The NSW Waratahs are bracing for life without key pair Jake Gordon and Joey Walton as coach Rob Penney called for less “toilet seat moments” in Saturday’s Super Rugby AU clash with the Brumbies.
Gordon, in his first game as captain, scored after three minutes but it was all downhill from there in a season-opening 41-7 loss to the Queensland Reds in Brisbane.
Gordon was his side’s best player but added more headaches for Penney when he limped off with an ankle injury in the second half.
No.12 Walton also suffered an ankle injury while No.13 Izaia Perese was red-carded for a dangerous tackle and will miss three games of an eight-game regular season.
Penney will name a replacement captain on Tuesday for a side already missing more than 1500 games of Super Rugby experience from departures in the last two seasons.
“They’ll be out for a period of time, I don’t know the level but certainly won’t be available in next week or so,” Penney said of Walton and Gordon.
The Waratahs allowed three tries in nine minutes after Gordon had scored, then kept the Reds scoreless for 20 minutes while a man down before the hosts scrossed twice in the last nine minutes to set up their biggest Super Rugby victory over their state rivals.
“There were massive degrees of diversion,” Penney said of the Waratahs’ performance.
“There was some really good bits, but some really ugly bits.
“We’re liable to have toilet seat moments – up and down – it’s not an excuse, but we’ve just got to get better.”
jeznez
Roar Guru
:laughing: even they’ve changed though. We’ve never been expected to be the bottom team before! Played finals in 2018.......
Waxhead
Roar Rookie
@Jez To be fair to Hugh he's saying the on field results haven't changed. And he's right. They're changing the deck chairs on the Titanic is all :silly:
jeznez
Roar Guru
100% a real thing. They post information about their meetings on the club website https://www.sydneyunirugby.com.au/friends-of-sufc.html They’ve been quite open about all the RA and NSWRU heavies in their member list. Here is the one from 2015: https://www.sydneyunirugby.com.au/files/Friends_SUFC_Members_List_Oct_2015.pdf
nate
Guest
Karmichael? 12 and captain lol
Boomeranga
Roar Rookie
Jez is FOSUFC a real thing or a board conspiracy theory? I always thought it was the latter, but it persists ...
jeznez
Roar Guru
I know he did. What has that got to do with whether Penney is developing a culture as described by James?
Machooka
Roar Guru
:laughing: :laughing:
ols
Roar Pro
Tizzano went to a private school in Perth, not Sydney
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
What light through yonder toilet seat breaks, 'tis the sun, from my ... Ofc, the Qld players are very familiar with the St Crispin’s Day speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V. Sometimes it's like Shakespeare is all they talk about. That and tattoos.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
Yep can't argue with that, the QRU has nothing at all to crow about.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
Yeah only spitballing, I'm sure he doesn't want to go back, and I'm not surprised he's played centre.
The Sheriff
Guest
Gordon's loss is the Waratah's gain. Far from being our best he was the cause of the problems. Indecision at the base of ruck and scrum buggers up all attack. There must be better #4 and #5 around than this pair of Kiwi rejects, too! Dempsey was comprehensively outplayed by Wilson with only the #7 making a mark in the forwards.
Guess
Roar Rookie
Thanks for explaining makes sense now
Markus
Roar Rookie
"The Tahs end up having to bet $$$ on untried potential and then you win some and lose some." That is the same situation the other teams are in though, if not more so. They don't have the luxury of a massive feeder area so need to identify talent early, and accurately, and trust their development pathways to grow that talent. The Tahs have even benefited heavily from this at times, receiving players like Hooper and Ashley-Cooper back as Test-capped players in their prime. If a club "lose some" at a seemingly far higher rate than others, that points to either poor talent identification or poor development pathways. "Tahs should really get first option for any NSW produced players that come on the market." Operationally they basically do. These players are in their pathways from day one, often come through the GPS system and have the contacts there to get their first pick of the lot. The issue would be rarely with NSW raised players turning down a comparative offer from the Tahs at a young age to take an option elsewhere, and more with the Tahs just not being willing to offer a contract to a young untested player. That is their choice that they are unwilling to take that risk, but they also have to live with the result.
jcmasher
Roar Rookie
Fair enough mate despite some posts here we’re allowed to disagree without getting upset with each other.
Harry Selassie
Roar Rookie
I fully understand your point JC and ordinarily I'd support your view but in such a short competition I believe 3 games is a harsh penalty for a red card. 2 games would I feel still act as a deterrent.
ScottD
Roar Guru
I think you are articulating the very frustration with NSW rugby that everyone has. Until the sense of entitlement that some sectors of NSW rugby administration has is eliminated and replaced by an honest assessment of the issues followed by some hard work , there will be no lasting improvement. I think all states have a similar sense of irritation at “poaching” of the future players being developed in their state but NSW has a bigger pool to poach from.
jeznez
Roar Guru
For Dempsey, they’ve admitted it was cash Boomer, just can’t match the offer from up north. Particularly for a player that has slipped out of Wallabies reckoning.
jcmasher
Roar Rookie
Nope. It is totally appropriate. If players are too dumb to learn to modify their play they need the harsh lesson to wake them up. If it becomes less then the red won’t be an issue so players won’t care about it and will continue to do dumb things
jeznez
Roar Guru
Edmed can play 12, that's where he played last week. He's also done it for the Waratahs A's. Newsome will be 13, it's just the bench cover we are lacking.