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If the Waratahs do go on and claim a back-to-back Super Rugby titles this season, they may well look back to the dual wins in Rounds 11 and 12 as major turning points in their success.
The two-point win over the Melbourne Rebels last weekend, followed by the three-point win over the Brumbies on Friday night were both about as far removed from the ball-in-hand “identity” that Michael Cheika has drilled into the team since the day he arrived.
However, both wins were important, because the Waratahs have been learning the hard way that their Super Rugby opponents have schooled up on them in off-season, and that what worked in 2014 is certainly not guaranteed to work in 2015.
It’s been that way since Round 1. Sides have worked out that if they can slow down the Waratahs’ ball, you can absolutely halt their momentum. Bernard Foley has been marked even more closely this season than he was on the Spring Tour, as opposition defences have looked to cut off the attacking ball at the source.
It has meant that the Waratahs have had to tweak their game on the run, and fortunately, they’ve been able to find quick success in the aspects of their game that they’ve tinkered with.
The obvious improvement is at set piece, where they’ve turned a questionable scrum last season into one of – if not – the best eight-man scrums in the competition.
And their lineout has improved too, mainly on account of a fully healthy Dave Dennis calling the shots. Take the main man out of any team’s lineout and there will be degradation, as we saw last season after Dennis did his knee.
The lineout was expected to be a Brumbies strength on Friday night – and they still only lost one on their own throw – but the Waratahs chalked up numerous points victories by contesting most if not all Brumbies’ throw-ins.
Certainly, they discovered that the best way to defend the Brumbies’ maul was to disrupt the ball in the lineout first. I can think of at least two occasions – and there may have been more – where David Pocock stationed at the back of the lineout had to throw a pass out wide, all because he had to go and chase the disrupted ball from the lineout. By the time he secured the ball again, he was away from teammates to bind onto, and thus the pass became the only option.
The Waratahs’ scrum was well on top all night, and certainly showed no signs of concern when it wasn’t their feed. Again, at least twice a reset had to be ordered because the height and pressure from the ‘Tahs meant that Stephen Moore wasn’t able to hook properly.
On the occasions where the ball did come out, Nick Phipps was all over rookie opposite, Michael Dowsett, like the proverbial fat kid on a cupcake. This isn’t new from Phipps, but he certainly took it to another level against an inexperienced opponent. And sure, he pushed the offside envelope regularly, but why wouldn’t you when you have a referee allowing more ball to be played from collapsed scrums than any I can remember this season.
And that’s not a criticism of Glenn Jackson, either. Goodness knows there’s been more than enough of that in the days since. For what it’s worth, I thought Jackson let what he knew would be a grinding game flow well. He knew both teams would be hard at the ball, and so he gave the attacking side some latitude to maintain possession, so that game could move on.
That meant that some forward passes and even a few sneaky knock-ons were missed along the way. If Jackson had blown the whistle for everything he could have on Friday night, we’d be bemoaning a pedantic referee who ‘thinks the game is about him’.
There was some latitude for the defending sides, too, though. The line speed of both defensive lines was quick from the first whistle and never let up. Both sides flirted with – and in some cases outright ignored – the offside line at the ruck.
And this is where I think we’ve seen the most recent evolution in the Waratahs. They were very patient and focussed in defence last week against the Rebels, but in Canberra the Waratahs worked out that patience in defence wasn’t going to be enough. They had to do more to say on top of the Brumbies.
This meant that they kicked more in this game than in any other this season. It meant they had to play a little deeper in attack so that they could still meet the rushing Brumbies defence with some kind of momentum.
And it meant that when the situation dictated, they had to – gasp! – play as cynically as every other team in the competition. So we saw hands on the opposition ball on the deck. We saw players hitting rucks and mauls from liberal angles of entry. We saw penalties being milked, highlighted no better than Phipps rifling a pass into Ita Vaea on the ground at his nine o’clock, when his backline was set out near half past seven.
Will Skelton had an enormous game – probably his best this year – and threw his considerable bulk around with devastating regularity. But just watch his angle of entry at times. Benn Robinson won the plaudits for winning the 80th minute penalty that sealed the game, but Skelton provided the sealing-off assist through the side window.
Again, this is not a criticism of the Waratahs. They established the boundaries on the night, and played to them accordingly. Why wouldn’t they?
And this will undoubtedly come in handy later in the season. By their own admission, the ‘Tahs are still yet to put together a proper 80-minute performance this year, and so they are forcing themselves to find wins through other means. Pragmatism wins games, too, it turns out.