Immovable Force calls NSW's bluff
Immovable Force calls NSW's bluff
- Wayne Smith, Rugby union editor
- From: The Australian
- March 22, 2010 12:00AM
Statistics flatter the far from impressive Waratahs team
WAYNE SMITH
RUGBY UNION EDITOR
IT was a test the Waratahs knew was coming and still they failed it miserably.
All very well for them to throw the ball around in cavalier fashion against the Bulls at Pretoria in what was essentially a death-or-glory gamble against a team they knew in their hearts they couldn't beat by conventional means.
And what does it mean that they played adventurously against the Lions, a toothless team that concedes, on average, three tries per half?
No, the real test of the Waratahs' commitment to playing bold -- and, dare it be said, entertaining rugby -- was always going to come the first time they found themselves in a tight bind against a rival totally in their faces.
In their own minds, they probably were thinking their next opponent, the Blues, would be the ones to subject them to that particular test but, as so often happens when you're unprepared and bluffing, the examination was sprung on them a week early.
Western Force did more than get in the Waratahs' faces. They got inside their heads and there, it must be said, they found as much empty space as did Scott Staniforth after swooping on to Berrick Barnes's no-look pass. There are no great thinkers in this NSW side, at least not outside Barnes and he, unfortunately, was so totally preoccupied with getting his own misfiring game together in Perth he had no grey matter to spare for what it was the Waratahs really needed to be doing.
Phil Waugh might be their captain and inspirational leader but he is utterly one-dimensional in his thinking. Fox Sports commentator Greg Martin might have got his timing a fraction wrong when he exclaimed "the Waratahs backs won't see the ball for the next week" just before the forwards released it to them, but his reading of Waugh's intent was on the money.
When in doubt -- and it doesn't take much to trigger doubt in this NSW side -- Waugh will always revert to a safety-first, field position game.
Not that one could entirely blame him at on Saturday night. Everywhere he looked he saw Waratahs runners being mugged by the Force defence.
In fact, it is being generous, bordering on profligate, to use the word "runners".
For the most part, they were flat-footed plodders caught up in a shambles so disjointed that, as often as not, it came as a total surprise when suddenly they found the ball in their hands.
Even that most eager of ball-carriers, hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau, several times was caught standing still when the pass unexpectedly came his way, although to his credit he then accelerated so sharply as to still make it over the advantage line. But aside from winger Drew Mitchell, running into fitness and form at the same time, there was scarcely a NSW player who troubled the defence.
Where were the decoy plays? Where was the pattern? Where was the inventiveness? Even the much-depleted Force showed moments of flair, albeit borrowed from the Reds, with Mark Bartholomeusz, from memory, firing a Quade Cooper-like inside pass across the face of three defenders to pick up a runner late in the first half.
But there was none of that from the Tahs. Their sole try came from a kick-and-hope grubber from Daniel Halangahu but mostly when he or Barnes put boot to ball, it was in resignation. Nothing on, going nowhere, kick for the line.
The Waratahs might be second on the try-scoring list with 21 from six matches, behind the Bulls (25 from five), but discount their 11-try blowout against the Lions and they plummet to fourth from the bottom, down there with the Force (six from five), Sharks (seven from six) and Cheetahs (eight from five). Those are hardly the stats of a finals-bound team.
Three of NSW's four wins were at the expense of teams now ranked 11th, 13th and 14th on the table. Three of their four wins owed heavily to the referee. Much as the Force brought itself undone with its many mistakes within touching distance of the NSW tryline, it also fell foul of South African referee Jaco Peyper.
Waugh might have struck some late blows in an otherwise losing personal battle against Force openside flanker Matt Hodgson by winning two penalties at the breakdown right at the death, but Peyper could just as easily have penalised the NSW tacklers for not rolling away from the ball-carrier. And what manner of referee, with the scoreboard reading NSW 14, Force 10, would allow the Waratahs to drag out one scrum from the 74min 29sec mark to 76min 46sec? It was a scandalous piece of time-wasting by NSW and yet Peyper blithely permitted it.
For the third time this season, the Waratahs won a match in which they were outplayed. The Reds had the better of them, so too the Sharks and now a gallant if limited Force.
Some might read that as a sign of greatness, as in "great teams make their own luck". In truth there is not a hint of greatness about this Waratahs outfit at present. It is competent and efficient and tackles well enough, even if it has let in more tries than all save the bottom three sides.
But it does nothing to warm the heart or stir the soul.
And, worst of all, it lacks the courage of its convictions.
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