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Scott Johnson cops a reality check in Newcastle

30th March, 2019
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30th March, 2019
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When Scott Johnson left Twickenham for the last time as Scotland’s director of rugby, he had witnessed one of the greatest fight-backs in Six Nations history.

Down 31-0 to England where they hadn’t won a game at the home of rugby in 36 years, Scotland dramatically led 38-31 into injury time.

But England’s bench fly-half George Ford crossed for a converted try in the 83rd minute to close on a spectacular 38-all draw.

That was one helluva result for Johnson to end his 2019 Six Nations commitment, just as the Waratahs turned in one helluva Super Rugby game a week later at the SCG to end the Crusaders’ impressive 19 successive wins.

And seeing Johnson was heading back Down Under to be Australia’s director of rugby, those two results were right off the top shelf for the 56-year-old who first made his name in rugby during the 1970s playing fly-half or centre for Parramatta and Eastwood to captaining the Waratahs.

Next up, a visit to Rugby Australia HQ, and a first-time media conference as the new boss.

Johnson made a lot of very aggressive quotes as you would expect from a man who continually looks you in the eye and boasts a square jaw. He means business.

One quote is worth repeating.

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“We are proud of what is our coat of arms, we have two animals that don’t walk backwards. I quite like that, so with anything in a competitive sense, we won’t be walking backwards”.

Spot on, but the quote doesn’t take into account the 20 centimetres between each one of the Waratahs’ ears.

Those 20 centimetres are the critical area where the men in blue go backwards often, and at a rapid rate – like the 31-29 loss to the Sunwolves in Newcastle on Friday night, a week after dumping the very best team in the competition.

How is it possible for so many internationals in a provincial tournament to go from brilliant to bloody awful in fractions of a second?

Israel Folau of the Waratahs

(Photo by Tony Feder/Getty Images)

Let’s recall the first two minutes when the Waratahs produced three successive miracles for a cracker of a try.

First miracle: hooker Damian Fitzpatrick found his line-out target Michael Wells at the back, Michael Hooper peeled off Wells to provide the second miracle by actually passing the ball to Nick Phipps who held the pass without over-running his support, for the third miracle.

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Waratahs 7-0.

Twelve minutes later, after brilliant lead-up work from Kurtley Beale and Israel Folau, Cam Clark crossed in the left-hand corner, and the Waratahs had 12 points on the board to please the new boss.

But the Waratahs trailed 17-15 at half-time, and lost 31-29 to a side that has never won before on Australian soil, had won just one game overseas, and thanks to pathetic SANZAAR, will be dumped from Super Rugby as from 2021.

Now Scott Johnson knows at first hand the problems he faces – it’s those damn 20 centimetres.

But Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson threw a blanket over the squad.

“Obviously everyone made mistakes,” Gibson said.

Very true, and the first mistake is another brain wave of rotating players in this World Cup year by benching Bernard Foley and substituting him with Mack Mason, who can count the number of minutes he’s been on the field over the last two seasons by taking off his boots.

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Mason was thrown under the bus at a time when the Waratahs had to cement their position at the top of the Australian Conference.

Not only did Mason have a shocker, but he was hooked after 57 minutes, which sure wouldn’t have done his already shattered confidence any good.

On the other side of the coin, any time Gibson wants to rotate Phipps or Adam Ashley-Cooper, feel free.

Phipps started brightly by scoring that early try but slid drastically downhill after that, low-lighted by his pedestrian service and kicking out on the full with three seconds left before half-time, giving the Sunwolves another chance to increase their lead.

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Fortunately, the visitors knocked on to save Phipps from any further embarrassment.

As for Ashley-Cooper, Karmichael Hunt should have the 35-year-old’s outside centre spot locked away for the rest of the season.

Neither Phipps nor Ashley-Cooper have any plus features to be included in the Wallaby World Cup squad.

That leaves the big question of how will Scott Johnson and Michael O’Connor find those missing parts in the 20 centimetres?

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