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Waratahs' centre Tom Carter center bottom battles with Stormers' wing Bryan Habana left and team mate Gio Aplon during their Rugby Super 14 semi finals match in Cape Town, South Africa, Saturday May 22, 2010. Stormers won the match 25-6.(AP Photo/Rob Griffith)
All last week, the experts including Robbie Deans and Graham Henry, were predicting the Crusaders would defeat the Bulls and that the Stormers would be too strong at home for the Waratahs. In my view, the Crusaders had no chance of winning at Soweto’s Orlando Stadium and the Waratahs had only an outside, barely possible, chance.
And this is how it turned out.
The Crusaders went down fighting 39 -24, a scoreline that flattered the Bulls. Both sides scored three tries each and the Crusaders lost the match in the first 20 minutes when they seemed to be incapable of catching a high ball.
The Waratahs scored no tries in going down to the Stormers 25 – 6, who scored only one try, which was a brilliant individual effort.
The Waratahs, in fact, hardly looked like scoring against a side that played defensively and relied on penalty goals, in the main, to register points.
At least the Crusaders gave it a go. The Waratahs, unfortunately, fired off blank shots.
They were so obsessed about the Stormers’ terrific defence, which has conceded 7 tries in 8 home matches this season, that they didn’t really try to test it out.
Berrick Barnes kicked away the first ball he got in the match, after the Waratahs had snaffled the kick-off. And this set the pattern for the rest of the contest.
Horne did not get the ball once in a backline movement. Yet it has been Horne who has given the Waratahs their cutting edge on attack in recent matches.
Tom Carter was used in his draught horse method of carting the ball up, only to be knocked backwards by swarms of Stormers defenders.
The Waratahs also contested the tackled ball too quickly in many of the rucks, with the consequence that they gave away too many penalties for the dead-eyed Peter Grant to bang over to keep the score board ticking over for the home side.
Why Phil Waugh continued with this tactic, and he was the main offender, is a matter that defies reason.
Adding to the problems of the Waratahs is that they clearly misjudged the slipperiness of the field. Players, mostly Waratahs, slipped over continually which prompted Greg Martin in the Fox commentary box to wonder why they didn’t change their sprigs at half-time. After half-time they continued their slipping as if they were on an ice rink rather than a rugby field.
There was one other problem for the Waratahs, too. And that involved what Phil Kearns called ‘home town’ refereeing.
Although the Waratahs were ahead in the penalty count at half-time 7 – 5, I noted instance after instance where the Stormers should have been penalised, and were not.
Virtually every time the Waratahs took the ball into the tackle, the Stormers would back away from the contest and then stand players on either side of the ruck in a flat (off-side, in my opinion) position. Jacque Fourie in the outer parts of the field would take up a position virtually in the Waratahs line.
In my note book I wrote down time after time: ‘Stormers playing off side. How are they getting away with this!’
All this made it difficult for the Waratahs to make breaks, a difficulty compounded by Luke Burgesses’ indecision and poor passing.
While the assistant referees were unable to detect these offsides they seemed to be hawke-eyed when it came to Waratahs offences. One so-called ‘high’ tackle which was called up early in the game against the Waratahs was so innocuous that it beggared belief that it was called, especially when Stormers defenders sometimes threatened to knock the heads off Waratahs runners.
A similar sort of thing happened with the assistant referees in the Bulls-Crusaders match when the Bulls forwards were allowed to loiter around the catcher after the Bulls put up high balls. Why these loitering forwards were never once penalised in the match remains a mystery to me.
All this brings me to my now constant complaint that the use of ‘home town’ referees is destroying the integrity of the Super Rugby tournament.
It is hard enough to win a finals match away from home. The last time it was done was when the Brumbies achieved a win against the Waratahs in 2002. In 44 finals matches only eight have been won by the away team.
Making teams like the Waratahs play against a South African side like the Stormers at their fortress (this season at least) with a South African referee is loading the dice, in my opinion, totally against them.
In the Bulls-Crusaders match, Stuart Dickinson took the unusual decision to over-rule an overly zealous touch judge who wanted a high tackle decision against a Crusaders when it was clearly not high. This is one of the few occasions during the entire history of the Super Rugby tournament when I’ve seen a referee over-turn a touch judge’s decision.
Having said this, it also needs to be said that once again the Waratahs retreated into their shell in a finals match. When you are playing away from home you have to win the match rather than trying not to let the home opposition win.
In other words, you have to be positive, as the Crusaders were, rather than play negatively and hope that something will come up.
A number of the Waratahs did their Test chances not much good. Burgess, Barnes and Beale were disappointing. Lachlan Turner fumbled the ball a lot. Drew Mitchell seemed to be reluctant to run the ball back. The forwards as a pack were outplayed in the tight and loose by the Stormers.
You are left with the feeling that unless the Waratahs (one of the great provincial sides in the history of rugby) change their entire approach to finals matches and determine that they will play an expansive, tough-shouldered game, the dream of winning a Super Rugby title will remain as it has since 1996, an impossible dream.