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'We're going to give him a crack': Waratahs want to unleash game-breaking centre on the Chiefs
The NSW Waratahs will give game-breaking centre Izaia Perese every chance to prove his fitness as the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific season moves into knockout mode.
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Waratahs coach Darren Coleman declared the title up for grabs, with all eight quarter-finalists needing to win three straight sudden-death encounters to snare the trophy.
Even Blues coach Leon McDonald is feeling nervous despite his table-toppers notching a record 13th consecutive win with a last-gasp 20-17 victory over the Waratahs by a largely second-string team in Sydney on Saturday night.
“We don’t want to stop at 13. That would be a disaster,” McDonald said ahead of the Blues’ quarter-final against either the Highlanders or Western Force in Auckland on Saturday night.
The Blues will play the Highlanders unless the Rebels defeat the Highlanders in Melbourne in Sunday’s final match of the regular season without conceding a bonus point.
The Force were hoping to join fellow Australians teams the Brumbies, Waratahs and Queensland Reds in making the finals after upsetting the Hurricanes 27-22 on Friday night.
The fourth-placed Brumbies host the fifth-placed Hurricanes in Canberra on Saturday after limping into the playoffs on the back of three successive defeats, including a shock 32-22 loss to wooden spooners Moana Pasifika.
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“It’s pretty disappointing from our end. We were probably out-played, probably out-enthused,” said Brumbies captain Allan Alaalatoa.
“We just need to regroup.”
The Brumbies’ defeat scuppered a predicted showdown with the Waratahs in the national capital that would have guaranteed at least one Australian team made the semi-finals.
The sixth-placed Waratahs will instead travel to Hamilton to face the third-placed Chiefs on Saturday.
“I can’t lie. We had our sights and the probability was all leading us to Canberra,” said Waratahs coach Darren Coleman.
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“Even as a coaching group, we prepared like we were going to play in Canberra with our preview.
“So it was a waste of six hours. We won’t do that again.”
Coleman is approaching the finals as a completely new competition and maintains his side can snatch the title a year after enduring a winless campaign.
“We love being underdogs,” he said.
“Our whole season, we were 101 (dollar outsiders) at the start of the year so we’re going there to be underdogs against a good football team.
“We’re going there to play the Chiefs and will do our best.
“We’ve got to go over there and get three wins. Start with the first one first.”
Perese’s season looked over when he suffered a medial ligament injury against the Hurricanes two weeks ago.
But Coleman said the Tahs’ most destructive back could be a surprise starter against the Chiefs.
“We’re going to give him a crack,” the coach said.
“As in, we don’t know if he’ll play but we’ll push him through this week. It’s sudden death, we’ve got no reason to save him.
“But he’s got to be able to function. It will be a race against the clock but we’ll give him as long as we can.”
The seventh-placed Reds play the second-placed Crusaders in the first quarter-final on Friday night in Christchurch.
Comments on RugbyPass
Wow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
1 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
12 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
1 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
1 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
4 Go to commentsThe greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
16 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
16 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
4 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
16 Go to comments