Waratahs coach Dan McKellar lauded Max Jorgensen’s ability to draw a big crowd – and then get them on the feet – after the star turned on some magic in an opening win over Queensland, and helped the Tahs successfully tap into their history as an attacking outfit.
Jorgensen’s two tries were crucial in not only helping the Waratahs overcome a rusty performance and secure a bonus point win against their arch-rivals.
Max Jorgensen scores his second try.Credit: Getty Images
The second try, while was crucial to the result, was mostly down to the super lead-up play by Charlie Gamble. But Jorgensen’s first was straight from the top-shelf, after some nice offloading from Joey Walton and Jimmy Hendren set the left-winger free and with a one-on-one with Reds fullback Jock Campbell.
Jorgensen stepped away, and then in again, as if he was on rails, and Campbell had no hope. The winger then sprinted away from the cover defence, making it a 70-metre try.
Asked how he felt when seeing Jorgensen in space like that, McKellar said: “You’re a fan, aren’t you? You’re like everyone else.
“He’s a unique talent to score that try against some quality defenders. All I want for Jorgo is to play game on game on game, because if Jorgo is playing the majority of the season, with a few other players that are important there as well, he’ll produce more moments like that, and that’s what we need.
“We want to try and get 30,000, 35,000 people here, and the Max Jorgensen’s of the world will certainly help that, because they’re players you want to watch live.”
“But as I’ve said before, I think the best part about Jorgo is he’s just so down-to-earth, so humble. He doesn’t get ahead of himself at all, and he won’t be in there gloating at all. It’ll just be water off a duck’s back for him.”
The Waratahs drew a healthy crowd of 16,655 but didn’t hit the 20,000 mark they’d have preferred.
McKellar said while the Waratahs had lots to work on in an at-times frantic, and often sloppy, performance, the side had attempted – and will continue – to use an attacking mindset that the squad believe is woven into the DNA of the Waratahs.
“We had a week up at Mudgee Camp, and we spoke about teams that we remember in the New South Wales history, and they’ve always had that attacking mindset,” McKellar said.
“You go back to the Ellas, you go back to Campese, you’ve got Matty Burke and Lote (Tuqiri) and those teams. Israel, obviously. We feel like we’ve got a team that can play a style that is attractive to watch, but we’ve also got to find fun in the hard stuff, and I thought there were signs of that tonight.“
The Waratah’s Harry Potter is tackled by Hunter Paisami of the Reds, during their round one Super Rugby match.Credit: Getty Images
For all the moments of sublime, however, there were also patches of ridiculous. Straight after the first Jorgensen try, the Waratahs conceded a soft try on the stroke of halftime. And despite the Reds conceding a staggering 17 penalties, and a yellow card, the Waratahs spluttered in the third quarter, and couldn’t turn possession and a-zone territory into points.
At the 65th minute, the Waratahs only led by five points.
“I think that’ll be an area for us to review is our A-zone. We’ve trained it a lot throughout the course of the pre-season, A-zone versus D-zone defence. So, there’ll be some learnings, some rust, obviously some heavy legs there, some big units having to play 80 minutes, which was challenging first up,” McKellar said. “There’ll certainly be some learnings in and around our A-zone attack and our conversion.”
But McKellar said he was, overall, satisfied to see his team pull it together and finish the stronger, particularly via the impact of his bench.
“We’re pleased, really pleased. There’s parts of the 80 minutes where we’ll certainly be better at, but just pleased with things that we spoke about around our defence, our fitness,” he said.
“We want to pride ourselves on being one of the fittest teams in the comp and also the impact of our bench. To sit here and have five points after round one against a team we’ve got enormous respect for is a good start to the year.
“I was really pleased with our defence and, for the most part, really pleased with our discipline as well, because I thought that was probably the difference, especially in the first half, between the two teams.“
Discipline, or a lack of it, will be front and centre for the Reds’ review. Despite defending well, the Fraser McReight-led side too often forced referee Paul Williams into blowing his whistle against them; and either keep them pinned in their half or give up valuable possession when building some attack.
“A bit of weight of possession at times, but also where the game was played. They had a lot of time in our way zone compared to our time in theirs. It was probably tenfold in terms of the numbers. The weight of the penalties as well,” Queensland coach Les Kiss said.
“They then had a couple of moments where they definitely took a couple of chances in a really good way. Credit to them, they managed to do it.
“I thought our boys were digging in against a lot of things and we just couldn’t get that next to them. To stay in a five-point game with 20 to go, showed a lot of what we’re about. We just couldn’t get that break and I think the weight of the penalty count and a few other things where they made the most of a couple of bouncing ball moments and it made a difference.“