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'He is pretty much impossible to stop': Waratahs target Moana Pasifika star
By AAP
The NSW Waratahs are targeting championship-winning former teammate Sekope Kepu as the danger man in Saturday's first-time Super Rugby Pacific meeting with Moana Pasifika.
Moana are languishing in last place with just one win from nine games and the Waratahs know stopping Wallabies prop great Kepu at the set piece will go a long way towards keeping the competition newcomers at bay.
But that will be easier said than done, with returning hooker Dave Porecki suspecting Kepu - who played 141 games for the Waratahs and 110 for Australia - will be out to "bully" the NSW scrum at Mt Smart Stadium.
"If he gets dominance early, he is pretty much impossible to stop," Porecki said.
"He's a very strong tight-head scrummager so if you nullify him early, you can discourage him from being so dominant throughout the game."
Porecki said he and loosehead Angus Bell must keep Kepu in check.
"He's too experienced for someone like me to rattle him," Porecki said.
"I know what makes him tick. I think that's a little bit of an advantage for us."
Kepu, a cornerstone of the Waratahs' march to the 2014 Super Rugby title, isn't the only former Wallaby lining up for Moana Pasifika, who were hampererd by COVID-19 match postponements earlier in their campaign.
Playmaker Christian Lealiifano enters the match just nine points away from reaching 1000 Super Rugby points.
Coach Aaron Mauger hailed Lealiifano among his side's best in last week's 26-22 loss to the Melbourne Rebels.
"He had to wear a big shot at the end and stood up. He's a man of steel," Mauger said.
"We've put some plans in place to play the Waratahs and ultimately aim for an outcome.
"Obviously they had a good win over the Crusaders. Their confidence will be up but we're confident going in every week and we know we're not far away."
Kepu agreed that Moana were close to claiming their first Australian scalp and hoped it would come in Auckland.
"We're taking big steps and in the right direction," he said.
"This is the first season for a lot of our boys and the first professional environment for a lot of them and to see where we started and where we are now and all the storm weeks that we had to go through.
"But it's our first proper home game with crowds and our families at home. So we're really looking forward to that."
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There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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