The New South Wales Waratahs are to host the Crusaders in the Super Rugby final after beating the ACT Brumbies 26-8 in a tense all-Australian semi-final yesterday.
Flyhalf Bernard Foley scored a spectacular late try among a personal tally of 16 points as the Waratahs reached the final for the third time and won the right to host the championship decider for the first time in their history.
New South Wales scored an opportunistic try in each half to lead 11-8 at halftime and 19-8 before Foley’s 78th-minute clincher.
Winger Alofa Alofa scored an intercept try in the third minute to give the Waratahs a lead they never relinquished, and center Kurtley Beale stripped the ball from an opponent to score a decisive try after 48 minutes.
The win owed a great deal to the resilience of their defense.
They were both the best defensive and best attacking side in the competition throughout the regular season, and the win highlighted both of those faculties.
The Waratahs allowed the Brumbies only one try, through winger Henry Speight in the 30th minute, and otherwise weathered intense pressure applied by their opponents late in the first and throughout the second half.
On attack, they capitalized on the few chances that fell their way. Alofa and Beale’s tries were both constructed out of nothing, but Foley’s reflected the outstanding attacking ethos of the Waratahs this season and their ability to instinctively combine when a scoring opportunity occurs.
The Brumbies were hot on attack and winger Joe Tomane — Speight’s replacement — stretched the defense down the right flank before hurling a misguided pass infield. The ball was reclaimed by Waratahs prop Benn Robinson, who took the first steps out of defense and it was around that initial turnover that the try-scoring movement coalesced.
The ball was ferried through eager sets of hands — Israel Folau and Rob Horne among them — before reaching young lock Will Skelton, who embarked on a run which tore the defense apart. When Skelton was finally claimed by the cover defense, he had the skill and the vision to turn the ball infield to Foley, who dashed the final 25m to the line.
Waratahs captain Michael Hooper, who was outstanding on defense, welcomed his team’s eighth consecutive win and their long overdue venture to the final.
Hooper said hosting the tournament decider against the Crusaders would be “new territory for us, but exciting territory.”
“We talked before the game about taking opportunities, but we had to make them tonight,” Hooper said. “We came up with a few, I won’t say lucky tries, but tries we built under pressure and we take that ... we’re in the final and we’re stoked.”
“Defense wins you games, and it was really good tonight, really good to see the big boys doing the hard work,” he said.
The Waratahs started strongly and rocked the Brumbies when Alofa picked up a misdirected pass and ran 60m to score. The Brumbies fought their way back into the match in the second part of the first spell and drew level with Speight’s try and a penalty to Christian Leali’ifano.
However, the Waratahs, with a Foley penalty, took an 11-8 lead to halftime and took a strong step toward victory with Beale’s try in the eighth minute of the second half. They then held out against the Brumbies, who tried tenaciously to fight their way back into the game.
Foley’s final penalty, in the 72nd minute, and his try a few minutes later put the match out of reach.
“We had more than enough opportunities inside their 22 to come away with a lot of points, and you’ve got to give credit to the way the New South Wales guys held on,” Brumbies captain Ben Mowen said. “They defended really well, they dismantled our maul which has been a real strength of ours and they’re obviously the best defensive side in the competition for a reason.”
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