'Tahs to 'raise the bar' against Lions
Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:52
The Waratahs have named an unchanged line-up for Friday's Round Five Super 14 clash against the Lions at the Sydney Football Stadium.
The Tahs returned from South Africa last week to record a win in their first home game of the season, and will be aiming to move into a positive win-loss record against the Johannesburg-based franchise.
Head coach Chris Hickey said the team knows they will be in for a tough encounter against a Lions side which is renowned for its attacking game.
"We copped a scare against the Lions at Ellis Park last year and they certainly showed against the Chiefs in round two that they have a lot of points in them," said Hickey.
"That said, we're going into this match confident of a strong attacking performance and we're hoping to give the crowd at the SFS a great showing on Friday night."
Hickey said the squad would be looking to move up a gear from last weekend's 25-21 victory over the Sharks with the comfort of not having to endure a week of travel.
"Effectively, we've spent seven weeks on the road when you include our pre-season in Lismore, Orange and Canberra, then starting the tournament in Brisbane, Cape Town, Pretoria and a long trip back to Sydney," said Hickey.
"While we were happy to get away with the win against the Sharks, we know there are a number of areas we need to improve this weekend.
"We've shown glimpses of our potential at times this season, but as a group we know we need to cut out the errors in execution, make good decisions on the run and put it together for a full 80 minutes.
"While we took advantage of the opportunities we had at the start of the Bulls game, we didn't do that last week and we need to improve in that area from the first whistle.
"If we can do that, we'll be giving ourselves the best chance of turning in a better performance and really start to build momentum moving into the middle part of the season."
Waratahs: 15 Sosene Anesi, 14 Lachie Turner, 13 Tom Carter, 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Daniel Halangahu, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Phil Waugh (captain), 6 Dave Dennis, 5 Kane Douglas, 4 Dean Mumm, 3 Al Baxter, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Damien Fitzpatrick, 17 Sekope Kepu, 18 Will Caldwell, 19 Ben Mowen, 20 Josh Holmes, 21 Kurtley Beale, 22 Rob Horne.
Date: Friday, March 12
Venue: Sydney Football Stadium
Kick-off: 19.40 AEDT (08.40 GMT)
Referee: Vinny Munro (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Ian Smith (Australia), James Leckie (Australia)
TMO: George Ayoub (Australia)
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