Tahs torture Blues
28 Jan 2006
The Waratahs consolidated their pre-tournament status as one of the favourites with a thumping win against a Blues team that called on 10 All Blacks.
Blues coach David Nucifora introduced most of his winning Grand Slam All Blacks in the second half, but it was not enough time to overcome a strong Waratahs start as the home team triumphed 28-21. The margin of victory was easier than a seven pointer with Luke McAlister’s injury time try and conversion creating the illusion that this match was close.
The Blues have given very little away in their warm-ups, playing two vastly different combinations in losing to the Reds and the Waratahs.
The Waratahs, in taking a different approach, have settled into combinations early and have used the warm-up matches to build momentum into the tournament proper.
Scorers:
Waratahs: Tries: Turinui, Elsom, Hoiles
Cons: Hewat, Donnelly
Pens: Hewat 2, Donnelly
For the Blues: Tries: Senio, Rokocoko, McAlister
Cons: Ward
Pens: McAlister 2
14 Comments
28 Jan 2006, 14:23 pm
28-21 a “thumping” win. geez Keo been reading too much of the Sydney Morning Herald.
28 Jan 2006, 14:26 pm
Finally!!! More news, wouldn’t call a 7 pointer a ‘thumping’ but anyway. These games mean nothing, watch these same Blues who got ‘thumped’ kick our arse’s in a few weeks time…
28 Jan 2006, 14:34 pm
Hmmm… Is this the year the tahs take the competition?
28 Jan 2006, 14:36 pm
Rogers and Vickerman out of the opening match against the Reds. No Harrison either. A chance that militar medium Berne will start.
The Reds had a 9-1 record in S12 against the Tahs. I reckon the reds can take them in Brisbane and don’t count form as it doesn’t matter in those games.
28 Jan 2006, 14:45 pm
The Blues are packed with All blacks, the waratahs are not so lucky, yet they still got further than them in last years competition.
Blues will suprise many come the actual super 14, now that muliaina is gone… He is the most overrated player in the AB set up
28 Jan 2006, 14:54 pm
the blues don’t look as dangerous with Carlos not in the team. McAllister is good but he can’t cut a defence up like Carlos can.
28 Jan 2006, 15:02 pm
regarding player burnout. last year the all blacks had a mammoth season. what with the lions, then tri-nations then end of year tour. they didnt really have any easy tours did they. even if they did rotate at the end of year and didnt feature in the npc, they started earlier than the rest of the southern hemisphere teams and played until the end.
i am not saying that the nz teams are gonna prop up the bottom of the log, that would be plain foolish. i just think it may have an effect, burnout always seems to show its ugly head through injuries the year after a long season.
28 Jan 2006, 15:06 pm
you could compare last year with the 2003 season (where NZ had three teams in the S12 finals) and the ABs form flowed on from there posting two 50 pointers with the Blues players dominate. In ’04 their teams weren’t as strong.
28 Jan 2006, 19:01 pm
don’t worry about the ‘tahs just yet, this happens every year. they dominate in the beginning of the tournament and always end up fading before the end, just like the crusaders always end up picking up momentum so that they are peaking by the knock outs. anyone remember that 96-13 ‘tahs ‘saders game? waratahs were top of the log when that happened.
28 Jan 2006, 19:04 pm
It will be interesting to see what will happen with Whitaker. He is captain but not available for test selection. I wonder if the selectors will convince the Tahs to give Sheehan more game time due to him being a long term prospect.
28 Jan 2006, 19:21 pm
Does anyone remember how different the warm-up games were from the actual competition last year? How about the year before? Why do we actually care about these games?
28 Jan 2006, 19:31 pm
lol i love tghe way everyone has a go at KEO for saying a thumping, yet none of you read the entire article LMFAO.
I guess acording to takcler this means fuckall as per usual ha ha.
30 Jan 2006, 02:09 am
Is there something I missed? After all, these NZ franchise pre-season friendlies really count for nothing. After all the dust and hoopla have settled, at least nobody got injured.
And the “business end” of the S14 isn’t reached by the second or third week either. It’s at the far end of the competition. Those are the ones that count the most, just as what the first three laps of a mile flat-race are nowhere nearly as important as what happens on the fourth and final lap. THAT is the business-end of the mile race. That’s when the swift rabbits have run out of breath and the slower hounds close in for the kill.
I see the SA sides haven’t fared nearly so well. Gary Botha injured for the whole S14 season? A few other kingpin players also on the Missing in Action list before the first shots are even fired…
Same old same old…
Poor conditioning, perhaps?
30 Jan 2006, 04:59 am
The ‘Tards will falter this year, I predict.
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