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“I’d imagine there’ll be next to no chance now of the Waratahs getting ahead of themselves again this week.”
That’s how I concluded last week’s column, having been rather surprised that the Waratahs would admit to being “out-enthused” in their Round 19 loss to the Brumbies in Sydney, and with Daryl Gibson issuing a stern rebuke to his side that, “…what you saw tonight was a team that was not focused on the job at hand and getting ahead of itself in terms of already being at next week.”
The Waratahs couldn’t possibly phone another game in, not in a pure knockout situation against a team looking to square the ledger from an earlier loss to the ‘Tahs this season. There was simply no way could they make the same mistakes again, as I drew my conclusion from the notepad of Captain Obvious.
Well, they did.
Down 23-6 to the Highlanders at halftime, it honestly looked like the Waratahs were going to get done by 40. They were terrible; lacking any semblance of pattern in attack, missing their ruck cleanout timing not just by seconds but by hours, and generally getting around waiting for someone in a sky-blue jersey to do something. To do anything.
And yet they won. I’m still not entirely sure what happened to the Highlanders; it should’ve been comfortable for them. Wayne Smith in The Australian on Monday summed it up brilliantly, that “it was as though France had grown weary of the Six Nations and come down to Super Rugby instead.”
Somehow, it clicked for the Waratahs. And it’s funny how quickly it can happen.
Well beaten heading into the sheds, the Waratahs still hadn’t looked much different to their first half lethargy over the first ten minutes of the second half. They spent a large chunk of that ten minutes in their own half, and a large chunk of that large chunk battling to get out of their 22, before Taqele Naiyaravoro suddenly swooped on a Highlanders pass in the face of a three-on-one-overlap.
Going through the post-mortem on Sunday, and after wading through all the my-god-all-this-refereeing-whinging-is-getting-boring commentary, I found myself agreeing with several of you who identified the Naiyaravoro intercept as a turning point.
It wasn’t the immediate spark, but it was the first bit of luck that went the ‘Tahs way.
How the ball found Naiyaravoro was interesting – and it did find him, because Aaron Smith’s pass was a good metre in front of the intended targets of either Lima Sopoaga, Ben Smith, and Waisake Naholo. Naiyaravoro took two steps off the Waratahs’ tryline and he was in space with ball in hand.
But when Naiyaravoro was run down by Ben Smith just beyond halfway, there was still a bit of panic evident. Nick Phipps’ pass went behind Ned Hanigan and he could only make another metre forward. Kurtley Beale’s long, overhead pass after the next ruck bounced three metres short of Alex Newsome, but fortuitously, straight into the winger’s hands.
Taqele Naiyaravoro of the Waratahs. (AAP Image/Craig Golding)
He made it a metre or two passed the Highlanders’ ten metre line, but it took another three phases of back-and-forward, side-to-side nothingness before Beale got a speculative, slightly broken play offload away to Sekope Kepu. The big tighthead burst through Naholo’s first high tackle nearing the Highlanders’ 22 and was brought to ground by the second one about ten short of the try line, but with Angus Gardner’s arm already out playing advantage.
Ball spills out the back, another Hanigan charge gets him to five metres out, ball emerges out the front of the ruck, penalty Waratahs. Yellow card Naholo. First real attacking chance for the Tahs, but what on earth can they produce here? Where will they find the points? They still didn’t look like they knew what they’re doing.
Hanigan won the lineout well, and the Waratahs drove down the same line, but the maul stuttered before Highlanders flanker James Lentjies swam too far up the side; advantage ‘Tahs. Phipps battled to get the ball out, found Beale, who shovelled onto Bernard Foley, who found Israel Folau in a bit of space but which quickly closed on him.
Two more phases of nothingness, the Waratahs lost nearly twenty metres and yet again there was just nothing doing as Gardner went back to the penalty.
Bernard Foley of the Waratahs (AAP Image/Jeremy Ng)
What are they doing? The Waratahs sort of know where the space is, but they’re playing away from it. They’re bottling this. Phipps taps, two forward carries puts them in front of the posts five metres out. Five more phases side-to-side making no ground, before Beale drifts right of the posts, steps left, and finds Foley on the inside in space to score under the posts. Goodness, where did that come from?
Foley converts, and at least the gap is only ten points. Are they convincing? Nope, no way. They need to be better.
Highlanders restart long, and Foley clears into touch ten short of halfway. Another Highlanders attacking lineout it the Waratahs’ half.
Lineout is borderline not straight, but spills down on the Highlanders side, but Phipps emerges from nowhere with the other key moment that people pointed to: throwing himself on the ball in between two Highlanders on halfway.
Ball is slow coming back, Rob Simmons finds Jed Holloway to the right who finds Foley out wider. Who finds Beale. Who runs and slices through a gap after turning Highlanders centre Teihorangi Walden around, before drawing Sopoaga in the last line and putting Folau away in Naholo’s corner.
From playing ad-hoc rugby before Foley’s try to attacking down Naholo’s wing again and Folau scoring, there’s been less than three minutes of elapsed playing time, but which included a conversion, a restart, a lineout, and a turnover. That’s how quick it happened.
The gap was just three points, and five minutes later, Foley was in for his double. From inside their own half, Folau’s two big right-foot steps opened up the Highlanders again, and Phipps and Foley finished it off. The Waratahs were awake – and led by four as Naholo came back on.
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It was an incredible comeback, and just as impressive was how they gutsed out that last quarter of play, particularly the last six minutes after Paddy Ryan was sin-binned for the sort of offside infringement that he knew was wrong, but probably would’ve ended with a Highlanders try if he didn’t pick up the ball laying right here in front of him.
It really was the sort of win that teams look back after a major success further down the track; the win that no-one thought they had in them, but that they somehow pulled out from the looming, dripping jaws of defeat.
What awaits them on Saturday is a Lions team who not unlike the Hurricanes, have found their thirsty playoff relentlessness.
Against a Jaguares side who tried to build into the game like they often do, the Lions put on 24 points in ten minutes in the first half, and then let an underfed Malcolm Marx off the leash to devour the breakdown in the second half. All in front of an Ellis Park crowd baying for another finals scalp.
I know I said this last week, but there just cannot be a repeat of the game-and-a-half’s worth of snoozing the Waratahs have shown in the last ten days. The stakes in 2018 have never been higher, and the carrot of a fourth Final appearance has never been closer.
But as we found ourselves asking last week, which Waratahs side will run out on Saturday?