Now or never for Waugh
May 30 2008
Waratahs captain Phil Waugh has urged his side not to let a rare opportunity to win a Super Rugby title slip away when they face the Crusaders in the final on Saturday.
Waugh, who was a member of the 2005 Waratahs side who lost in the final to the Crusaders, has said the departure of Ewen McKenzie and several senior players should provide all the motivation his side needs.
The openside flanker, along with fellow survivors Lote Tuqiri, Rocky Elsom, Dan Vickerman, Adam Freier, Al Baxter and Matt Dunning are still haunted by the manner in which the Waratahs submitted to the Crusaders three years ago.
The Crusaders ran away with the game early on before the Waratahs score a few late tries to give the final score a degree of respectability, but the truth is the Waratahs were never in the game.
"That was probably the most disappointing thing, that we came off and felt like maybe we should have played how we finished the game and not the other way around," Waugh told the AAP.
"If we had have done that, it might have been a different result.
"So I could certainly vouch for all the guys when we came off. We felt like we hadn't played our best football. We were just disappointed that we didn't give it what we had.
"We gave it everything physically, but probably our game plan just let us down.
"That's why strategy is so important - stick to your strategy and generally get the right result.
"So hopefully we can do that."
With David Lyons off to the Scarlets in Wales and Elsom, Vickerman and possibly Freier also considering moves to Europe, Waugh knows Saturday marks the end of an era for the Waratahs and he wants no regrets.
"It's a rare opportunity, particularly for the older guys who have been a long time together and have made a lot of friendships," he said.
"You want to win these things with your mates and your close mates and there's a few guys leaving, so this is certainly a big opportunity.
"It's a changing of the guard in one sense, I suppose. It's a pretty exciting future as well with the young backs that we've got and some of the young forwards as well.
"It's not now or never, but it would be nice to do it with the group we've got."