{"id":71114,"date":"2021-05-14T13:57:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T13:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=71114"},"modified":"2021-05-14T16:02:20","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T16:02:20","slug":"the-scary-reality-for-soft-0-9-waratahs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=71114","title":{"rendered":"The scary reality for 'soft' 0-9 Waratahs"},"content":{"rendered":"

A winless 0-13 Super Rugby season looms as a scary but very real possibility for the hapless NSW Waratahs after they were hammered 64-48 by the Hurricanes in a scarcely believable trans-Tasman opener at the SCG on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Tries flowed as freely as boundaries from Steve Smith's blade at the famous venue but NSW just couldn't keep pace in the battle between the respective wooden spooners from the AU and Aotearoa competitions.<\/p>\n

It was entertaining to a degree with some terrific skill on show but some of it resembled basketball back and forth down court as the two sides traded tries with little resistance.<\/p>\n

The only place rugby fans can watch every match is Stan Sport. Start your free sport trial now!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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The Waratahs are now 0-9 for the 2021 campaign with tougher games, on paper, against the Blues, Crusaders, Highlanders and Chiefs to come.<\/p>\n

"I just thought the Waratahs kicked too much ball away," Wallabies great Tim Horan observed on Stan Sport's coverage.<\/p>\n

"Once the Hurricanes had possession they were always going to score, every time they had the ball. You don't often score 48 points in a game of rugby and lose. I think they can see light at the end of the tunnel, Waratahs fans…<\/p>\n

"But that's a disappointed dressing room and so they should be. 64 points against you, defensively that's pretty poor. Yes there's some positives but you've got to have a really good look at yourselves \u2013 we got belted by 64 points."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Waratahs score 48 points… and still get thrashed<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussie champs hammered in trans-Tasman opener<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Back to the future Wallabies jersey unveiled<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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Former NSW star Drew Mitchell agreed that the Hurricanes' dangerous ball runners were given far too much room to breath in an at times surreal 10 tries to seven spectacle.<\/p>\n

The visitors' back three of Jordie Barrett, Julian Savea and Salesi Rayasi were outstanding.<\/p>\n

"On turnover, counter-attack, that's where the Hurricanes are at their best," Mitchell said on Stan Sport.<\/p>\n

"Both teams were guilty of scoring points and conceding straight away. The worrying thing for the Waratahs is the lack of execution in the one on one tackles.<\/p>\n

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"Too many times they were reaching with their hands to try and tackle the player, rather than getting in close and getting a shoulder on. It's easy for me to say because I was a real good reacher and grabber of the player."<\/p>\n

The positives are that the Waratahs' attack is now humming and they have two rippers in recently re-signed captain Jake Gordon and prop Angus Bell.<\/p>\n

But the club's problems run deep following coach Rob Penney's sacking and the stepping down of long-time chairman Roger Davis this week.<\/p>\n

NSW legend and interim co-coach Chris Whitaker is a laidback surfer type on the surface.<\/p>\n

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But the former Test halfback is also a fierce competitor and voiced his disgust post-match.<\/p>\n

"How do you score 48 points and lose the game? There were just too many soft tries," Whitaker lamented.<\/p>\n

"We knew they would have plenty of X-factor and some big, strong ball carriers but there were too many soft tries. It's just not acceptable. There were three or four tries where individuals need to put their hand up and say that's not good enough.<\/p>\n

"We're obviously not doing enough at training and we need to keep working hard on it. It's not going to get any easier."<\/p>\n

\"Captain's<\/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 clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A winless 0-13 Super Rugby season looms as a scary but very real possibility for the hapless NSW Waratahs after they were hammered 64-48 by […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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\/71114"}],"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=71114"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71116,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71114\/revisions\/71116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}