Waratahs demolish rabble Reds
The Waratahs won their fourth straight match on the road against Australian opposition, as they demolished an ordinary Reds team 23-5 in Brisbane on Saturday.
And the Reds' points, a try by South African lock Marco Kotze, came right on the full-time hooter - when the game was long over as a contest.
The Waratahs were far from perfect. In fact they were pretty sloppy themselves in a match that at times resembled amateur hour at the local club.
However, they took four valuable points to move back into the play-off zone.
As for the Reds, it didn't help that they made numerous late changes - the most significant seeing James O'Connor moving from flyhalf to fullback and Nicholas Frisby, a reserve scrumhalf, playing at flyhalf.
This, coming on the back of the Karmichael Hunt cocaine saga, leaving the Brisbane franchise in dire straits.
The defending champions, the Waratahs, deserve some credit for being able to carved out a win in such an error-match.
In a game that was hardly a good advertisement for Super Rugby, both sides committed a welter of passing and handling errors in a derby that never reached any great heights.
It was the Sydneysiders' second win in three games, while the injury-hit Reds slipped to their third defeat in four outings and trail at the bottom of the Australian Conference.
Flyhalf Bernard Foley finished with 18 points from a try, two conversions and three penalties.
A couple of Foley penalties gave the Waratahs the early advantage and the No.10 finished off a nice break from Matt Carraro in the 25th minute.
Former Wallaby James O'Connor, playing for the Reds this season, missed both his penalty kicks as the Waratahs went to half-time leading 13-0.
The Waratahs physicality dominated the Reds and they went further ahead with another Foley penalty minutes after the resumption.
They lost hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau to the sin bin in the 57th minute for taking out the legs of a rival line-out jumper, but the Waratahs looked more likely to score.
Scrumhalf Nick Phipps put down Rob Horne's pass with the try-line beckoning before wing Peter Betham scored a runaway try from his own quarter-line with 13 minutes left.
The Waratahs threatened to post a record winning margin over the Reds, but were unable to add to their tally despite plenty of possession.
Reds wing Lachie Turner was taken from the field with his neck in a brace after colliding with Waratahs back row forward Dave Dennis, but gave the thumbs up as he made his way to the sidelines.
The Reds finally scored in the final minute when lock Marco Kotze crashed over.
Skipper Dennis was not enthused by the Waratahs performance.
"The most pleasing thing was that we kept trying to play our attacking game, but we turned over a lot of ball which isn't good enough," he said.
"We kept it physical and to get four points up here is really good."
Reds counterpart James Slipper said: "We knew they were going to come out very physical and they did that and we were inconsistent tonight, which was disappointing.
"We've had a few drop outs, a few injuries this season, but we're not going to use that as an excuse."
The Waratahs are away to the Highlanders in New Zealand next week, while the Reds face the Australian Conference leaders Brumbies at home.
Man of the match: Will Genia tried hard and Adam Thomson had his moments, but for the rest the Reds were pretty ordinary. Israel Folau, as always, kept the Reds' defenders on their toes. Kurtley Beale also looked threatening at times, while Wycliff and Michael Hooper were the team's most productive forwards. However, our award goes to Waratahs flyhalf Bernard Foley, who gave the Waratahs the initial momentum - putting them up 13-0 at half-time. From there, there was no coming back for a very ordinary Reds team.
Scorers:
For the Reds:
Try: Kotze
For the Waratahs:
Tries: Foley, Betham
Cons: Foley 2
Pens: Foley 2
Yellow card: Tatafu Polota-Nau (Waratahs, 56 - foul play, playing a jumper in the air)
Teams:
Reds: 15 James O'Connor, 14 Chris Kuridrani, 13 Chris Feauai-Sautia, 12 Anthony Fainga'a, 11 Lachie Turner, 10 Nicholas Frisby, 9 Will Genia, 8 Jake Schatz, 7 Liam Gill, 6 Adam Thomson, 5 Marco Kotze, 4 Dave McDuling, 3 Sam Talakai, 2 Saia Fainga'a, 1 James Slipper.
Replacements: 16 James Hanson, 17 Ben Daley, 18 Sef Faagase, 19Tom Murday , 20 Curtis Browning, 21 Nick Frisby, 22 Sam Johnson, 23 Campbell Magnay.
Waratahs: 15 Israel Folau, 14 Peter Betham, 13 Matt Carraro, 12 Kurtley Beale, 11 Rob Horne, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Jacques Potgieter, 5 David Dennis (captain), 4 Will Skelton, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements - from: Tolu Latu, Jeremy Tilse, Paddy Ryan, Sam Lousi, Mitchell Chapman, Stephen Hoiles, Brendan McKibbin, Jono Lance, Taqele Naiyaravoro.
Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Rohan Hoffman (Australia), James Leckie (Australia)
TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)