When flanker Ned Hanigan crashed over for a try after the final hooter last night, the split personality Waratahs had opened their Super Rugby account with a nail-biting 34-27 success over the Stormers at Allianz.
There was nothing in it with 17-all at oranges, and 27-all with time up, but the exciting all-out attack Waratahs surfaced after a poor Stormers lineout feed gave the men-in-light-blue a sniff.
How Hugh Roach, Jed Holloway, Bernard Foley, and debutant prop Harry Johnson-Holmes managed to keep their cool to send Hanigan on his way to the winner’s circle is what the Waratahs are all about.
But there’s another side to the Waratahs’ character.
That’s the poor handling, the wrong options, the turnovers, the missed tackles, the dumb penalties given away, and the crap scrummaging that keeps the opposition in the game.
Medically it’s called dissociative identity disorder, or split personality.
And fans had better get used to it, even though there is heart attack potential for those who watch helplessly in the stand.
I lost count of the number of loud expletives I threw at the television last night, as the lead changed five times in the 80 minutes.
The repetition was simple – the Waratahs edged in front and almost immediately let down their guard to let the Stormers back in.
The credits belonged to the usual suspects – Israel Folau, Kurtley Beale, and Foley’s 100 per cent boot.
Folau does things on the rugby field no-one else can do.
In the first half he set sail following a high, long, Foley bomb to pluck the ball out of Stormers’ fullback SP Marais arms and run 25 metres to touch down with no-one anywhere near him.
Sheer brilliance.
In the second half, Folau wrapped himself around JJ Engelbrecht to prevent a try in-goal.
KB Lager was a big-selling beer in its day, but Kurtley Beale is a far better Waratah than that rating.
In the opening minutes, with nothing on, Beale chip kicked and went within a whisker of regaining possession to score.
Later in the half he was robbed of a try when a Stormer hand deliberately knocked on with Beale ready to score, and wasn’t even penalised.
In the second half he threw physical caution to the wind following a Foley chip to go within centimetres of scoring.
Why Folau and Beale aren’t used more often in tandem beggars belief – they are such obvious game-breakers.
If Foley wasn’t a champion goal-kicker, he wouldn’t be in the side with 22-year-old Mack Mason kicking his door down.
Mason is an exceptional talent to set Beale up to strut his spectacular stuff.
The other credit is new halfback Jake Gordon.
Incumbent Nick Phipps is injured, but he won’t get back in when he recovers because Gordon doesn’t loiter around the set plays directing traffic, he gets on with it in a hurry with slick and accurate service which had been denied by Phipps.
Last night after the game eight new Waratah caps were awarded to further celebrate the win – that’s a staggering number of debutants in the same game.
The debits of this split personality side were headed by the scrum, or lack of it.
How the Waratahs miss vastly experienced prop Sekope Kepu whose suspension from the Wallaby-Scotland international last year won’t run on until round three.
Paddy Ryan and Tom Robertson just don’t cut the mustard, so the Waratah scrum will struggle.
Coach Daryl Gibson can only deal the cards he has in the roster.
But there are no excuses for the 24 turnovers, many of them in try-scoring positions, nor the 12 penalties awarded for simple lack of concentration.
So the Waratahs’ next two games are at Durban and Buenos Aires, but the long flights will be more bearable with that win under their belts.
A final thought for last nights referee, the Australian Angus Gardner.
He’s been selected to control the vital clash between England and Ireland that will decide the Six-Nations – there’s no bigger game in the tournament.
If Gardner is as inconsistent with his rulings there as he was last night, Eddie Jones will eat him up and spit out the left-overs.
ChrisG
Roar Rookie
Especially if you are content to maintain the current win/lose ratio. Being the incumbent is not necessarily the best measure
Phil
Guest
I actually thought Hanigan had a reasonable game and I'm certainly no fan.He did some nice work in the lineouts and defended well,plus that was a fairly important try at the end,with a determined run.It was not only the "matador"(thanks,Harry!)trying to stop him either.
Country Boy
Guest
I'm not convinced that the Tahs have turned the corner. The Stormers had several brain dead moments other than the last line out, it was a poor and ugly game compared to the Kiwi derby.
astro
Guest
To be fair, a missed shot in basketball isn't a 'turnover' and the Spurs average 13 turnovers a game, while the Tahs turned the ball over 23 times against the Stormers. The Tahs could learn a thing or two from the Spurs! Whats Tim Duncan doing these days???
Luke M Ringland
Guest
The scrum is clearly an issue, and hopefully some personnel and attention can help that. But what bothers me more was the Waratahs inflexible game plan, and what this says about the coaching and onfield leadership. This is also my biggest beef with Cheika as Wallabies coach, but that's for another day. It was clear to me early on that the Waratahs were attempting to commit very few numbers to the breakdown in order to have a lot of bodies in motion for subsequent phases; all in the name of their uptempo game plan of course! It was also clear that the Stormers had anticipated this, and came armed with game plan to put numbers in the ruck to create slow ball and turnovers. They were doing great at this, which meant the Tahs forward ball runners were getting the ball flatfooted and under pressure. My question is, why wasn't an adjustment made? The Tahs have the backline talent to create points without necessarily having amazing front foot ball -- as evidenced by the fact they SOMEHOW won this game! So they needed to put more bodies in the rucks to ensure they WON clean ball, even if that meant sacrificing some forward runners. This might have necessitated a bit more kicking from hand when running options were at the bottom of rucks, but the defence was going well, so why not? Smartly coached teams adapt to things as they unfold, and they practice for different eventualities. It's frustrating to see teams run out with only a Plan A. The Tahs will need to do something different, because the Stormers have just laid down the blue print.
Clifto
Guest
A comment on Foley's kicking.... Goddam he has an ugly technique. Concerns me he hasn't had it adjusted through his journey to the top. He really stabs at it and the ball wobbles its way towards the sticks. Compare to Farrell Biggar Halfpenny Sexton or pretty much any of the top kickers. Farrell is like a metronome while Foley looks like a busted arse cookoo clock...
Fox
Roar Guru
Absolutely Fionn
Fionn
Guest
Dictionary definition of champion goal kicker was Morne Styen circa 2009/10. That man was a goal kicking machine.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Guest
Mark, Foley is not only the best 10 in Australia, he is also the only experienced 10 in Australia. No further improvement required.
Fox
Roar Guru
Yeah I found that a bit OTT as well - a Champion Goal Kicker is Dan Carter, Johnny Wilkinson, Owen Farrell - com'on David you can't be serious with that terminology to describe Folay's goal kicking? 'Champion should not be demeaned by misusing like that DL - no disrespect to Foley he had a strong game but he is not a Champion Goal Kicker just a decent goal kicker.
tyrone
Guest
"If Foley wasn’t a champion goal-kicker" when did this happen?
Akari
Guest
+1
Daveski
Guest
You conveniently forgot how he destroyed Korobeite last year.
Charging Rhino
Roar Guru
Me too ;-) Will be a tough and fairly close game I think. But confidence is good if you do your homework, play hard, grind down the other team with the expectation that you will win, then you usually do. But overconfidence is a terrible thing that the Sharks know all to much about! Ask them how the Rebels game went last year (the drew). If the game was being played in Sydney it would be a different story.
Blinky Bill of Bellingen
Guest
I only got to watch highlights and read about the win. S)o thanks for this review. Q. Is there something going on to make the crowd seem bigger or something? The crowd looked small but when Hanigan scored that try the noise was deafening.
Cynical Play
Guest
Go back to the last attacking WB ruck just prior to the match-winning Hannigan try, and it was BEALE who arrived first and cleaned out live a No 8 piggy. Go Kurtley.
Cynical Play
Guest
Compare Garner to Owens in the Scotland v England and you see just what a choker Garner can be
dirtyrottenscoundrel
Guest
The referee was consistently poor... 3 deliberate knock downs and not one yellow card! Angus Gardiner has not improved and yet they give him a 6 Nations match. Beggars belief. To add insult to injury we go to South Africa and watch Peyper referee the Jaguares into oblivion. Seriously the question he posed to the TV ref... he was only interested in ONE camera angle. No thought to any other... could another player cover the defence? Nah Peyper didn't want a panned out view only the narrow view of player to the line. Yellow card, penalty try... TOTAL FARCE.
Suzy Poison
Guest
Neither team looked like finalists this early out. Waratahs have major dramas with scrum that other teams (think Kiwi teams) will exploit better. Stormers lineout is also poor. In saying that, the Waratahs scrums will improve with Kepu returning and the Stormers lineout will improve when Etzebeth returns. Both teams pretty average based on my observations. Tahs were lucky to feed off a Stormers blunder, to get the win. Tahs really should have dominated a home game. Meanwhile, Highlanders, Crusaders and Lions look very very good. Can't see the Tahs beating any of those teams, home or away. Rebels looked good, but it's hard to know, with the poor opposition made them look good. Not sure about Brumbies either. Watch out for the John Mitchell (best Saffa coach by far ) coached Bulls.
concerned supporter
Guest
Probably close to the furthest distance he has run in his Super Rugby & Test career when he scored. He was lucky that he only had Mr Speed Bump, R.Rule.in his way.