Around this time every year, I make a fearless prediction that this year, this year will be the Year of the Waratahs.
The reason why I’ve made these predictions is that most years, the Waratahs have the cattle. Their squad is usually loaded with Wallabies, usually leading Wallabies.
And there is a reservoir of rugby talent to replenish the side if necessary. Over 40 percent of all the rugby players in Australia are in New South Wales. The best rugby club competition in Australia is in Sydney.
The city, too, has St Joseph’s College, at Hunters Hill, the famed nursery of rugby stars. Until recently, Joeys had provided 15 per cent of all Wallabies.
So this combination of numbers of players, a strong club competition which at its best could rival the New Zealand or South African provincial teams, and a nursery of brilliantly-coached players, created a Waratahs side that since the 1880s has always been regarded in world rugby as one of the stand-out teams.
There was, too, the famed Waratahs style of running the ball with creative and skilful backs and fast forwards that powered the side to victories against the All Blacks, the Springboks, and a famous annihilation of Wales.
But under successive coaches in the Super Rugby tournament, starting with the ill-fated and overly ambitious Matt Williams, have coached the flair and danger out of the Waratahs.
Even Ewen McKenzie, now flourishing with the red-hot Reds, was one of the guilty men. The team reached its nadir as an entertaining and dangerous finals side last season with coach Chris Hickey’s mantra that the aim of the side was to “win ugly.”
This mantra is a total violation of the real Waratahs spirit created by the famous side that toured the UK in the late 1920s, creating a brand of running, fast, attractive, skilful and successful rugby that became the hallmark of Waratah teams.
Before professionalism, when you thought of the Waratahs you thought of Trevor Allen, Arthur Windon (a loose forward as fast as Hennie Muller, ‘the greyhound of the veldt’), and Ken Catchpole; or in more recent times, Mark Ella, Nick Farr-Jones, Simon Poidevoin, and the incomparable David Campese.
On Friday night I went down to the Sydney Football Stadium to see the 2012 Waratahs play their final pre-season match against a team of Tongans who looked as if they had never been coached in even the rudimentary principles of the game.
The only player on the field for the Waratahs who showed any of the Waratahs’ traditional flair was the South African halfback, Sarel Pretorius.
He was terrific. He passed crisply, which is the essential skill for any halfback. His running from loose play and set play was dynamic. He seems to be very strong and ultra-fast.
He also played like a fourth loose forward and he seemed to create more havoc among the Tongan halves than the designated loose forward trio.
The first play of the match saw Berrick Barnes, after several phases of players taking the ball up and creating an overlap on a big blindside, put through a grubber kick which bounced neatly into the hands of a Tongan defender on his 10m mark.
Any Super Rugby side would then have launched a strong attack from this position. The Tongans, clueless from start to finish, returned the ball back with an inept high ball and no chase.
The point here is that Barnes had seemingly run out of options for running the ball in the first minute of play. What have Scott Bowen and Alan Gaffney, the backs and skills coaches, being doing with the players for the last six months?
The Waratahs forced a number of 5m lineouts and only once took the ball from the top and moved it along the backline. This move resulted in an easy try to Rob Horne. On the other occasions, the Waratahs tried to out-muscle their out-of-condition opposition.
As I watched all this I had a nagging thought that this plodding, bully-boy, over-kicking and over-muscular style of play was somehow very familiar.
And then the penny dropped. The Waratahs were playing like England!
I don’t think that a Waratahs side that plays like England, even if it can reach the levels of intimidation and ruthlessness the best England sides have, can be a contender for the Super Rugby title in 2012.
This is not so say that this style can’t be effective, from time to time. The Waratahs monstered the Reds in Sydney last season. But McKenzie’s reaction to this defeat is interesting.
He says he made the mistake of trying to match the Waratahs in the forwards, giant for giant. He played James Horwill, a second-rower who is not noted for his mobility on long carries, on the side of the scrum. The slow, over-weight Reds pack was smashed by the slow but stronger Waratahs pack.
On Saturday night, McKenzie has foreshadowed that he is likely to play to fast flankers, Liam Gill and Beau Robinson, and to hell with trying to match the Waratahs kilo for kilo. The Reds will try to run the bigger Waratahs pack off its feet.
The other consideration about the ‘win ugly’ style is that it tends not to yield a large number of bonus points. Admittedly, the Waratahs led the tournament in tries in the pool rounds. But many of these tries came from matches where the opposition was blown away.
The point here is that the Super Rugby competition rewards the sides that score bonus points. And this has been a problem for the Waratahs in recent years.
This year, too, the Waratahs will be without one of the three best counter-attacking backs right now in Australian rugby, Kurtley Beale. Quade Cooper and James O’Connor are the other two.
Why did Beale leave the Waratahs? It’s hard to believe that he was offered more money. Was it because he had become tired of having to try to play with flair when the game plan was based on taking as much flair and unpredictability out of the Waratah game as possible?
I note that the bookies who put their money where their mouths are have listed the odds for Super Rugby 2012 as follows. The Crusaders are $4, Blues $5.50 (I find this strange), Reds $6, and Waratahs $7.50 (which is encouraging I guess for them).
The Stormers are $9, Bulls $15, Sharks $15, meaning bookies are basically writing off the South African sides.
The Chiefs are $17 (and my dark horse outsider pick), Highlanders $17, Rebels $34, Hurricanes $41, Lions $61, Brumbies $67 (hardly a vote of confidence in Jake White and surely too pessimistic), Cheetahs $67, Western Force $67.
I am the only Eastern Suburbs Sydney Greek I know who doesn’t gamble. Readers of The Roar will know, too, that on the tipping competition I generally come in around the top third, good but not great. So, in a sense, I hope that my feelings about the Waratahs are out of kilter with what will really happen.
I hope I am wrong, but somehow, I just don’t feel that this is going to be The Year of the Waratah.
Rugbug
Guest
Oh Peterk you may not be good for much but you certainly do make me laugh. Coming on a forum like this like you are the patron saint. Its an opinion site and I will give my opinion just like you have. If you can't handle myself or others having a differing a opinion I suggest you take yourself and your eyepatch elsewhere.
Rugbug
Guest
Like the lack of respect you and Peterk K are showing the Crusaders and what they acheieved last year. Pot Kettle Black comes to mind
PeterK
Guest
rugbug - you are a classic. Son anyone who disagrees with you re the crusaders is a troll? What a joke. I look at quality of teams plain and simple. Crusaders had the most number of quality players did not win. They lost twice to the reds, had their chances and blew it. A team with fewer quality players succeeded and crusaders failed ie performed below expectations of them being favourite BEFORE and AFTER the earthquake. Tahs do not have that many quality players as you and others make out. If you merge the Tahs with Crusaders, Blues, Chiefs far more NZ players would get in. So all those teams should perform better. I have not looked at the final rosters of the sharks, bulls stormers so cannot make that judgement on them. If you merged reds and tahs reds gets more players in the team and should be favourites over the tahs in the aussie conference.
Riccardo
Guest
What IS interesting this year is the top teams seem to have been "evened out a little" which should make for enthralling viewing especially if the Referees return to 2010 officiating and actually do encourage free flowing Rugby. Reds have a tougher draw and will be missing their successful playmaker in Quade. Backing up last year is not going to be easy. Warratahs, perennial underachievers, have an ok draw and a decent enough pack. Question for them as everyone has alluded to will be desire and injuries. Provided they stay fit and Barnes makes good decisions (under pressure) they are my pick for the Australian Conference. The Crusaders will be as strong as ever and better with the Earthquake behind them. They've done it before and will be hungry. The Blues, also underachievers for me under Lam, will be a much more stable outfit this year with seasoned AB's Weepu and Nonu running the backline as well as one of the better packs in the competition, and are my pick for the Championship as well as the NZ conference. The Force (improved personnel), Chiefs (SBW & Wayne Smith/Dave Rennie) and Brumbies (Jake W) should all have better seasons too IMO. Not prepared to comment on the SARU Teams due to the current instability driven almost entirely by Political naievity; suffice to say the Usual Suspects for their Conference.
Justin
Guest
They had a good draw as I am sure some other teams did. Either way they beat all the finalists. I just think there is a lack of respect for what they did last year which leaves me a little bewildered. Some sour grapes are out there, no doubt and I am a Rebels man not Reds. The main reason they have so many Wallabies now is because they played their butts off over the past two years and earned those caps. How many were Wallabies prior to Link starting? Not many...
Rugbug
Guest
What you fail to do is put the travel into context how about we start there. Firstly yes the travelling distances in NZ may not be that great however you have to keep in mind that this team was rarely in one place for longer than three or four days when in NZ. They didn't even have a regular training base and were constantly living out of suitcases. When a team travels near of far it is not a easy feat. They always must be in the city (NZ) one to two days before to try and give the team some stability and fluidity not to mention media committments etc. You try to make out that the travel was trivial and again you also try and turn this into a season about one dam game. Everyone in the world knows the Crusaders went to London for the Cash, how could they not have gone? Due to the EARTHQUAKE it put a huge financial burden on the club with all the extra travel even within NZ involved not to mention a lot more nights in hotels etc but of course people like yourself and the Troll Peterk tend to overlook this fact. The fact that the entire Franchise basically spent three to four days max in Chch a week simply goes well over both your head and the audacity you both have to even try to undermine what the Crusaders acheived only shows how bitter some people are. P.s last time I checked all three of the above teams made the finals last year so none of them can be called a failure. If they don't make the top 6 this year I would agree, however the Reds and Crusaders have a lot more on the line than the Blues in my opinion. I would say in all honesty if the Tahs do not top the Australian Conference and gain a home semi it would be the biggest failure of all, they could not have been blessed with a more favourable draw this year and they certainly have talent to boot. All teams have injuries so the injury line is not an excuse. The Reds suffered a fair few last year and managed to get to the top.
Big Steve
Guest
Pk and Rugbug, I think if the reds and crusaders dont play in the final this year they have both failed. Same for the blues, they have made big improvments to the squad and from their results last year only a finals appearance will be a positive result. The travel distance from last year is taken a bit out of context. NZ isnt a big country. its only about 750km to fly from christchurch to Auckland. So the Crusaders moving there games across NZ cause of the EQ has had minimal impact on there travel as most of the other stadiums are less than 1500km's round trip (thats about 3/4s of the way from syd to bris). The Crusaders chose to go to London for the cash, thats fine but shouldnt then be an excuse for travelling as it was a organisation choice. They decided the money was more important than winning the comp. London return from Christchurch is nearly 40,000km's. So take that away and they should only have travelled ~60,000kms.
Riccardo
Guest
Yawn...
Rugbug
Guest
PeterK = Failure to be a successful troll
mania
Guest
wow talk about over simplifying the crusaders season. how about this as a simple stat. they travelled over 100,000km last season to make their games. http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/5256087/Its-science-Crusaders-can-overcome-travel
PeterK
Guest
Rugbug - If Reds do not make the last 4 then they have performed below expectations ie failed. Also you cannot count every intl as being equal , it is to easy to count a fringe player who has only had 1 cap due to injuries. You have to rate each player indiviudally not just they were an intl. Crusdares DID NOT TRAVEL as much as has been made out. They played their home games in their OWN province. As I said it would be like Waratahs having to play at Newcastle or Wollongong instead of Sydney, it is not that big a deal, the travel. They were still home games with home advantage.
Rugbug
Guest
By the way last I checked QLD have 19 current or former internationals in their team and are defending champions. If they do not make the top four let alone the final one can only deem their season to be a failure. But not in your eyes no it won't be because you are a biased and only see through one eye. You will say that they played all the tough teams on the road yet totally discount the fact they played all the top teams bar the Stormers at home in 2011. You will also cry that they didn't get to play easybeats Hurricanes and the Cheetahs yet you never said something last year when they did play easybeats. You will deny that they are playing and played in a extremely poor conference and should I go on?
Rugbug
Guest
PeterK you are barely worth the time to answer. However the Crusaders stadium was ruined by the almighty earthquake that decimated a city and killed hundreds. You base your argument on the fact they took one game to London, so out of all the other 15 or so games how do you explain that travelling. Thankfully their season is not defined by an arrogant and heartless person like you. Even the most ardent QLD/ Tahs/ Sharks and every other team in world rugby supporters can atest that what the Crusaders acheived last season was absolutely remarkeable considering the circumstances. Their season was far from a disaster. Pays to note PeterK just in case you missed it the Crusaders were ranked favourites before the Earthquake of February 22. Your post is disgusting and the only failure here is the roar moderators for allowing such a cowardly post from you!
mania
Guest
talk all hype
IronAwe
Guest
How long is the NRL season? How many games do they play each year?
IronAwe
Guest
Barnes could be so much better if he didn't kick so much. Perhaps it's a lack of faith in his team? Who knows, but he needs to sort it out. He is a good kicker yes, but its not always the right option.
Johnno
Guest
If the Waratahs could match the passion that the AB'S have. Nice clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiDX-8JttjA&feature=related
Johnno
Guest
Yes All black fan that Randwick team was packed with stars, names i can think off. Campo of course, Mark ella still played club rugby and maybe all the ella brothers, David Knox who was better than Micheal Lynagh everyone thought that and knew that, Simon Poidevin, Phil kearns, Ewan Link Mckenzie, maybe a young peter Jorgenson, Tim Kellaher, Warwick Waugh, so a great team no question. The Toulon side that SBW played in was good too, SBW, Johnny wilkinson,Carl Hayman, Byron kellaher, Geroge Gregan, Tana Umaga, Jerry collins, i not bad at all.
Johnno
Guest
That Auckland side of the mid 80's 85-89 was amazing. Kirwan, Terry Wright, Grant Fox, Zinzan Brooke, Sean Fitzpatrick, Steve Mcdowell and the great Micheal jones just to name a few.
Justin
Guest
:) And I want my big fat pension after all the years of paying no tax!