Waugh: 'We were outplayed'
Sat, 31 May 2008 13:47
Waratahs captain Phil Waugh says his team were outplayed by a superior Crusaders team in the Super 14 final in Christchurch on Saturday. The Crusaders won 20-12 to secure their seventh title since 1998.
"They are very good. They deserve to win the title. They won the round-robin convincingly, had a good semifinal last week and outplayed us tonight. Well done to them," Waugh said.
The Waratahs got off to a fantastic start, with two tries by wing Lachlan Turner giving them a 12-3 lead after 25 minutes. The Crusaders narrowed the deficit to one point before the break via a try by Mose Tuiali`i and a penalty by Dan Carter. They completely dominated the second half.
"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 halftime.
"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 lock Brad Thorn was in the sin-bin.
"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".
