The New South Wales Waratahs edged archrivals the Queensland Reds 15-13 in a dour Super Rugby clash in Brisbane, Australia, yesterday.
The Waratahs scored two tries to one, but trailed the Reds until 12 minutes to go when Wallabies flyhalf Bernard Foley kicked a penalty to put his side in front.
The win means the Waratahs stay in touch with runaway Australian conference leaders the ACT Brumbies, but they had to use all their experience to see off a brave Queensland side yet to win this season.
Photo: Reuters
The Reds have improved each week since they sacked coach Richard Graham and, on the back of a superior scrum and lineout, they almost pulled off an upset.
“It was a really tough grind,” Waratahs captain Michael Hooper said. “We did some really good things, but we were falling back on some poor things we’ve done previously. We’re rolling on, but hopefully we can get a snowball effect and go from there.”
Hooper said the Waratahs had adapted to the conditions better than their opponents.
“We changed our game plan which worked really well for us — kicking to the corners and playing for position,” he said.
Queensland captain Rob Simmons said conceding a try right on halftime had been a huge blow.
“I’m sick of saying it, but we have to learn from these situations,” Simmons said. “There’s a better feeling going in at halftime when you’re in front.”
Simmons said the Reds needed to do more than just scrummage well.
“It’s something that we’re proud of and something we put a lot of work into, but there’s more to rugby than the scrum.”
On the Saturday, the Canterbury Crusaders, the last team to go through a Super Rugby season undefeated 14 years ago, and they ensured it would be another year at least before that record is matched.
Captain Kieran Read’s late try in Durban inflicted the first defeat of the year on the Coastal Sharks and means every side has now lost at least once in the first five rounds.
With the thrilling 19-14 victory, the Crusaders, with a game in hand, have won three out of four and lie fourth in a New Zealand conference headed by the Waikato Chiefs.
The 2002 Crusaders are the only team to have won every game in a Super Rugby season.
The Sharks and the Western Stormers, who survived a scoreless second half to beat the Jaguares 13-8 in Buenos Aires, head the two African conferences.
New All Blacks captain Read rounded off a 15-phase attack with his try eight minutes from time to steal victory for the Crusaders over the Sharks.
Despite being starved of possession, constantly trapped in their half and struggling at the scrums and lineouts, the Sharks were ahead 14-7 early in the second half. They stayed in front for nearly half an hour until Read scored the match-winning try.
Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder felt the close result was a problem for his side, who “dominated the whole game, but we probably pushed too many passes and made a lot of errors.”
“If we had lost it would have been because of the errors we made,” he said.
The Brumbies bounced back from the previous weekend’s loss to the Stormers with a 25-18 win over the Cheetahs in an error-strewn game in Bloemfontein.
The Australian outfit led 25-8 before the Cheetahs mounted a late rally to secure a bonus point.
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