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The Waratahs smashed a determined Highlanders team at Allianz Stadium 44-16, to give them the top position on the ladder going into the finals.
This means that the Waratahs will play all their finals matches, providing they win the semi-final, in Sydney.
Past history suggests that playing at home is the key to winning the Super Rugby title. The Waratahs also have won all their home matches this season, the only side in Super Rugby 2014 to do.
So the splendid victory on Sunday, with strong set pieces, in-your-face defence and terrific ensemble running plays, has created the opportunity for glory.
The score line of the match gives an indication of how it flowed initially to the Waratahs, then ebbed back slightly to the Highlanders and in the second half. When an adventurous pass in front of the Highlanders posts went astray from the kickoff, was all the Waratahs again.
W3-H0, W8 -H0, W8 – H3, W11 – H3, W11 – H6, W11 – H9 Half-Time: W11 – H9, W18 – H9, W23 – H9, W30 – H9, W37 – H9, W37 – H16, W44 -H16.
The statistics on the Waratahs indicate that they have the best attacking record, the strongest defensive record and they score more points in the first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes than any other team in the tournament. The side is fit. It is big. It has mongrel players in the forwards and the backs.
And it has a game plan. The side tries to score tries and thereby scores in multiples of seven or five, rather than the Jakeball multiples of three in the manner of the 2014 Sharks and 2013 Brumbies.
I have been critical of coach Michael Cheika using Will Skelton as a super sub for second half play only. It was noticeable when he came on at the beginning of the second half how much difference Skelton made to the go forward attacks of the Waratahs.
Apparently, Stephen Hoiles calls the lineouts but I reckon the Waratahs would be an even stronger side with Skelton starting and Jacques Potgieter playing on the side of the scrum. But Cheika has made the right calls throughout this season so he has to be trusted with the line-ups he is using.
The Highlanders set some traps for the Waratahs backs and initially the traps were sprung. But it is to the credit of the backs that by the half time they had worked out the problems and they simply ran through, inside and around the defence in the second half.
So complete was the their ensemble display that the argument could be made that the Waratahs backline, aside from Alofa Alofa who is off overseas at the end of the Super Rugby tournament, should be the Wallabies backline.
Their creativity, angles and hard-shouldered running revived memories of the glory days of Waratahs back line play in the 1970s and 1980s.
It all started with the crisp flat passing of Nick Phipps. The difference between his service to Bernard Foley and the wind-up, will-I-kick-it-or-float-a-pass from Nic White this season is marked.
Bernard Foley, too, has moved ahead of any contenders – and yes that includes Quade Cooper – with his flat positioning, choice of passing options, deadly goal-kicking and terrific running when the gaps are there.
I suppose some perspective needs to be applied given that the Highlanders have won eight matches and lost seven this season. They have an awful record in Australia, losing 11 of their last 12 matches in this country including, now, their last seven matches, and not winning in Sydney since 2007.
Greg Clarke, in an excellent call with Rod Kafer and Tim Horan, also pointed out that with Steve Walsh refereeing the Highlanders have won only 2 out of 21 matches. I thought that such an important match in terms of where teams will land in the finals that SANZAR should have had a South African referee.
Craig Joubert refereed the Bulls-Stormers match and as the best referee in the world, and not a local, he should really have been in Sydney for the Waratahs-Highlanders match.
As it was Walsh did a good job, as you would expect from the the most experienced referee in Super Rugby matches.
But he did make one grievous mistake when the game was still (ever so slightly) in the balance at 23-9. The Highlanders made one of their rare breakouts and Ben Smith was prevented from off-loading to a support runner metres away from the Waratahs tryline because he had been held back.
How was this missed? Walsh was told about it by the Highlanders but refused to go to the video. Nick Phipps did the holding back. It was a much worse incident than the yellow card given to Aaron Smith for not quite interfering with the last transfer before the Waratahs scored a try.
As I have said, Walsh is an excellent referee. Games tend to flow and the best team generally wins scoring tries when he has the whistle. But he is inclined occasionally to trust in his own judgment even when it is called into dispute. He should have gone to the video referee on this, no ifs or buts.
Whatever, the Waratahs got their win and the home ground advantage for as long as they are in the finals. And they deserved to win as they played about as well as a team at this stage in the tournament could be expected to play.
The Western Force were winners as well. They defeated a Reds side that is playing like headless chooks. I struggled to find a game plan or a method in the Reds play. Questions now need to be asked about the future of Richard Graham who failed at the Force and now is failing at the Reds.
Michael Foley, on the other hand, is succeeding at the Force.
At the Waratahs, Foley was a disciple of the ‘win-ugly’ method of losing matches. This method was a NSW version of Jakeball. But Foley seems to have a conversion to the light and truth since going West.
The Force tried to score tries. They ran rather than kicked. They played with energy and vigour. In the end they scored three tries to the two of the Reds. Most importantly, though, they kept themselves in contention for a finals position.
I particularly liked the play of Ian Prior. He was busy. He passed and tackled and made the odd dart. He brought energy to the halfback position that has often been lacking for the Force this year.
Perhaps Zack Holmes helped this transition. Holmes is built along the same small tank lines of Rod Kafer in his glory days. He is a runner rather than a kicker, like Kafer, too.
And the energy that the halves provided, along with the wonderful electric and gutsy confrontational running of Nick Cummins, provided the stimulus for a rousing Force victory.
The Australian Conference will provide the Waratahs at the round-robin leader at the end of next week’s fixtures. Either the Force or the Brumbies will go through too, depending on which team wins at Canberra Stadium next Friday.
There will be only one South African side, the Sharks who were beaten by a fired-up and energetic Cheetahs side 27-20 at the Free State Saturday.
The Sharks and the Crusaders are both on 46 points, with an extremely small points differential difference with the Crusaders +97 and Sharks +89.
There are all sorts of possibilities about how the last match will turn out for both these sides. The Crusaders play the Highlanders at Christchurch. The Sharks play the revitalised Stormers away at Newlands Stadium in the last match of the pool rounds.
The second place side has the home ground advantage against any other side lower than it on the pools round table. So, as usual, the finals line-up and its order won’t be known until the end of the last match.
The current points accrued by the eight sides still in contention are: Waratahs 53, Crusaders and Sharks 46, Highlanders 42, Hurricanes (with all their matches played) 41, the Brumbies, Force and Chiefs 40.
The analogy I used a week or so ago about how the teams would be sorted out for the finals was to suggest that it was akin to solving rubik’s cube.
The analogy still applies. The Bulls and the Blues were sorted out at the weekend. Which team out of the Brumbies, Force, Chiefs, Hurricanes and Highlanders will be sorted out next week?