- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Can it be? Perhaps the biggest underachiever in Australian sport, the NSW Waratahs, actually look like a darn good rugby team.
Of course, it’s only Round 3 and any long-term Waratahs sufferer will tell you they still have plenty of time to ‘bottle it’.
After all, this is the Tahs we’re talking about, a franchise doused in years of failure and public embarrassment.
However, you can’t not admire the rugby the sky blue are dishing up at the moment.
Under Michael Cheika it’s hard not to notice a strong Randwick influence on the team. It’s been some years since we’ve seen a Tahs forward pack popping passes, backing up and actually featuring in sweeping waves of well co-ordinated attack.
Combined with some raw physicality, led by terrific new recruit Jacques Potgieter and an in-shape Wycliff Palu, the forwards are laying the perfect platform for the star-studded backline.
Outside the very talented Bernard Foley, Kurtley Beale looks a player reborn at inside centre. The partnership is blossoming and the contrasting style between the two allows for different dimensions in attack.
Foley’s rigid passing and kicking game provide tempo and direction while Beale’s flashes of flair offers a lethal variance to the Tahs potent repertoire.
In Israel Folau they have the best attacking player in the country. Despite less games than some teams, Folau has more tries, line breaks and offloads than any player in the competition and is second overall in metres gained.
There’s no doubt about it, ‘Izzy’ is a bonafide superstar and is quickly becoming the best cross-code convert in the professional era.
A quick look at the Tahs bench would suggest they are well equipped to make a run at the title.
Players like Sekope Kepu, Rob Horne and Brendan McKibbin have played enough Super Rugby to cover potential injuries and, as we saw on Saturday night against the Reds, the career of Stephen Hoiles is anything but over.
Whether the Tahs can keep pace for an entire season remains to be seen but at the very least we might start to see some more bums on seat at home games.
Which leads me to another point – every game played at ANZ is a loss for the Tahs organisation. When will they understand that nobody wants to go to Olympic Park to watch rugby?
Aside from Concord Oval, The SFS is the spiritual home of NSW Rugby and fans don’t want to do a one-to-two hour commute to Homebush, they want to be sipping beers in Paddington and not stuck on a God awful train meandering through unflattering train stations on the outskirts of Sydney.
It sounds snobby, but sorry this is reality, Tahs fans are the pretentious type and generally hail from the North Shore, Northern Beaches or the Eastern Suburbs.
The organisation can’t whinge about the generic make up of their fans either, they lured them in through years of corporate promotion and white collar ticketing packages.
Aside from the Mardi Gras clash last week, I can’t see any reason why NSW would contemplate playing at ANZ – and certainly not later this year for the Brumbies clash.
Obviously there is some financial or sponsorship reasoning behind this but when are the powers that be going to start to listening to the people that matter?
Anyway, at least for once we have an exciting team to watch that is spearheaded by Cheika, a no-nonsense Sydney club rugby legend with the famous poker face.
The season is long and titles aren’t won in February but maybe the Waratahs are finally ready for a bloom.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.