'Tahs to go on the offensive
Tue, 18 May 2010 16:46
Offensive: Waratahs star Berrick Barnes - Pic: Doug Fitz-Gerald
The Waratahs, despite being labelled as one of the tournament's most dour teams, believe they have the attacking prowess to open up the competition's most close-fisted defence.
Many pundits believe that the Australian franchise will have to overpower the Stormers in the set pieces to lay a platform for victory in their Super 14 semifinal at Newlands on Saturday.
However, Waratahs coach Chris Hickey is of the opinion that people may be underestimating his team's attacking ability.
"We only scored two tries in the opening two weeks, but by the end of the season only the Bulls and Blues [with 47 tries] had scored more tries that us [45]," Hickey told rugby365.com in an interview from the team's base in Durban.
"In saying that, the Stormers defence has been far and away the best in the comp so we need to devise strategies to test them," the Waratahs coach added.
It may well become a game of the tournament's most miserly defence - the Stormers, who at 17 tries conceded are well below the second best, Crusaders' 24 - and the most improved attacking team, the Waratahs having scored 11 tries in their last two games against the Chiefs and Hurricanes.
With both the Waratahs and Stormers having improved significantly since their Round Two meeting in Cape Town (a 27-6 win by the Cape Town outfit), feels the last three weeks is more of a yardstick than anything else that had happened this season.
"We have a number of different personnel in the squad and the balance of the side is slightly different," he said of their pervious trip to Newlands, back in February.
"That's been due to finding our best combinations as the season's progressed and we've also had a number of injuries - with international players like Wycliff Palu, Benn Robinson, Sekope Kepu and Sosene Anesi on the sidelines.
"The Super 14 runs for three and a half months and that match was three months ago; a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then so I think the form of both sides is probably more relevant from the last three weeks than what happened three months ago."
While the Stormers always seem to feed off a packed Newlands, Hickey is adamant the Waratahs have enough 'big game' players to cope with the pressure of the occasion.
"All sides get a boost playing at home, but with that comes pressure and expectation as well and there'll be 50,000 people at Newlands expecting nothing less than victory from the Stormers," he told rugby365.com.
"From our point of view we're actually looking forward to it.
"We've got a lot of players who are used to big occasions and rather than letting it get to you, I think you have to embrace the occasion for what it is.
"Super 14 semifinals don't come around all the time, so this is special. We have some new blood, but there's also a lot of Wallabies in the team and a lot of players who were there for the 2008 Final in Christchurch so we'll be ready."
The 'Tahs mentor said there was no major reason behind his team basing themselves in Durban, rather than the match venue of Cape Town, for their preparations.
"When we started planning our contingencies a few weeks ago there was the possibility of playing in Cape Town or Soweto, so we decided Durban might be a good place to prepare regardless of the scenario which played out,": he said, adding: "We had a good week's preparation with good facilities ahead of the Sharks game in 2009 and will hopefully be able to repeat that this week."
Asked if his team will be focussing on the mental aspects rather than physical preparations this week, he said they won't change much from what they do every week.
"There's hardly anything between any side in the competition and you only have to look at recent weeks to see that: we dropped a game to the Highlanders and the Stormers dropped one to the Sharks.
"I'm sure both teams will be focusing equally on making sure they're ready to go in both body and mind."
He also didn't think travelling from Australia to South Africa will be a factor by Saturday.
"It's probably a factor at the moment, but by the time we get to Saturday it won't be.," he said
"We found out we'd be coming to Africa at 3am Sunday morning [Sydney time] and were boarding the plane by 9:15am so we had the plans in place.
"The first day or two is about getting your body clock in order and getting back into the groove of a normal training week as early as possible. Travel is an element each team in the Super 14 has to deal with so you can't be using it as an excuse."
By Jan de Koning