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The Reds have now won 10 straight victories at Suncorp with their gutsy victory 19 – 15 over a Waratahs side clueless with the exception of Kurtley Beale. This winning streak by the Reds includes victories over the Crusaders, who they thrashed last year, and the Bulls.
The Reds should now finish top of the Australian conference. If they can amass more tournament points than at least one other conference winner they get a home semi-final.
With Suncorp now a fortress, the Reds will be very hard to beat playing in front of their partisan supporters.
The perfect 10 straight victories was set up by a sensational break-out try by Quade Cooper. He took the ball on the blindside from about 45m out, streaked past Ryan Cross, swerved inside Beale, and with Digby Ione shepherding him towards the posts, planted the ball over the try line for the decisive try. This try was capped with a sensational somersault, a sign of what a wonderful athlete Cooper is.
Cooper had been having a poor game up to this point, and beyond it. He kicked out on the full from outside the 22 on five occasions. He was also unable to clear the Reds’ try line from punts when they were being pounded and scrummed almost in the turf for about 15 minutes. But the try and the monster converted penalty almost on time (which meant the Waratahs had to score a try to win) showed the mark of a champion.
A champion is someone who comes through with the winning plays when they are really, really needed, no matter how many errors have been made previously.
Talking about champions, I predict that Will Genia will be ranked with the all-time great Australian halfbacks – Des Connor, Ken Catchpole, John Hipwell – when his career ends. Genia made breaks for the Reds right at the beginning of the game. He tackled effectively. He took high balls safely. And he passed crisply and accurately under the most intense pressure.
Cooper’s try, for instance, came from a Reds scrum which was disintegrating. Genia was somehow able to wrench the ball free from fallen bodies, pick up Cooper on the blindside and deliver the correct, sympathetic pass for him to run on to. Genius stuff.
I must say that the Reds victory was welcome for other reasons, too. These reasons relate to the appalling unwillingness of the Waratahs to even attempt to play some rugby. They are thugby merchants, their one ploy to monster their opposition. If the opposition stands up to them, which has happened with the Cheetahs, Crusaders, Blues and now the Reds, the Waratahs have no other game plan.
In the second half, the Waratahs were down 12 – 16. They needed a try to get in front. But they had plenty of time to kick two penalties and win this way. They got a series of penalties on the Reds five-metre mark. Phil Waugh turned down the easy three points, and a senseless scrum war ensued.
Scrum after scrum was set, reset, set, penalty, reset, reset, penalty. Watching all this was like having your teeth drilled without a painkiller. Every aborted scrum was like the drill hitting a nerve. The crowd at the game was howling with pain. I’m sure these cries were echoed in rooms and bars around Australia as thousands watched the Waratahs attempt to score a try they didn’t really need. Points were the crucial thing. The penalty should have been taken, as it was finally when Waugh was off the field.
The thing about this is that the Waratahs scrum is not as great as the leadership clearly thinks it is. The Crusaders, as an example, absolutely pummeled the Waratahs in the scrums. And even the Reds held out, despite inexperienced referee Ian Smith allowing the Waratahs props to collapse whenever they did not get a good hit.
In the first half when the experienced Steve Walsh was in charge, the scrums were reasonably equal with a couple of penalties shared between the two sides. Walsh warned Benn Robinson early on about playing games with the alignment of his head which was impeding his opponent’s right to make a solid hit.
For the last two weeks the Sun-Herald has run articles in praise of Waratahs coach Chris Hickey and his assistant Michael Foley. On Sunday, Hickey was quoted as saying that if he was not re-appointed, then Foley would be a good choice as his successor.
No, no, no.
The Waratahs franchise is full of Wallabies. It is under-performing. This is no way the team can win this year’s Super Rugby tournament. Favourites are selected for key positions. The senior players have too much influence on the grinding way the team plays. Supporters, even diehard members, are giving up on the team. And who can blame them, with the ugly, nasty, limited, boring method they use.
Against the Reds, for instance, I don’t think the Waratahs moved the ball once along the backline. Even the Bulls do this regularly, even though they are a kicking team. There is no attempt at backline plays. The only move is Tom Carter bashing the ball up, with little effect. Where are the skills?
If the Waratahs board does not clean out the senior coaches and senior playing leadership group at the end of the year, it should resign.
We have seen what a tough-minded coach can do coming into a franchise that has lost its way, with Jamie Joseph’s elevation to coach the formerly hapless Highlanders. On Saturday night the Highlanders defeated the Crusaders by playing smart, aggressive, lively, tough and skilful rugby, the sort of game the Waratahs’ much stronger squad should be playing.
Joseph came to the first practice and apparently told the players, to paraphrase: “I’m calling the shots. Your input is welcome but in the end we are doing things my way. Anyone who doesn’t like this can move on.”
The players have responded and the Highlanders look likely to be in the final six at the end of the tournament. The much more fancied Waratahs could find themselves missing out.
Who would have picked this at the beginning of the season? I didn’t. But then I could not imagine that the Waratahs would continue or be allowed to continue by their board with last season’s ‘win ugly’ method, which has progressed to this season’s ‘lose ugly’ method.