Its not just me lauding the Waratahs performance last weekend! Bob Dwyer called it the best Waratah performance since the beginning of Super Rugby. Other journalists have expressed similar sentiments. The crowd on Sunday thought it was championship winning form and yelled their lungs out in appreciation. So that means the Waratahs are trophy certainties, right? Well, it just might be but lets pour a bit of cold water on that; I know Michael Cheika is already chilling the water as we speak. It was a good win but….
1. Â Taking the foot off the throat: The fifteen minute period before half time when the Highlanders came roaring back to go into the sheds just two points behind was just a case of not executing at 100%. In that time there was an early shove by the Waratahs scrum, Hooper running into contact too high, a Beale pass behind the man and lots of other small execution errors. The Waratahs dropped off in intensity about 1% I reckon, but in a finals game that may be crucial.
2. Slowing the game down: In that fifteen minute period, the pace of the game slowed noticeably. The loss of pace coincided with several stoppages. This included penalties (should these be required to be drop-kicked within thirty seconds like in sevens?) and scrums, which have become a mandated rest break for unfit teams. (The rules require them to be a way of restarting the game, but they have become a way of stopping it.) That is not to say the Highlanders deliberately slowed the game, they were fine, but other teams will. The first rule for any team wanting to beat the Waratahs is to slow the game down by fair means or foul. The Waratahs need to develop ways of addressing and minimising this.
3. Converting linebreaks into tries. In the first half, I counted five clean linebreaks and six half halfbreaks. This resulted in just one try. In the second half there were eight clean linebreaks and three halfbreaks, resulting in five tries. Only half of the clean linebreaks were finished off and about one in three of the total breaks. That’s not clinical enough. I’ve got no stats to prove it, but my memory says the great Crusader teams would have converted more breaks/halfbreaks into points. In a final, where you might get less than  a half dozen breaks all game you have to convert what you get or else you leave yourself at the mercy of some random penalty generator. There were too many errors made when in sight of the white line and that needs to be eliminated.
4. Backline passing: The quality of backline pass is still not up to scratch and often passes at head height or behind the man caused the movement to break down or to allow a defender to get a good hit on. Ashley-Cooper got hit at least twice with free men outside because the pass to him slowed down the delivery. Phipps has, hands down, the fastest pass of the ground at the ruck but his accuracy is still not where it needs to be; his passing speed is nullified to some extent by the need for the receiver to lose momentum retrieving the ball. But he’s not on his own. I counted six passes in the first forty minutes from a variety of offenders that did not hit their mark and there were undoubtedly some I missed. This is improved from the start of the season but we are only one game away from the finals and should be better.
5. The lineout: The lineout on our throw worked quite well on Saturday. We achieved good results on the back of some very intelligent variation in the jumpers – Hoiles called well. Â But this success may well be illusory because the Highlanders lineout is no great threat and three teams in the finals (or close to) have excellent lineouts – the Sharks, Brumbies and Crusaders. They will be a huge step up from Saturday and present a serious threat to retaining possession on our throw.
6. The scrum: The Highlanders scrum is serviceable but certainly no great threat. The Waratah scrum on Saturday was under serious threat in the first half on the tight head side, especially in the first twenty. But in the second half the Waratahs gradually got on top. I suspect that was largely due to fatigue in the Highlander’s pack. When the second string Highlander’s tight head came on it went downhill but it was definitely on the slide from about 48 minutes. Better scrummaging teams will make life more difficult – the Brumbies, Force, Sharks and Crusaders will provide a much sterner test. Cheika has admitted downgrading scrum training to concentrate on other areas but I think some intensive work with the Wallaby forwards coach during the week off is called for. The problem is just lack of focus, but it needs correction.
7. Going into contact too high: It seems the New Zealanders are taught to run low from the cradle, possibly before they learn their ABC. In Australia far too often our players get caught high and turned over. Again on Saturday this happened a number of times and its an issue we have to tidy up for the finals. We play possession football, starving the opposition and dominating by fatigueing their players. That is threatened every time we give the ball away after taking the ball into a ruck. There needs to be no slacking in ruck training over the next three weeks. So now the euphoria has died down a bit, reality has to set in. This is essential if the Waratahs are to go all the way. There are only 24 days to the final and a lot of work to do. Right now every team fears the Waratahs, they can open you up like no other team. But invincible they are not. They are vulnerable to teams with fast line speed, good positional kicking, good set piece and the skills to slow the breakdown by fair means or foul. That pretty much defines the Crusaders, the Brumbies and the Sharks. So; 24 days to address the issues and seize the Holy Grail.
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There are two keys to this team:
- The physicality of the forward pack, the spine of which is Polota-Nau, Douglas, Palu and Hooper.
- The three playmakers – Foley, Beale and Folau – who together provide the opportunities to breach the toughest defences.
The future is in their hands.
