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Crusaders' Andy Ellisleft, bottom left, tackles the Waratahs' Dean Mumm as his captain Phil Waugh jumps to make room for a pass during their Super 14 rugby union game at the Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, March 21, 2009. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
The Bulls won 10 of their Super 14 matches this season. The Chiefs, Hurricanes and Waratahs won 9. The Crusaders won 8 matches and drew one. The Waratahs also won all three of their matches in South Africa.
This apparently is the first time an Australian and New Zealand team has done this.
On these series of fact I’m convinced that the Waratahs should have been in the Super 14 finals, and that they would have won the tournament.
In the last few matches when Kurtley Beale was played at inside centre and the obsession with the kicking game, rather than the ensemble passing and running game, was given up, the Waratahs looked to be the best all-round side in the tournament.
The pack was never out-muscled. The set pieces were strong. And when the kicking obsession was finally played out, the backline looked to be a dangerous unit.
There is no doubt in my mind, therefore, that if the Waratahs had made the finals, they would have won the tournament. What is absolutely frustrating is that a tiny 4-points in the points differential (with the Crusaders PD + 33, the Warartahs PD + 29) kept them out of the finals. That and the fact that the Waratahs gained only 5 bonus points to the Crusaders 7, which compensated for their draw.
The worse thing about this bloody-minded approach by the 2009 Waratahs to ‘win ugly’ and to hell with the consequences is that it was stupid and self-defeating.
Bonus points are built into the Super Rugby tournament’s structure to ensure that teams do more in the pool rounds than try to ‘win ugly.’ They should entertain their supporters, too, while they are winning.
So the Waratahs who played in last year’s final are out of this year’s finals. They have also alienated their supporters to such an extent that unless there is an intelligent determination to take spectators on the journey towards a title next year they will lose even more support than they have lost this year.
The interview given by Phil Waugh after the absorbing, high-octane game against the Lions does not give much hope for a change in attitude and policy.
Here are some snippets: ‘It is a pretty good effort to get to 41 points. Considering how much we have been written off all year, too.’
Zavos response: ‘Phil, you were not written off. Most of us argued that there was a champion team within the Waratahs squad, if this team was allowed to play as champions. As for attaining 41 points, so what? You needed 41 points and another converted try to get past the Crusaders. What about the times this season when the Waratahs were leading (the Western Force match is an example) and a shot at goal rather than an attempt to score a try was the option taken?’
Waugh: ‘We are very proud with the way we hung in all year despite the criticism of how we play … the level of commitment doesn’t get recognised and people seem to focus more on the negatives.’
Zavos: ‘It took until the middle of the season for the Waratahs coaches to change the backline so that, with the New Zealand two five-eighths system, it could release the outside backs to make the sort of attacks that Timana Tahu launched against the Lions to open their defences up.’
As for recognising commitment, that is a taken. Professional athletes, like professionals in any activity, are expected to play like professionals, that is to give their all for the cause. The criticism was not directed at the professionalism of the Waratahs players but at the no-brain way they played for most of the season.
To get so close to making the finals with a style that could have been easily tweaked (and was) to make the finals a certainty for the Waratahs was very difficult for Waratahs supporters to stomach.
If you play to win ugly and don’t succeed, you have actually lost ugly which represents a double whammy against the interests of the supporters.
NSW Rugby needs to have an intense debriefing on this 2009 campaign. The team is named after the Waratahs of the late 1920s who developed a rugby equivalent of tennis’ all-court game with a great deal of quicksilver running and skillful passing and a minimum of kicking. The captain and the coach, Chris Hickey, need to be told that unless they can take this tradition on board in 2010 they should hand over their leadership responsibilities.
We don’t know how 2010 is going to turn out, even if the current Waratahs start to play in the Waratahs spirit.
But we do know that the Waratahs should have gone one better than last year this season, the season when they blew winning the 2009 Super 14 tournament.