Waugh gracious in defeat
May 31 2008
Losing Waratahs captain Phil Waugh has paid tribute to a gutsy effort by the Crusaders and opposing skipper Richie McCaw in his team's 12-20 defeat in the Super 14 Final played in Christchurch on Saturday.
The Waratahs, leading the match 12-11 at half-time, failed to score a single point after the break resulting in another finals loss for the men from Sydney against the Crusaders, who have now won the title seven times.
"They are very good," said Waugh.
"They deserve to win the title. They won the round-robin convincingly, had a good semi-final last week and outplayed us tonight.
"Well done to them."
Dan Carter's class and a piece of undiscipline by Waugh spelled the difference in the second half.
Carter, who scored all the Crusaders points as they came back from their one-point half-time deficit, watched in disgust as his pass to Scott Hamilton fell to the deck after the winger was held back by Waugh as he attempted to chase the ball.
With six minutes of the match remaining, Carter kicked the resulting penalty goal that sealed the win for the Crusaders.
"They got the better of us in the second half," Waugh said.
"We didn't score a point in the second half. The game is about 80 minutes and we didn't go on with it from half-time.
"We were confident going into the second half but we gave away a couple of critical turnovers which hit us. Richie [McCaw] again was very good tonight".
Waugh added that his team had failed to capitalise when they had a one-man advantage whilst Crusaders lock Brad Thorn was in the sin-bin for a punch.
"We could have accumulated a bit more pressure there but didn't score points when we needed to," he said.
"Probably the difference was the amount of pressure in our half and that paid off for them at the end of the game."