The Waratahs blew winning the Super 14 tournament
Columnist By Spiro Zavos, 18 May 2009 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- Chris Hickey, Phil Waugh, Rugby Union, Super Rugby, Waratahs
169 Have your say
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.
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- Chris Hickey, Phil Waugh, Rugby Union, Super Rugby, Waratahs
May 18th 2009 @ 8:40am
Dan said | May 18th 2009 @ 8:40am | Report comment
I have to say I agree with Spiro on this one… the Tahs blew it big time by always being conservative. That said, I still think they deserved a shot and I also think that the make up of the finals presents yet another good example of why it should be a 6 team finals series rather than just 4. Look at it; you have 1 team with 10 wins, then 3 teams with 9 wins and then another 3 with 8 wins! That’s 7 teams that are pretty damn close and given the cruel manner in which the Tahs were denied a shot, the system surely deserves another look…
May 18th 2009 @ 8:41am
Rob said | May 18th 2009 @ 8:41am | Report comment
Spiro or anyone else who has some access to the inner workings of NSW rugby,
Does Waugh have too much influence over this team? I think there were suggestions last year with McKenzie and there have been hints this year with Hickey?
May 18th 2009 @ 8:50am
Hammer said | May 18th 2009 @ 8:50am | Report comment
What an absolute load of rubbish .. The Waratahs as KO mentions do not have one world class individual in their ranks – we get rubbish written like this banging on about how a switch to playing a NZ style 2 five-eighths system has re-invigerated them yet for the first half of the season we hear how world class Carter and Horne are going to be … make up your mind
Further we get the endless moaning about missed opportunities – with the Force game particularly being singled out … the Waratahs we outplayed in that game … and yet we don’t hear a thing about how the Waratahs were given a massive helping hand in their 1st 3 games by the poor, myopic refereeing of Dickinson …
put simply they weren’t good enough and in fact I believe their position on the table is inflated somewhat … and as for next year – that seems to be the catch cry for all the Aust Super teams … and if the 5th team does go to Aust for 2011 next year may be the last chance saloon for an Australian side to win a Super series for a very long time
May 18th 2009 @ 8:57am
Andrew B said | May 18th 2009 @ 8:57am | Report comment
Just as a side note – the Waratahs won 9 from 13 – thats winnning 69% of their games, and didn’t make the finals. Leicester won 15 from 22, or 68%. This had them top of the table at the end of the regular season, and they went on to win the GP!
May 18th 2009 @ 9:05am
Rhys Thompson said | May 18th 2009 @ 9:05am | Report comment
I think people being a bit hard on Chris Hickey here. You don’t have side your coachin make 12 grand finals in 13 years without being a good coach, regardless of the level your coaching at. I think there are oter influences at the Waratahs at the moment. If you look at the Woodies sides of about 5 years ago, the way they played, that s the way Kickey likes his teams to play.
May 18th 2009 @ 9:14am
Harry said | May 18th 2009 @ 9:14am | Report comment
Well I have to agree with our resident baiters Knives Out and Hemjay, NSW finished exactly where they deserved and making fanciful statements like “There is no doubt in my mind, therefore, that if the Waratahs had made the finals, they would have won the tournament” just makes all us non-NSW snigger.
And while winning those 3 matches in SA was a fine achievement – especially the Sharks in Durban – the Tahs shot themselves with their losing performances at home against the Force, Canterbury and Bulls, which at the end of the day undid all the good work away from Australia. Canterbury in particular stands out at the crucial loss in a gem NSW should really have won – remeber Lote being hauled down form behind while in the clear by a bloke that is normally their 5/8th but was shunted onto the wing? Sadly, that moment defined NSW’s season.
And I agree with Phil Waugh, they did pretty well considering the losses in the pack. Better than Qld anyway!
May 18th 2009 @ 9:18am
Harry said | May 18th 2009 @ 9:18am | Report comment
Another reality is that the Tahs lost – fairly comphrehensively both matches – to the top 2 teams the Chiefs and the Bulls, and I don’t believe would have beaten either having to play them away, as they would have deservedly had to have done so.
May 18th 2009 @ 9:30am
SouthernWaratah said | May 18th 2009 @ 9:30am | Report comment
What fascinated me is that when the had to play attacking rugby to get 4 tries they did it with ease, Imagine that attitude all year they would have romped it in. And what a difference Tahu made once he was on the receiving end of some attacking ball, his class shone brilliantly. Spiro was there a hint of a pat on the back for Tahu in this article? I’m waiting for someone to say that Tahu has arrived!
Welcome to rugby Tamana!
May 18th 2009 @ 9:32am
Ben C said | May 18th 2009 @ 9:32am | Report comment
As a Tahs supporter I have to say the final position on the table flattered us somewhat. That said, there do see to be problems with the coaching given the story about Burgess seeking skills training from his club coach and Wisemantel’s inability to explain how his ‘eyes and ears’ theory of backline management is supposed to help the five-eight.
On the bright side, Robbie gets two extra weeks with the Wallabies prior to the Barbarians.
May 18th 2009 @ 9:33am
Robbie said | May 18th 2009 @ 9:33am | Report comment
Harry….The tahs beat all the NZ team except the Crusaders and all the SA team except the Bulls….I am sorry but it was the game plan that screwed them.