Defending champions the New South Wales Waratahs carved out an error-strewn 23-5 win over fierce Australian Super Rugby rivals the Queensland Reds in Brisbane yesterday.
In a game that was hardly a good advertisement for the southern hemisphere provincial series, both sides committed a welter of passing and handling errors in a derby that never reached any great heights.
The Waratahs scored two tries to one and should have crossed for more only for final passes to go to ground.
Photo: AFP
It was the Sydney team’s second win in three games, while the injury-hit Reds slipped to their third defeat in four outings, leaving them at the bottom of the Australian Conference.
Flyhalf Bernard Foley finished with 18 points from a try, two conversions and three penalties.
A couple of Foley penalties gave the Waratahs the early advantage and the No. 10 finished off a nice break from Matt Carraro in the 25th minute.
Former Wallaby James O’Connor, playing for the Reds this season, missed both his penalty kicks as the Waratahs went to halftime leading 13-0.
The Waratahs physicality dominated the Reds and they went further ahead with another Foley penalty minutes after the resumption.
They lost hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau to the sin bin in the 57th minute for taking out the legs of a rival lineout jumper, but the Waratahs looked more likely to score.
Scrumhalf Nick Phipps put down a Rob Horne pass with the try line beckoning before winger Peter Betham scored a runaway try from his own quarter with 13 minutes left.
The Waratahs threatened to post a record winning margin over the Reds, but were unable to add to their tally despite plenty of possession.
Reds winger Lachie Turner was taken from the field with his neck in a brace after colliding with Waratahs backrower Dave Dennis, but gave the thumbs up as he made his way to the sidelines.
The Reds finally scored in the final minute when lock Marco Kotze crashed over.
Skipper Dennis was not enthused by the Waratahs’ performance.
“The most pleasing thing was that we kept trying to play our attacking game, but we turned over a lot of ball, which isn’t good enough,” he said. “We kept it physical and to get four points up here is really good.”
Reds counterpart James Slipper said: “We knew they were going to come out very physical and they did that, and we were inconsistent tonight, which was disappointing. We’ve had a few drop outs, a few injuries this season, but we’re not going to use that as an excuse.”
BLUES, LIONS
Lions’ winger Ruan Combrinck scored a late try to lift the visitors to a 13-10 win over the Blues yesterday, ending the Johannesburg team’s winless start to the season and extending the Auckland side’s losing streak to four games.
Combrinck ran onto flyhalf Elton Jantjies’ floated pass in the 63rd minute and skidded over in the left-hand corner to give the Lions their first lead of the match. Jantjies added a sideline conversion to his two earlier penalties to establish a three-point lead.
Blues flyhalf Ihaia West missed a penalty in the 74th minute. The hosts led 10-3 at halftime with a try to Jerome Kaino and West’s conversion and penalty.
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