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Coach Michael Cheika has a Waratahs side bristling with Wallabies, but that counts for nothing when basic rugby is ignored in favour of show-boating and stupidity.
The Blues beat the men in blue 21-13 at Eden Park on Friday night, their eighth win over the Waratahs in their last nine meetings.
A hoodoo stat on a hoodoo ground? An emphatic no.
Self destruction? An emphatic yes.
By comparison, the Brumbies do the basics superbly well, and if they decide to show-boat, everything is in place to make it click. Their 41-23 win over the Chiefs at Canberra was the direct result of getting the simple things right, and treasuring possession.
As a result, the Brumbies have a six-point lead over the Waratahs in the Australian conference, and the way they are going, don’t be surprised if they top the Super Rugby table at the completion of the scheduled rounds, earning them every game at home during the final series – the recipe for the title.
But the Waratahs are the story, or the lack of it. Two incidents are worth recalling to prove the stupidity point.
Waratahs winger Rob Horne was tackled well short of the line in the early minutes, only to make a blatant double movement.
With 10 minutes to go and the score at 18-13 – so a bonus point was there for less than seven – a box kick went straight up in the air, making all the Waratah forwards offside within the 10. Simon Hickey slotted the penalty, and the bonus point was gone at 21-13.
Those two examples aren’t taking into account the Waratahs’ sloppy passing, poor handling, and a massive 24 turnovers and 20 missed tackles. Yet they ran the ball 133 times to Auckland’s 103, for 575 metres as against 351.
There’s enough meat in those stats to win, but all too often all the good lead-up work went down the drain through elementary mistakes.
What is even harder to contemplate will be the number of Waratahs who will be in the Wallaby squad for the three Tests against France in June.
What does that tell us? That Wallaby coach Ewen McKenzie favours the Waratahs? Not bleeding likely. That the selected Waratahs play better for McKenzie than Cheika? Just as unlikely.
Then it gets down to pride, and passion, and that’s what the Waratahs lack. Cheika’s fault? Not bleeding likely, Cheika has enough pride and passion for all of them, but he’s not on the park.
When Kurtley Beale dropped the ‘magic word’ midway through the second half after another promising start went pear-shape, those four letters summed up Beale’s frustration. And, for that matter, the whole team’s.
Cheika has a rehab job on his hands. It’s up to the Waratahs to respond.