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Hurricanes pile more misery on Waratahs
By AAP
The NSW Waratahs admit they "must move on pretty quick" after yet another flop left their Super Rugby Pacific hopes in tatters.
If it wasn't evident already, the table-topping Hurricanes exposed the Waratahs as 2024 title pretenders with a 41-12 thrashing in Wellington on Friday night.
The Tahs' latest crushing bonus-point defeat left them with a galling two-from-10 record, and the coaching staff at the one-time Australian benchmark outfit didn't pull any punches in assessing the performance.
"We're coming second, by a long way," NSW assistant coach Chris Whitaker said of the Waratahs' meek first-half effort at Sky Stadium.
"The contact area was pretty poor, both sides of the ball.
"We're not tackling hard enough, not carrying hard enough. Speed around the field is probably not up to it either."
Stinging from a first loss of the season last week to the Brumbies, the Hurricanes came out firing.
First-half tries to five-eighth Brett Cameron, winger Joshua Moorby, centre and captain Billy Proctor and No.8 Brayden Iose earned the hosts a virtually unbeatable 26-0 lead at the break.
A try-scoring double from electric replacement Salesi Rayasi put the issue beyond doubt, despite late second-half crosses from Waratahs duo Hugh Sinclair and Vuate Karawalevu.
"We do some good stuff and we sort of let ourselves down a little bit," said Waratahs captain Jake Gordon.
"I thought some of the play late in that second half there was some really good moments, but (against) a quality team like that, we need to do it for longer."
An eighth loss of the season leaves the Waratahs languishing in second-last spot on the ladder and needing to string a succession of wins together in the closing rounds to scrape into the top eight.
They have little let-up against the Brumbies in Canberra next round.
"It's always a big game playing the Brumbies, especially at home," Gordon said.
"So we're going to have to review this and review this pretty heavily.
"But it's a sprint, this competition. We have to move on pretty quick."
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Latest Comments
I wonder Jake, who do you think is the best fit for Australia as a coach? Not since Joe Schmidt took over as coach did Australia look any good, however, there is always this debate around not having an Aussie coach by the fans and so called pundits and old players.
Some of them are changing their minds now however, but I would love to see who you would choose. I think Joe Schmidt is an excellent coach, who puts in everything for the team he is coaching. To him, there is no such thing as being biased.
Go to commentsExcept for the 6N he has won nothing. No WC's, no Lions tours not anything. He is ranked even behind Eddie Jones, who has won a WC with SA and have a better victory rate than Gatland. Keep your so called "best coach" in the world. No one but Wales wants him. A very harsh Hell No comes to mind if anyone asks if they would want Gatland as head coach.
Guess the man is wearing blinders. Rob Howley is howling mad describing Gatland as the best. What a load of 💩
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