'I don't care, we beat them': Waratahs not buying talk that Crusaders were 'understrength' in loss
A packed house at a suburban Stadium in Sydney was the stage for a crucial win in the Waratahs season. Coming into the match the Waratahs were sitting in a precarious position in their run home to the finals.
The Crusaders arrived at Leichhardt Oval with a number of changes to their matchday squad. The most notable omission was playmaker Richie Mo’unga.
Waratahs coach Darren Coleman was full of praise for his team’s hard-nosed defence and fighting spirit that delivered the team a 24-21 victory.
Coleman spoke about the Waratahs organization celebrating the wins when they happen after a few lean years for the men in sky blue.
“You just don’t know when those emotional victories are going to come and that euphoria you get straight after the final whistle in a game. You’re not sure if you’re going to win or not and you’ve worked bloody hard to win. You should show a bit of emotion.
“Everyone was feeling it and everyone was happy. There’s a lot of emotion because we got some wins this year and we’ve won some credibility back, but to knock off a top team like the Crusaders it’s an awesome result.
“Even in the warm-up watching the crowd roll in. I talk to these boys about it regularly, when you see people line up to come out and watch us, it’s a good feeling. When you can send them home happy, that’s a pretty powerful thing.”
It was a fast start by the men from New South Wales, putting on two tries in the first 15 minutes to take a comfortable 17-0 lead at half-time.
Coleman was quick to give credit to the opposition, refuting claims that the Crusaders ran out with an understrength team, pointing to the fact that the Crusaders depth allowed for squad rotation, with Jack Goodhue providing a straight swap for fellow All Black Braydon Ennor in the midfield.
“When they can take Ennor and replace them with another All Black [it’s a strong team], obviously Richie Mo’unga was a big swinger. They have to give them a break at some time. It’s just the Crusaders system.
“The naysayers will say we beat them a little bit understrength, but I don’t care, we beat them.
“The boys are Tah tough. They care. If you care about what you’re doing, you will be able to do things you didn’t know you could do.
“It just goes to show how good they are. We were 15 on 13 and they were moving us around and we were just hanging on.”
In typical Crusaders fashion, they came storming back in the second half, slowly chipping away at the lead the Waratahs had built. First, through a penalty try off a rolling maul and then through an individual effort from Sione Havili Talitui to burst over the line.
At that point in the match, it seemed the Crusaders had the momentum in their favour and were in a position to mount a famous comeback. The Waratahs kept the Crusaders at bay and in the 66th minute, it was the home side that wrestled back the ascendancy.
Substitute Hamish Dalzell was red-carded for a high shot on Michael Hooper. The following maul, the Waratahs were given a penalty try and Pablo Matera was sent from the field for collapsing close to their line. It was a defining few moments in the match and gave the Waratahs an important win to keep their season alive.
Skipper Jake Gordon echoed his coach’s sentiments, saying the team wanted to put out a performance for the fans who persevered through tough times in recent seasons. Saturday’s game at Leichhardt Oval saw a 10,000-strong crowd come through the turnstiles.
“To see a turnout like that, it was awesome. We felt we needed to repay the faith a little bit and I think we’re slowly winning back supporters. I’m just really happy to see such a good turnout and for us to back that up with a good performance.”
When Coleman was asked about turning his attention towards their game against Moana Pasifika, he highlighted the importance of savouring the victory and using it as motivation moving forward in their 2022 campaign.
“I will figure that stuff out later. For now, you’ve got to enjoy it. I really want them to enjoy that, and I want them to feel those waves of sheer elation that roll over you after a win.”
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver 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?
11 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.
11 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 comments