The NSW Waratahs are licking their wounds after being consigned to an unwanted place in the history books with a despairing 35-20 Super Rugby Pacific loss to the Blues.<\/p>\n
Dan McKellar was unable to hide his frustrations in the NSW coaches’ box as his Waratahs squandered endless first-half try-scoring chances and then blew a 12-point lead in front of equally rueful home fans on Saturday night in Sydney.<\/p>\n
“We left about six tries out there,” centre Joey Walton said after having his milestone 50th appearance for the Waratahs soured.<\/p>\n
A third straight defeat not only sent the Waratahs tumbling out of the top six for the first time this season, but also earned the Blues a record 12th successive win over a Super Rugby rival for the first time in 30 years. <\/p>\n
The Waratahs weren’t helped by losing their outside centre with injury just before kick-off for the second time in three matches.<\/p>\n
Triston Reilly’s scratching – three weeks after Wallabies superstar Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was struck down with a hamstring tear – forced Lawson Creighton to partner Walton in the midfield at Allianz Stadium.<\/p>\n
The reshuffle initially worked a treat, with Jack Debreczeni starting at flyhalf helping the Tahs camp themselves in opposition territory for most of the first half – apart from a second-minute try to Blues No.9 Finlay Christie.<\/p>\n
The Blues did brilliantly to survive being a man down for 10 minutes after No.8 Malachi Wrampling-Alec was yellow-carded for a shoulder to the head of Waratahs hooker Ethan Dobbin.<\/p>\n
Exciting new fullback Sid Harvey seemed certain to score after accepting a flick pass from Max Jorgensen before the Blues scrambled again to deny the Tahs, after a Dobbin midfield bust and his surprise chip kick eluded Pete Samu.<\/p>\n
After Jake Gordon was miraculously held up over the line, the Waratahs eventually opted for three points through Harvey to finally get on the board.<\/p>\n
But the home team continued to pepper the Blues’ line, with winger Harry Potter unable to control a Harvey pass just as he looked certain to score.<\/p>\n
Debreczeni then bombed a golden opportunity after reclaiming his own chip kick, only to throw the final pass astray.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the Tahs at last scored through Debreczeni in the 32nd minute after the TMO let slide a knock-on in the lead-up from lock Miles Amatosero.<\/p>\n
The TMO also ruled in NSW’s favour when deciding prop Dan Botha had forced the ball after the halftime siren to give the Tahs a 17-8 lead at the break.<\/p>\n
Another Debreczeni penalty nudged the hosts 12 points clear early in the second half before the second-placed Blues piled on 27 unanswered points to secure an improbable bonus-point victory.<\/p>\n
“It shows you’ve got to play for 80 minutes of Super Rugby. Two weeks in a row now we’re ahead 60, 65 minutes and then let it go,” Waratahs captain Matt Philip said.<\/p>\n
No let up, the Waratahs head to Canberra to face the ACT Brumbies next Friday night in what shapes as an early do-or-die derby if McKellar’s men are to challenge for a finals spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Brumbies is a huge week for the Tahs, so there’ll be a lot of feeling and intensity in the training this week,” Philip told Stan Sport.<\/p>\n
“But first we’ve got to look at that game, look to see where we can get better and where we can learn to close out in those last 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
“And then we’ll look to the Brumbies.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NSW Waratahs are licking their wounds after being consigned to an unwanted place in the history books…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[33339,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-342853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-blues","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}