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Waratahs nightmare start to season continues as Chiefs add to woes
By AAP
The unbeaten, table-topping Chiefs have heaped more pain on the NSW Waratahs with an uninspiring 24-14 Super Rugby Pacific victory in Sydney.
Wallabies coach Eddie Jones was on hand to witness an error-riddled match on Friday night that only briefly came to life during a frenetic period in the second half.
Jones earlier on Friday admitted he hadn't been impressed with much from Australia's five Super Rugby sides so far this season and he might have been forgiven for wondering what he'd got himself into after the Waratahs' lacklustre showing.
Darren Coleman's injury-hit outfit were resolute in defence but butter-fingered and clunky in attack despite the best efforts of their faithful fans at Allianz Stadium to lift the Tahs to a desperately needed win.
Alas, the Waratahs slumped to a fourth defeat from five outings.
A runaway 40-metre intercept try to skipper Jake Gordon in the 17th minute offset a soft early cross from Chiefs five-eight h Bryn Gatland and looked to be the energising jolt the Waratahs needed.
The Chiefs mounted attack after attack but the Tahs produced a heroic defensive effort to keep the competition leaders at bay.
The Chiefs resorted to a penalty shot from near halfway, so desperate were they to convert their territorial dominance into points.
But Damian McKenzie's long-range effort wasn't even close as the Tahs went to the break somehow level at 7-7.
McKenzie eventually slotted a 45-metre shot to break the deadlock after halftime before Chiefs winger Emoni Narawa sent the visitors out to a 17-7 lead with a 54th-minute try.
Michael Hooper, in his milestone 133rd Super Rugby game, making the champion flanker the most-capped Waratahs back-rower ever, gave his side hope when he finished off a driving maul try on the hour.
But Narawa's second try five minutes from fulltime sealed victory for the Chiefs and left the Waratahs empty-handed without even a bonus point.
Coleman and co travel to Canberra next Saturday to face the Brumbies in what seems an early must-win encounter for last year's struggling quarter-finalists.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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