News

Waratahs book a date with Crusaders

May 24 2008

The Waratahs will meet the Crusaders in the Super 14 Final after beating a woeful Sharks outfit 28-13 in a completely one-sided semi-final in Sydney on Saturday.

Two tries inside five minutes to start the second half sealed the deal for the hosts who produced their finest performance of the season when it mattered most.

The Waratahs must now travel to Christchurch to take on the Crusaders, who earlier defeated the Hurricanes 33-22, in what will be a rematch of the 2005 final.

The Waratahs have only ever beaten the Crusaders once in New Zealand but will cross the Tasman oozing confidence after dominating the Sharks in virtually all facets of play.

It was a miserable send-off for Dick Muir whose memorable reign as Sharks coach came to a less memorable and abrupt end in front of a sold-out Sydney Football Stadium.

The Sharks discovered the hard way in the second half that ball retention was fool's gold after they failed to turn any of their possession into points minus what ultimately was a mere consolation try for replacement hooker Craig Burden.

Committed, solid and bone-crunching Waratahs defence played a huge role in keeping the South Africans from crossing the whitewash more often with forwards and backs alike combining well to keep the Sharks at bay.

Kurtley Beale was again villain and hero for his side, throwing forward passes and missing five attempts at goal, but giving his team good ball and scoring a try, while destroyer-in-chief Wycliff Palu was well contained by the Sharks.

But in total contrast to the Waratahs' performance, the Sharks had no structure to their play and failed to find any sort of rhythm with the only high note coming from referee Bryce Lawrence's whistle at the end of the match.

The Sharks did add more grunt and mongrel compared to the team that suffered the Round 11 loss against the same team (25-10) a month ago. And although they were physically up for the match, there were worrying aspects to the set-pieces, in particular the line-outs where the Sharks lost five of their own throws.

When Bismarck du Plessis was quizzed earlier this week about how much fellow South African-born Waratahs lock Dan Vickerman would effect the Sharks in the line-out, the hooker told this website that they weren't focusing on individuals - especially Vickerman.

How the Springbok number two would later come to eat his words.

Du Plessis had his worst match in a Sharks jersey and crumbled under the towering force of Vickerman. So much for not focusing on individuals.

The Sharks had lost AJ Venter just prior to the game and Epi Taione was elevated to the starting line-up in his place with Keegan Daniel coming onto the bench.

It was a strong run from Taione who made up enough ground for Sharks pivot Ruan Pienaar to slot over a cheeky opening drop-goal to put the visitors into an early lead.

It would also be the last time Taione would contribute anything valuable to the match and was later replaced after fatigue and five dropped balls convinced Muir that perhaps bringing their previously banned Tongan import on tour was a bad idea.

Having conceded the early score, the Waratahs set up camp in Sharks territory but their only reward was a Beale penalty in the 18th minute of the match.

Their dominance was finally rewarded when Lote Tuqiri swooped on a loose ball to post the first five-pointer of the contest after a bone-jarring tackle from impressive teenager Rob Horne proved too much for former Springbok centre Adrian Jacobs and Tuqiri was never headed on his 30-metre dash to the line.

It all started from another botched line-out by Du Plessis and his forwards, which allowed Waratahs skipper Phil Waugh to hack ahead. Pienaar gathered, passed to Jacobs and the rest, as they say, is history.

Beale made no mistake with his conversion from close range to take a 10-3 lead.

The Waratahs moved further ahead on the half-hour mark when Horne crossed over from out wide on the back of an impressive build up following Dean Mumm's burst into open space.

The lock was unlucky not to score, but the Waratahs made no mistake from the very next phase as Sam Norton-Knight floated a long pass to Rocky Elsom who in turn found Horne on his outside to make it 15-3.

The Sharks posted the final points of the opening stanza as inside centre Francois Steyn made light work of a typical trademark long-range penalty goal to reduce the deficit to nine points at the interval.

With the Sharks defence stretched to its limit, the Waratahs all but put the contest beyond doubt just 59 seconds after the restart when flanker Elsom was on hand again to deliver a well-timed final pass to give Beale a clear run to the line.

With the Sharks now staring defeat down the barrel of a gun, Luke Burgess pulled the trigger four minutes later with an opportunistic effort.

Sharks number eight Ryan Kankowski picked up the ball from the scrum base and attempted to link with scrum-half Rory Kockott only to find the ever-alert Burgess who strolled over from an intercept to take an unassailable 25-6 lead.

The Sharks picked themselves up a wee bit following Beale's third missed conversion and nearly scored through a quick-tap from Kockott off a free kick, but the nippy number nine was literally bent backwards by Tuqiri just inches from the Waratahs' tryline.

Burden, on for Du Plessis, made sure of his try from close range and even gave the Sharks hope with ten minutes of the match remaining. However a Beale drop-goal two minutes from time shut the door on the Sharks' hope of making their second consecutive final.

The Waratahs deserved their victory, and there is no denying that the best two teams in the competition have made it to the end.

Man of the match: Skipper Phil Waugh marked his 100th appearance for the Waratahs in style with a solid performance and Dan Vickerman's understanding of Afrikaans helped dominate the line-outs in the first half. But it was Rocky Elsom who set up two tries and revelled throughout in what was a physical affair.

Moment of the match: While Luke Burgess's intercept try sealed the deal for the Waratahs, it was Kurtley Beale's touchdown four minutes beforehand that caught the Sharks hook, line and sinker. From then on, the visitors had no way to recover.

Villain of the match: While it's unfair to point the finger at one individual, we can't help but wonder what the outcome of this match would have been had Bismark Du Plessis found his jumpers instead of taking an age to throw the ball in only to play a game of catch with Vickerman and company.

The scorers:

For Waratahs:

Tries: Tuqiri, Horne, Beale, Burgess

Con: Beale

Pen: Beale

Drop-goal: Beale

For Sharks:

Try: Burden

Con: Kockott

Pen: Pienaar

Drop-goal: Pienaar

Waratahs: 15 Sam Norton-Knight, 14 Lachie Turner, 13 Rob Horne, 12 Tom Carter, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Phil Waugh (c), 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 Dan Vickerman, 4 Dean Mumm, 3 Al Baxter, 2 Adam Freier,

1 Benn Robinson.

Replacements: 16 Al Manning, 17 Matt Dunning, 18 Will Caldwell, 19 Beau Robinson, 20 Brett Sheehan, 21 Matt Carraro, 22 Timana Tahu.

Sharks: 15 Stefan Terblanche, 14 Odwa Ndungane, 13 Adrian Jacobs, 12 Francois Steyn, 11 JP Pietersen, 10 Ruan Pienaar, 9 Rory Kockott, 8 Ryan Kankowski, 7 AJ Venter, 6 Jacques Botes, 5 Johann Muller (c), 4 Steven Sykes, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Bismarck du Plessis, 1 Tendai Mtawarira.

Replacements: 16 Craig Burden, 17 Deon Carstens, 18 Albert van den Berg, 19 Jean Deysel, 20 Epi Taione, 21 Bradley Barritt, 22 Waylon Murray.

Referee: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)

Touch judges: Lyndon Bray (New Zealand), Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand)

Television match official: Glenn Newman (New Zealand)