{"id":299116,"date":"2023-05-22T01:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T01:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=299116"},"modified":"2023-05-22T04:01:01","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T04:01:01","slug":"cooked-waratahs-make-bold-selection-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=299116","title":{"rendered":"'Cooked' Waratahs make bold selection call"},"content":{"rendered":"

NSW Waratahs<\/a> head coach Darren Coleman says he's willing to take some short-term pain for a long-term gain.<\/p>\n

After beating the Fijian Drua at home<\/a>, Coleman said he'll rest key players for the team's forthcoming away game against the Crusaders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With their latest win, the Waratahs move to sixth in the standings ahead of the Queensland Reds<\/a> and Western Force<\/a>, each on five wins.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

With a seven-point lead over the Reds, the Waratahs are guaranteed a spot in the finals.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Sitting six points behind the Hurricanes<\/a> and seven points in arrears of the Blues<\/a>, the Waratahs are a slim chance of scoring a home quarter final.<\/p>\n

Rather than try to topple the second place Crusaders for an almighty upset, the Waratahs are looking to have the freshest team possible for the quarter finals.<\/p>\n

"There will be a little bit of rotation," said Coleman.<\/p>\n

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READ MORE:<\/strong> Eight new faces named in Freddy's Blues squad<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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"Now we're in the eight, I keep saying you've got to get there fit, healthy, and in form and confident.<\/p>\n

"We definitely won't (rest players) en masse to lose momentum, but there might be one or two guys that you don't need to risk if you've got a niggle or guys that have started lots of games might sneak out.<\/p>\n

"We've got some guys putting their hands up, depth-wise."<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Coleman said the call to rest players wasn't one led by the Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones.<\/p>\n

"Eddie has been really good on that," he explained.<\/p>\n

"We just talk about it and we'll catch up on Monday and chat about what we need to do.<\/p>\n

"He's not going to try and kill our momentum going into the play-offs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"There are no hard and fast rules at the moment."<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

Coleman admitted fatigue was also a contributing factor, and with players up their sleeve the decision to rest some is made easier.<\/p>\n

"We won't rest guys that don't need it. It was probably over the balance of the two games," Coleman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"We'll just make sure we manage them well to go forward. I definitely see people's point on integrity of the competition. There's not much I can do about it."<\/p>\n

"We're just a bit cooked," he added.<\/p>\n

"We've been up and training hard and playing hard for a while. I reckon there's a few boys that definitely we've got to freshen up heading into the play-offs."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/SuperRugby\/status\/1660171061546086410<\/a><\/p>\n

The Waratahs do risk losing momentum and thus morale if they suffer a sizeable loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The last time the Sydney-based squad fielded an under-strength side was when they were delivered a 55-21 belting by the Blues.<\/p>\n

The latest win over the Drua marked the fifth in a row for the Waratahs after a sluggish start to their season in which they only won one of their first six contests.<\/p>\n

The Waratahs play the Crusaders in Christchurch on Saturday at 2.35pm (AEST).<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NSW Waratahs head coach Darren Coleman says he's willing to take some short-term pain for a long-term gain. After beating the Fijian Drua at home, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":299118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=299116"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299122,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299116\/revisions\/299122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/299118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=299116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=299116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=299116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}