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The air goes out of the Waratah balloon

Mr Sports — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 22:21:06 +0000

Psssss… that sound you hear is the air rapidly escaping from a large number of sky blue balloons. On Friday evening the allegedly rampaging Waratahs went to Canterbury with great expectations. Instead they will return bitterly disappointed and no doubt to a barrage of recriminations.

For those fortunate enough to miss the game the Waratahs were thoroughly outplayed, if not from the outset then certainly from the 10 minute mark. The final score read 33-18 but the final five points for the men in blue came well after the game was over as a contest.

And so the recriminations will begin. Within minutes the mainstream sports media had the ‘sorry’ Waratahs ‘trounced’ or ‘blown away’ depending on who you believe.

However whilst the mainstream media will kick them while they are down no doubt my fellow Roarers are too sophisticated to fall into that trap.

The result may look ugly but it need not be considered terminal for the Waratahs’ season. Without even assessing the performance itself: take out the intercept try and the difference would have been six points. Add some competent goal kicking for the Waratahs and it could have been even closer.

There is no doubt that the impressive Robbie Fruean read the slow developing Waratahs play very well to be in position to take the intercept. However any rugby fan can tell you that when it comes to taking intercepts being there is often not enough, you often need a little luck as well.

If Fruean was put in that position ten times how many times would he hold onto the ball? Half the time? Maybe? Intercepts are high risk high reward and on this occasion Fruean was rewarded.

So Waratah apologists (which this piece will no doubt be accused of being) will say there’s a bit of luck to begin with. However that doesn’t excuse two areas in which the Waratahs were embarrassingly poor: at the scrum and in midfield defence.

Alas it is at this point that a finger must be pointed. Well actually two fingers must be pointed. One at Daniel Halangahu and the other at Damian Fitzpatrick. Both had terrible games. Both played so badly that they could be forgiven for trying to get a note from their mum to skip the Monday afternoon film session on this one.

Time and again the Crusaders were able to wander up the middle of the field via one of the estimated 27 Whitelock brothers on the field. The fringe defence which had seemed so robust through weeks one and two was totally absent. It is hard not to think that the presence of Berrick Barnes may have added some more backbone on the edges.

Meanwhile at scrum time the resolute forward pack of last week seemed to have been replaced with rugby league players. Time and again the Crusaders got the better of the Waratah forwards – and didn’t the smarmy Sky Sports commentators enjoy that. We were repeatedly told that the Waratahs were getting no hook at all and that certainly did seem to be part of the concern. Would the sky blue pack have been so anaemic with the might ‘fro in the fray?

However despite these manifest failings it is worth remembering that Fitzpatrick and Halangahu were both replacements and to be fair to them they both had sub-par games on a personal level. Berrick Barnes will return soon and (hopefully) so will Polota-nau. Wycliff Palu is waiting in the wings and there is still ‘Aussie’ Dan Vickerman to join the squad.

So please rugby fans don’t believe the naysayers and the doom-speakers. One game does not a season make and this Waratah team is still a top four team in this competition.

Roaring Hot

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Article link: It’s been one crazy Super 14 competition. Written by Mr Sports, on The Roar - Your Sports Opinion