{"id":450973,"date":"2026-02-01T05:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T05:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450973\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T05:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T05:08:08","slug":"nsw-waratahs-smash-queensland-reds-in-ballymore-pre-season-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/450973\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW Waratahs smash Queensland Reds in Ballymore pre-season clash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dan McKellar\u2019s NSW Waratahs<\/a> side have blown the Queensland Reds<\/a> out of the park in week two of Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> pre-season, dominating the Ballymore matchup, 49-19.<\/p>\n

Impressive young outside back Sid Harvey<\/a> was one standout against the Reds, making all six attempts off the tee, while scoring and converting his own try in the 72nd minute to close out proceedings.<\/p>\n

22-year-old barnstorming No.8 Leafi Talataina<\/a> scored two tries on Saturday afternoon in Ballymore, helping the Wararahs forwards dominate the performance in the pre-season matchup.<\/p>\n

Wallabies winger Harry Potter<\/a> opened the scoring in the second minute, before tries from George Poolman<\/a>, Teddy Wilson<\/a>, Clem Halaholo, and Talataina in the first half extended the halftime leading margin to 23 over the Reds.<\/p>\n

For the Reds, Richie Asiata<\/a>, and QLD fullback Jock Campbell<\/a> hit back during the first half to try and stop the bleeding, with Wallabies first-five Carter Gordon<\/a> one from two off the tee.<\/p>\n

The second half was more scrappy from both teams, but the two tries from Talataina and Harvey were enough for the Waratahs to overcome Les Kiss\u2019 Reds side.<\/p>\n

Despite the convincing 30-point victory for McKellar\u2019s side, he told the Waratahs media post-match that the team won\u2019t get too far ahead of themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been pretty clear on how we want to play the game and we\u2019ve worked hard on it for three months. The boys went out there and delivered on it today, so I\u2019m really pleased,\u201d McKellar told the Waratahs website.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the fact we haven\u2019t played, I thought our fitness was really good. You\u2019ve got to have that balance of playing with width, challenging on the edges, but also going through the middle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a trial game so we won\u2019t get too far ahead of ourselves, but I\u2019m pleased with collective and individual performances.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two Australian franchises will meet each other again in the first week of the Super Rugby Pacific competition on February 13, where Allianz Stadium will play host to the round one matchup.<\/p>\n

Unlike the Reds, the Waratahs have one more Super Rugby Pacific pre-season matchup, this time against the Brumbies<\/a> on Thursday evening in Canberra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dan McKellar\u2019s NSW Waratahs side have blown the Queensland Reds out of the park in week two of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-450973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}