From their first two outings, clearly the Waratahs have the capacity to play some really good footy; great support play / offload game in the second half especially last night. Consistency within a game is proving to be their Achilles' heel so far, as it was a lot last year. At least they're going better in the second halves this year, rather than grinding to a halt towards the end of games last year (we all remember the multiple losses of 1-3 points or so).
The Rebels played some enterprising footy in the first half, and I was alarmed at how easily they made metres one-off the rucks against the Tahs in that first half.
Set piece was pretty good, especially the scrum, except when the Rebels shoved them off their own ball when they had 8 on 7. I was yelling at the TV too about Henderson with his tripod technique at LHP that was let go pretty much all game. Although, it is better that the scrums stayed up and finished, rather than ending up in a heap on the ground, I guess?
The Carter tackle, in real time, as opposed to the multiple slo-mo renderings, looked pretty reflexive - it would take some amazing presence of mind to drop your arms and get smashed by Higginbotham's knees in your chest in a split second, when you have set to tackle him. As with all these tackles, I'm sure plenty will debate that and some might even think he planned it 30 secs earlier.
I haven't changed my opinion that the Tahs will be a thorn in a few sides this year, but will probably be not quite at the pointy-end come play-off time.
