Super Rugby 2016: 'Rubbish' Waratahs dealt finals blow with disappointing defeat to Rebels

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 7 years ago

Super Rugby 2016: 'Rubbish' Waratahs dealt finals blow with disappointing defeat to Rebels

By Chris Barrett
Updated

It is not often, in any code, that a coach resorts to labelling his team's performance as "rubbish", let alone midway through it. Daryl Gibson's spray spoke volumes for just how poor the Waratahs were in a first half on Sunday from which there was ultimately no way back.

The same might well be said of their Super Rugby finals ambitions. There is still time to correct that scenario but when you're dropping games at home to mid-range opposition, with such glaring flaws on display, optimism is not a commodity that is in surplus.

A second-ever win over the Waratahs allows the Rebels to draw level with the Brumbies in the Australian conference, and leaves Gibson's men with it all to do.

That the visitors were made to hang on in a thrilling finale, that for most of the afternoon didn't appear likely, wasn't much consolation.

Game-breaker: Israel Folau runs at the Rebels defence in round six.

Game-breaker: Israel Folau runs at the Rebels defence in round six. Credit: Getty Images

If the Waratahs' Achilles heel in the opening rounds has been the set-piece. on Sunday it was most certainly their handling, producing mistake after mistake in a bumbling first half. Loosehead Benn Robinson said during the week that problems in the scrum were due to standards falling at training. The engine room is not all they will be working on during the bye week.

The Waratahs were missing troops and no one's absence was felt more than Kurtley Beale, without whom there was a consistent lack of polish in the back line. Repeatedly, whether it was Israel Folau looming large and threatening to burst clear, or Reece Robinson finding himself in a hint of space, they were cruelled by their profligacy. And time after time it was a lack ofbasic skills that let them down.

On a beautiful autumn day in Sydney the stage had been set for the Waratahs to not only take advantage of the Brumbies' defeat to the Chiefs in Canberra and improve their finals' chances, but to make a more broad impression. They're in a perpetual challenge for cut-through in a crowded sporting marketplace but the 20,542 who turned up on Sunday gave them a chance.

Advertisement

That healthy attendance was failed on both counts in a first half that went from bad to worse for the hosts. There were a few encouraging signs of flair early on, mostly down the left flank and involving Folau and Bernard Foley.

Try scorer Matt Carraro is tackled.

Try scorer Matt Carraro is tackled.Credit: Mark Kolbe

But when they came unstuck at the critical moments it was an indication of things to come. Dropped balls, forward passes, intercepts, passes to no one, a hospital ball or two - there was more turnover than on Saturday at Royal Randwick. The Rebels, meanwhile, strolled in for two tries, both featuring missed tackles from tighthead Angus Ta'avao.

To add to the malaise Folau was issued a yellow card for playing the ball on the ground.

Gibson, sitting forlornly in the coaching box with his arms crossed and a frown on his face, made no secret of what he thought.

"Some of that stuff out there was rubbish," the angry coach said in half-time comments to the broadcaster that were more clinically delivered than anything from his side in the previous 40 minutes.

Gibson used the address to the television camera to urge the Waratahs to restore some pride in the jersey - the non-sanitised version was, presumably, heard in the home dressing room - and they answered the call and edged back into contention when Nick Phipps sent flanker Jack Dempsey over next to the posts at the northern end.

The handing errors spoiled several more attacking opportunities but the passes stuck long enough for outside centre Matt Carraro to dive over after latching onto a Foley kick in the 70th minute.

In the end, though, belated pride was not enough. It rarely is.

Most Viewed in Sport

Loading