- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
I tempted fate on Saturday night. Despite the well-publicised assurances of a kooky cultist radio mob over in America that the world would end at some point on the 21st, I watched the Waratahs game.
I was nervous, though.
I mean, fancy watching the Waratahs, especially the way they’d been playing of late, when the Rapture arrived. I was even thinking of the stick I was going to cop in the afterlife.
Sure enough, in the second minute, the second phase after a lineout from an early penalty, Luke Burgess gives quick, crisp service to Kurtley Beale, who faded nicely to the right before cutting out two Lions defenders and finding Lachie Turner in space.
Turner powers through the gap, perfectly draws the last Lion standing to find Beale back on the inside, and he scores one of the best Waratahs tries of the season in the corner.
As Marius Jonker blew the try, I thought for sure that was it. Surely, the earth would fracture neatly through the middle of my sports lounge. Thanks a bloody lot, ‘Tahs.
Surprisingly, the world held together, and blow me down, the Waratahs kept running it.
What followed was one of the best halves of rugby I’ve seen from the ‘Tahs in a good while. It was as if The Roar stalwart LeftArmSpinner’s Fan Forum spray about belief had either sunk in or hit a nerve. Or both.
Only last Friday, in his follow up to the ‘Tahs’ airing of grievances session the previous night, Leftie wrote that the players “…need to make sure that the belief is there that they can execute that skill when the pressure is on.”
Well, believe they did. All five of the ‘Tahs’ tries were perfect displays of top shelf skill execution when they were most needed.
Sosene Anesi’s first try was a classic example of why the wise old saying that “the quickest way to beat the man is with the ball” still holds true. From the breakdown, quick, sharp catch-and-passing through what easily seemed like half a dozen sets of hands, and all of them perfectly drawing their direct defender, put Anesi away in the corner.
It was a brilliantly executed try, with all players showing the necessary patience to react accordingly, and put the ball through the hands when the instinct might have been to just find Anesi with a long ball.
Ryan Cross’ try was a cracker, too, and it all came down to the quality vision of Berrick Barnes, who placed a perfectly weighted kick over the Lions’ front line. Beale, knowing the kick was on, timed his run to precision to claim the ball on the full, and without even so much as breaking stride, drifted left to find Cross unmarked on the outside.
It was a try that had everything: vision, skill, execution, belief. Simple.
Perhaps the only point of luck in that seemingly faultless first half was Anesi’s second try, where Burgess took advantage of the Lions lack of a winger, with Deon van Rensburg having just been yellow-carded, and put a well-thought box kick down the blind side.
Though looking suspiciously like a shank off the boot, Burgess’ kick ended up being ideally placed for the flying former All Black winger, and Anesi secured the ‘Tahs’ bonus point on the half-hour.
If we’re honest though, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the Waratahs would come out and run and throw the ball around as if their lives depended on it, because according to the theatrette-full last Thursday night, it most certainly did.
Barnes, who had a wonderful game, has been at the receiving end of lot of the Waratahs negative press for his apparent over-kicking, and his kick-pass-run numbers (6-30+-1) gave the indication of the ‘Tahs intentions. It was a nice reminder of what he can do with the ball, and a throwback to that bushy-headed kid from Queensland who so ably filled in for the injured Stephen Larkham at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
Around him, Beale, Cross, and Tom Carter all averaged as-close-as-doesn’t-matter to ten metres every time they ran the ball.
It was, in my opinion, a credit to the Waratahs organisation not just for putting on the open session for fans – which can’t have been easy for the players and coaches to sit through – but also to then go out and play the sort of game pleaded of them.
What was a surprise, though, was the way sections of the rugby media – The Roar included – still chose to focus on the second half display, where the ‘Tahs didn’t add to their score, and where the game did drop off in the intensity stakes.
When you go to the halftime break already up 29-5, and with five tries to outside backs, it’s inevitable that the foot will somewhat lift off the pedal, even if subconsciously.
What’s also inevitable in those situations is that the other team will get its share of possession, and that’s exactly what the Lions did. And the more ball they got, the more they chanced their arm too, and to decent effect late in the game.
The Waratahs’ second half, while not following the first half script, was still worthy of praise, and to denigrate them takes away not just from a defensive effort that kept the Lions to just the one try, but also a much improved Lions attack.
The ‘Tahs style crisis might not be over completely, but there are enough signs to know that the preferred style isn’t far away. And if the Waratahs are working hard to get away from their supposed default mode, then that’s good enough for me not to revert to mine too.
No bagging the ‘Tahs from me this week, they played very, very well.
POSTSCRIPT: Later on Sunday, you know, the day after the world DIDN’T end, I read that the kooky cultist radio mob over in America were so confident in their predictions that they’d still scheduled programming for Sunday! Talk about the ultimate each way bet!