NSW Waratahs halfback Luke Burgess has pulled out one of his best games of the Super Rugby season to lead his side to a 31-3 victory over the Western Force at NIB Stadium on Saturday,
Burgess was pivotal in orchestrating most of the Waratahs’ tries in the crushing win which now has an already beleaguered Force side mourning its third consecutive defeat.
Fears the Force were in for a long and dismal night were ignited immediately with a dropped ball by inside centre Gene Fairbanks from the kick off.
Those concerns were not allayed by the Force’s early ill-discipline with the team conceding three penalties by the 13th minute.
Their only saving grace was Waratahs’ five-eighth Kurtley Beale’s poor showing with the boot, converting only one of the three early shots at goals.
Precocious Wallaby James O’Connor appeared to be the man who was going to single handedly change the game for the Force with the fullback levelling the scores with a penalty in the 20th minute before turning the Waratahs defence inside-out while running the ball back off a punt.
He off loaded to Cameron Shepherd but the winger had little support and was pulled up about 10 metres short in what was one of the rare glimpses of a potential try for the Force.
The latter part of the first half saw Burgess decide he was going to step up and the Wallaby representative took responsibility for two plays which saw the Waratahs’ cross the line before the half-time whistle
The Waratahs halfback beat both the Force’s halves in the 29th minute to put inside centre Tom Carter over the line.
Minutes later Burgess took the ball from the scrum giving it to winger Drew Mitchell who stepped past O’Connor and fended off Nick Cummins to cross.
Despite the Force coming out after half-time with solid defence which kept the Waratahs scoreless for 20 minutes, Burgess caused more pain for the Perth side by taking the ball from the ruck and slipping it to Beale.
The five-eighth finished it off and converted to take the score to 24-3 in the 63rd minute.
But minutes later Mitchell crossed for his second try after stepping through Shepherd and O’Connor putting the game beyond doubt.
Adding to the Force’s woes was the sin-binning to winger David Smith with 10 minutes left on the clock for a dangerous tackle which had the Perth crowd crying foul.
The fans were even more furious when Shepherd was left on the ground dazed after having his legs taken out from him by John Ulugia and landing on his head while jumping for the ball.
The referees missed the incident and failed to award a penalty while the Force winger was carted off.
The win means the Waratahs have beaten every other Australian team.
Force coach Richard Graham was clearly disappointed by the result and said not only was his side “out classed right across the field” but they gave up possession too easily.
“I think the half time stat was 71 per cent of territory to the Waratahs, so we were always under pressure,” Graham said.
“In terms of our defence, we lacked the sting that we have had.”
Waratahs captain Dean Mumm said he was happy the side was able to get the win away from home.
Even more rewarding was the fact the side now have so far beaten all other Australian teams, he said.
“It’s always a goal of ours at the Waratahs to play well against the other Australian teams and we’ve managed to beat them all so far which is pleasing,” he said.
“But we’ve got another round of them to go so if we can get eight of those it would be better than four.”
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