This time a year ago, the Waratahs would be approaching this weekend’s bye with a few nerves: hoping to get the points, but not daring to count on it.
As it is, after a credible – if still a long way from incredible – performance against the Highlanders last Friday to register a 37-36 win, things are just a little better. They know that by next Sunday evening they will sit atop the table, with every chance of still being there after next weekend, too, after playing Fijian Drua. In all likelihood, they’ll get to the fourth round still unbeaten!
So, all good then, with a better numerical start beckoning than just about any other in a decade?
Yes, but …
While the win on Friday was great, and it was wonderful to open their innings by beating a Kiwi team – with a crowd of 16,000 registering 3,000 up on last year’s average, and that despite the train strike knocking a few thousand out – allow me to be a nark for a moment and make a few uncalled-for remarks before glorying in the good stuff.
1. What the hell is it with all the box-kicks?
After months of preparation, did the Tahs really have nothing better to offer in attack than just two tactics, the up and the under? How often did the box-kick actually work? As far as I could see, about once, when Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii leapt high in the opening minutes and got one back. After that, diddly squat. But the Tahs kept doing them till our noses bled! Beyond everything else, it is just dull.
2. Why all the long kick-offs?
We all know that on his Wallabies debut against England at Twickenham Suaalii was a revelation and nowhere more than in short kick-offs, where he was the one charging through, leaping a metre above the heads of static English forwards to tap the ball back to a rampaging Australian pack that smashed the Pommies for their trouble. Three times he changed the course of the game on that ability alone and to my eyes he looked like a strike weapon on that field like international rugby has rarely, if ever, seen before.
Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii had a mixed night in the air at fullback.Credit: Getty Images
So, with him in the side, how many times did the Tahs execute a short kick-off and have Suaalii work his magic? Not once. Never a SINGLE FREAKING TIME! Every kick-off went long, with little pressure put on the receiver, who either hoofed it down-field or spread it wide to attack on our wings. I simply don’t get it, do you? In the Waratahs’ weaponry bag, we had Kick-off Kalashnikov, and we never fired it once. (Strained, I know, but I am writing this late at night. You get the drift.)
3. Where was the running rugby overall?
I saw just about none, bar a wonderful injection of Suaalii into the line mid-way through the second-half that saw Max Jorgensen go over in the corner. Beyond that, though, in terms of sweeping back-line play, slick passing, clever manoeuvres from the backs, there was just about nothing. Look, no-one is expecting last year’s wooden-spooners to suddenly turn up with a magic wand, but there appeared to be a lack of desire to even try stuff?
In sum?
In sum, friends, the backs were stinking up the joint something terrible – as, admittedly, backs are so often wont to do – while the good stuff mostly came from the forwards.
Let’s see.
For once, the scrums and lineouts were solid and whoever is in charge of training the pack in set-pieces has done a great job. Rolling mauls were also superb, and no fewer than three tries came from them.
In defence, they got the job done and snuffed out most Highlanders charges before they got momentum.
Among the forwards, there were two standouts. The back-rower, Charlie Gamble, was once again everywhere at once. It was not just the tackles he crunched, the turnovers he munched, the charges he punched through, though they were all great, it was his sheer presence, the way he exhorted the players around him, and got things organised. He is one of those players who makes the players around him perform just for trying to reach his level of commitment.
And, of course, the other player shining on the night was the reserve prop Siosofa Amone who came on with 20 minutes to go and was as busy as a one-legged man in a bum-kicking competition throughout. His first try was a beauty, coming off a slickly worked lineout move involving Gamble – yes, him again – deftly passing to Amone coming from the back of the lineout and running the blind.
And Amone’s last try came after the forwards pulled off 16 consecutive phases to wear down the Highlanders’ defence, before he went over right beside the posts with a minute to go.
Joe Roff is fond of saying, “don’t lecture rugby about diversity and inclusion, we’ve been picking the fat kid first for 150 years!” and when he was 150kgs, Amone was a case in point. But having dropped 26kgs in the last three months to have now slimmed down to a block of flats, he combines heft and hurry in a formidable combination, which means that – still only 22 years old – he is one worth watching.
All up, a solid start to the season for the Waratahs, and they will be worth watching, but they’ll need to take it up at least two gears to knock off the higher teams. And they’ll have to come up with something better than box-kicks to win, just as they need a game plan which can better capitalise on the skills of Joseph Suaalii.
