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Highlanders thump winless Waratahs to move into second in Super Rugby Trans-Tasman
The NSW Waratahs are staring down the barrel of an historic and humiliating winless season after gifting the Highlanders a record-breaking 59-23 Super Rugby Trans-Tasman victory in Dunedin.
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In racking up their most points ever against NSW, the Highlanders piled on NINE tries to TWO at Forsyth Barr Stadium to extend the Waratahs’ unprecedented losing streak to 12 matches.
If they can’t beat the Chiefs next Saturday night in Sydney, the Waratahs will complete a season without a win for the first time in 35 years of professional rugby.
NSW vice-captain Alex Newsome spoke pre-game of the emotional toll the Waratahs’ dismal campaign had already taken on the players and Saturday night’s soul-destroying display won’t have helped.
Even former Wallabies coach Michael Cheika, who guided the Waratahs to their only Super Rugby title in 2014, was left pulling what’s left of his hair out.
Somewhat miraculously, given their “touch rugby” defence – as New Zealand commentators put it – the Waratahs actually led at the half-hour mark.
But schoolboy errors cost them heavily as the Highlanders converted their 33-23 halftime lead into a commanding bonus-point triumph with four unanswered five-pointers after the break.
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Cheika said he felt for Waratahs co-coaches Chris Whitaker and Jason Gilmore and for young props Andrew Tuala and Darcy Breen, who held their own at scrum time only to be let down by teammates.
“Coach Whitaker must be going mad up there, honestly,” Cheika said, shaking his head in the Nine commentary box.
“Like, some of the stuff they do is awesome and some of the stuff they do you want to close your eyes.
“You saw the missed tackle count, they haven’t missed a lot of tackles but they’ve just made some terrible decisions and reads.
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“It’s almost like frustration, yeah, is a word that could resonate for everyone watching and definitely for the lads sitting up in the coaches’ box.”
The Waratahs’ biggest names were among the major culprits, with halfback and captain Jake Gordon and fullback and fellow Wallaby Jack Maddocks extremely poor, lazy even, in defence.
In another major worry for defence coach Gilmore, who has designs on the fulltime head-coaching role, tackling went out the window during an astonishing 66-point first half.
There were seven lead changes before the interval but, unfortunately for the Waratahs, it was they who trailed after conceding five of the seven tries.
Perhaps the biggest concern for Whitaker and Gilmore, apart from the meek defence, was the Tahs’ inability to exit their own half from kicks-offs.
The Waratahs let in all five of the Highlanders’ first-half tries immediately after posting points themselves, which they accrued either through lovely tries to Maddocks and winger Mark Nawaqanitawase or the super boot of five-eighth Will Harrison.
Harrison, who delivered a Steve-Larkin-like ball-in-front bullet pass for Maddocks’ try, was easily the Waratahs’ best performer and finished with 13 points from his perfect goalkicking display.
But it was all the Highlanders, whose victory lifted them above the Crusaders into second spot behind the Blues and on track for the June 19 tournament final.
Highlanders 59 (Tries to Michael Collins, Patelesio Tomkinson, Ethan de Groot (2), Ash Dixon, Jona Nareki, Kazuki Himeno and Teariki Ben-Nicholas; 7 conversions to Mitch Hunt)
Waratahs 23 (Tries to Jack Maddocks and Mark Nawaqanitawase; 2 conversions and 3 penalties to Will Harrison)
Comments on RugbyPass
Ever so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to comments