If you read all of the press and Roars, you would think the Waratahs have not won a game all year and are sitting where the Force are. I agree with much of what has been said, and Spiro’s article about kicking percentages is spot on.
The Tahs, unfortunately, continue to play a dour style of rugby and kick away far too much possession. But thus far, they have had the results generally go their way.
They now face a tough second half to the season, playing all five Kiwi teams and the Brumbies.
In a prior article, I highlighted that I believe the major issue is Burgess.
The Tahs tried to play an expansive game against the Force, but Burgess’ cross field crabbing is denying the inside backs time and valuable space, and his passes to forwards in channels 1 and 2 are predictable and stifle any forward momentum.
With all this said, the Tahs are clearly doing something right, as thus far they have lost one player and that is Dan Palmer.
Their recruitment (McHutcheon is a perfect example) and retention of existing players has been extremely strong, and several players like Carter and Mowen have knocked back offers from other Aussie sides, which would almost guarantee a starting spot to them.
Competition amongst the props, second row and back row is absolutely fierce, yet everyone is re-signing, even though many are on the bench or out of the 22 altogether.
So what are the Tahs doing right that almost no one can see?
The Tahs have mixed up their game this year: they played running rugby against the Reds when they needed to close out a tight one and again against the Bulls when they knew that they would have to rack up plenty of points.
They also turned it right up for the Lions, who love to score points and also have almost no defence.
The Tahs tried to play running rugby last weekend, but a combination of great defence from the Force, Burgess having far too much of a negative impact, and Barnes (having, by his own admission, the worst game of his life), was enough to kill the ball in hand game plan.
Being an eternal optimist, I would like to think that the Waratahs have been mixing it up and keeping plenty in reserve so that teams cannot over analyse one style.
Coming into the back half of the season, one hopes they will open up the running rugby, because the simple fact is that they will need to if they are to knock over five Kiwi teams and the Brumbies.
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Coming off the bench, he scored a double as the Canes beat the Tahs 41-12.
Ben Grant looked to have scored but the officials found a knock-on after the initial charge down.
In a lopsided first half, attacking opportunities were few and far between for NSW.
The Hurricanes took the lead inside the opening three minutes setting the tone for a dominant first half.
It's another big week of trans-Tasman rivalry with four Aussie teams going up against Kiwi opponents and the Brumbies hosting the Fijian Drua. See…
The final result was 4-1 for the Kiwi sides but some of the results could easily have been different with a bit more maturity from the Aussies.
