Dan McKellar holds firm on Waratahs vision after missing playoffs

Dan McKellar believes the NSW Waratahs made strides forward during this year’s Super Rugby Pacific campaign, but the coach acknowledged that meaningful change takes team – with the Tahs missing out on the playoffs for the second successive season.

With hopes of a top-six finish still alive, the Tahs ran out onto the field at Auckland’s Eden Park on Saturday for a high-stakes clash with the Blues. Whoever won that match would ultimately secure their spot in the next stage, with Moana Pasifika later losing to the Hurricanes.

The Tahs had only won one match on the road this season – beating the Western Force at Perth’s HBF Park in Super Point the week before – but needed to back that up with their first win over the Blues at the ‘Garden of Eden’ since 2009.

Unfortunately for the visitors, once the Blues got going, they never looked like slowing down. All Blacks centre Rieko Ioane crossed for a hat-trick and Mark Tele’a scored a double as the defending competition champions ran away with an emphatic 46-6 win.

Under McKellar, the Tahs won six of their 14 matches this season, which included a headline-grabbing upset win over the Chiefs in Sydney. While it wasn’t enough to see them play finals football, McKellar is confident the Tahs can make necessary changes.

“We’ve certainly made progress, and it’s how you measure progress,” McKellar told reporters after the 40-point loss.

“So, there’s significant change for this, for a new playing group, new coaching group, and a new way of doing things.

“There have been a lot of adjustments, and I’ve got a vision for the organisation, and it’s going to take time.

“It will take time to make the change that you want to make, because you can put band-aids on things and come up with quick solutions.

“But is that going to set up for sustainable success? So, there’s a lot of work to be done.

“I’ve said many times, there’s going to be some good days and there’s going to be some tough days, and today was another tough one.”

After a tense start to the round 16 match against the Blues, Tele’a opened the scoring in the 10^th minute, while Beauden Barrett missed the mark with the shot at goal. Waratahs fly-half Jack Bowen reduced the deficit to two with a penalty goal, but it was one-way traffic from there.

Ioane scored with 13 left to play in the half, before the Blues piled on another 14 points before the break, while the Tahs could only manage another three. It was a similar story during the second term, with the Blues running in three unanswered tries.

“Obviously pretty disappointed. We came up against a good Blues side, probably the best Blues side they’ve run out all year,” McKellar said.

“We’re a little bit undermanned and a pretty young group, especially within our back line, and up against some world-class players.

“There’ll be plenty of learnings for us out of tonight. We were beaten in all areas of the game.”