With playmaker Kurtley Beale rehabbing from knee surgery, Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson has turned to Rob Horne as the season saviour.
A winger for the vast majority of his 29 Tests and 99 Waratah appearances, Horne will be inside centre tomorrow night for the must-win clash with the table-topping Chiefs at Allianz.
Zac Guilford will take over Horne’s wing spot, the other winger Reece Robinson has been dropped to the bench for Matt Carraro, while Wycliff Palu will be No.8 with Jed Holloway’s shoulder injury ruling him out.
Four changes at a critical time may seem drastic, but Gibson knows what he’s doing and the changes are warranted.
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On paper, the Waratahs have an impressive record against the Chiefs, winning seven out of nine in Sydney, and five of the last six overall.
This season, the Chiefs are the leading try-scorers with 52, the Waratahs with 34, but the Waratahs have the second best defence record allowing 25 tries in 11 games.
But rugby isn’t played on paper, none of those stats mean a toss, it’s what happens tomorrow night over 80 bruising minutes will be all that counts.
From an Australian point of view, only the Waratahs and Brumbies can win the Australian Conference with the automatic entry into the Super Rugby finals.
The other alternative of finishing in the top eight will be a lottery – so forget it.
The Waratahs, on 30 points, have the tougher road home of the two with the Chiefs, Sunwolves in Tokyo, Hurricanes at home, and Blues away.
The Brumbies, on 29, have the Sunwolves at home, Reds at home, Blues away, and the Force at home.
Enter Rob Horne with his renowned hard running and crash tackling, taking over the No.12 jersey from rookie David Horwitz who hasn’t been feeding game breaker Israel Folau.
Horne will do that, affording Folau invaluable space.
Gibson has made two vital positional changes in his debut season as head coach – switching Israel Folau from fullback to outside centre, and now Horne to inside.
The Folau move was a master stroke, Horne will be the same as the two positional changes team up.
Let’s face it, the Waratahs must lift at least 50 per cent on their 26-10 loss last week against the Crusaders
What was more worrying during the week was Folau’s appeal to his teammates to hold onto the ball.
That’s the problem with the Waratahs, when they lose it’s purely because they have fallen down on the rugby basics – dropping passes, losing possession, over-running the ball carrier, and missing tackles.
If they do that tomorrow night it’s the end of the season, but don’t blame Daryl Gibson.
He’s not falling down on rugby basics, he’s sitting helpless in the coaches’ box.
So it’s time for the Waratahs to stand up and be counted where it counts in the middle.
That’s the only reason why they are paid the big bucks.
Lano
Roar Guru
gold!
Squirrel
Guest
Rob Horne and Izzy should be the wallaby centres
cs
Roar Guru
I've seen Cliffy drop some shockers cold, but he also catches a few, and all players drop the ball sometimes. Compared to Holloway, he's in his twilight, but this year he has made the same ratio of tackles and has a higher completion rate, has carried more often, has off-loaded and passed more often, and has a lower ratio of turnovers. Jed has shown himself to be a good runner, but Cliffy's a heavier unit, and the balance is not all downside.
Jigbon
Guest
Didn't he drop the ball first time out game before last. He cannot catch the ball ..
soapit
Guest
and even if you assume that a good team with good players wouldnt need to do that much he's hired to get the team playing well and winning including everything necessary to do it. if he's that in denial about what he required to do in his job he should have looked at the skills of the team better before signing on. alternatively he could follow the idea of presumably at least telling players what they need to improve on and then leaving them to take care of it themselves. might not be the best career move tho.
cs
Roar Guru
People like to pick on Cliffy, and so I've been watching him pretty closely this year. Apart from his first game back, which was a bit of a shocker, I'd count him a net positive every time he has appeared.
cs
Roar Guru
There are enough unknowns to make the match up interesting. The Chiefs are strong favorites on form, but the Tahs are not without a chance. We flogged them over there last time we met and, as David points out, have a good record against this particular team. AAC had a big game last time, I flakily recall, so maybe RH is just the ticket. Will be down to the forwards of course, especially the line-out. Go the Tahs, time to turn up!
PeterK
Roar Guru
David there is a big difference to not being able to do it at all, as opposed to executing these skills at pace and under pressure. That is what they need to practise, all these skills at pace under pressure time and time again. Instead of cone training at a jog with no one opposing you.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Why do the All Blacks constantly work on these skills then? Perhaps we should get Hanson and Henry on the blower and tell them they're wasting/wasted their time, these players should just have this sorted.
Markus
Guest
In Australia at least, it has been quite a while since it has been a specialist position. It is now largely a position just given by default to the better tackler of your squad's flyhalves, or even just to the best tackler out of all your backs regardless of the rest of their skillset.
Ralph
Roar Guru
.. by the time they are out of short pants. Do you mean once they leave AFL?
Markus
Guest
I had forgotten about Hunt, you could be right. That would be even worse, this is now being so set on playing a second flyhalf that we are picking a someone who plays primarily as a fullback and has shown little more than adequate form at Super Rugby in any position, purely because he has the perceived potential to be a second flyhalf.
David Lord
Expert
What's the matter with you blokes? Any Waratahs who can't catch, can't retain possession, can't stay on-side with the ball carrier, and can't tackle, how in hell did they get a contract in the first place? Daryl Gibson shouldn't have to coach the basics which should be automatic by the time they are out of short pants.
taylorman
Guest
ha ha...stop it chook. :-)
SP
Guest
CLL isn't a given. I wouldn't be surprised to see Cheika give Karmichael Hunt a run at 12.
taylorman
Guest
Farrell not a good tackler? Compared to who? Beale? As tacklers go in the England side they can do a lot worse than Farrell. Where do you get these from? Pluck them out of thin air?
MJB
Guest
Wow, that's rubbish of the worst kind. Back when I used to coach rowing, if the lads put in an underwhelming race time because they kept doing something as simple as unbalancing the boat or rushing the slide, the next week of training would be a back to basics session to drill that particular technique into them. I'd have considered myself a very poor coach if I did anything else.
PeterK
Roar Guru
Ralph Kerevi is far more than a crash ball merchant. He has good feet, good passing and offloading, also a nice short kick. Also England may play Farrel at 12 and he is not a good tackler. Also a big midfield is also about bending the line and getting rush defence back on its heels.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
To some extent Gibson is just making up for bizarre Cheika decisions in putting Folau full-back and Horne wing. They are now only going back to their obvious best positions.
Ralph
Roar Guru
So you are pretty confident you can get a good set piece platform. What do you do with it? The kick to the wing is a real option with Folau, but they are low percentage plays. I don't think the large mid field crash ball technique has worked very well for a long time, defences are too good now and at the international level there are few small backs to run through. You have Pocock who will get turnovers, so to my mind they need a number of structured attack plays and to play for those. Which means you are happy to play without the ball. IMHO they should identify these structural goals before they pick the team. Those key guys, like Pocock and Folau should attract the players which best match the game plan to use them to the max. Something like that anyway.