbacks.

And if anyone has not picked up on that fact, they simply have not been paying attention.