There’s been a lotta talk about the defence of the Waratahs last weekend in their 18–33 loss to the Crusaders. The lapses were surprising, considering the strength it had been in their previous games – so what went wrong?
First up, no doubt there was just some poor tackling, which was spread quiet broadly across the team. Noticeable was the midfield where Halangahu missed almost as many has he made with 4/9 attempts and Rob Horne who missed 4/14. Compounding this weakness from the set piece were the unheard-of stats from a one-armed Phil Waugh, who missed 4, made 7.
What I’ve focused on in this video, though, is the rush defensive system that the Tahs have adopted with John Muggleton this season (despite Chris Hickey’s denying it in an article from the SMH that was based on a Twitter conversation between Ewen McKenzie and me) and where it, or rather the players operating it, failed against the Crusaders.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIrXLNLvFO0[/youtube]
