Waratahs unchanged for Lions
Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:06
The Waratahs have named an unchanged line-up to take on the Lions in their Super 14 Round 10 encounter at the Sydney Football Stadium on Saturday.
The Waratahs are primed to keep their perfect home record for 2008 intact, and are also gunning for their fourth win in a row.
"Everyone's talking about lots of points against the Lions, but we're expecting a really hard match and were not taking anything for granted," coach Ewen McKenzie said.
"They led the Crusaders at half-time last week, which shows how well they can play, particularly up front where they have a lot of size.
"Yet again we've had a week of rain in Sydney so that's another factor which will add to the toughness of the match," he added.
McKenzie said that being able to draw on the same 22 in consecutive weeks was a huge positive, particularly given the injury troubles the Waratahs have suffered this year.
"Al Kanaar was forced to retire earlier this year and we've got Rocky [Elsom] out at the moment; those guys are both Test players so that's a lot of talent to be missing out on," said McKenzie.
"On top of that we have our best back for 2007, Ben Jacobs, and Dave Dennis both out for the year with knee injuries, and Timana [Tahu] was forced out when he was really starting to come along.
"That said, we've won six out of eight, we're four-from-four at home and have won our last three and I'm really happy with how positive the attitude of the entire squad is.
"We did some really good things against the Blues and Force so we feel we're still building and hopefully Saturday will be another step in the right direction. The guys have prepared themselves really well physically and mentally for this match, and knowing our last three games are away from home it makes these next couple of games all the more important."
Phil Waugh will become the fourth most capped Waratah in Saturday's encounter when he makes his 95th appearance for the 'Tahs.
Matt Dunning will join Nathan Grey in fifth on 94 caps, while Adam Freier will become the most capped Waratah hooker in Super Rugby with his 70th appearance.
Waratahs: 15 Sam Norton-Knight, 14 Lachie Turner, 13 Rob Horne, 12 Tom Carter, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Phil Waugh (captain), 6 Dean Mumm, 5 Dan Vickerman, 4 Will Caldwell, 3 Matt Dunning, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Adam Freier, 17 Al Baxter, 18 David Lyons, 19 Beau Robinson, 20 Brett Sheehan, 21 Matt Carraro, 22 Alfi Mafi.
Date: Saturday, 19 April
Venue: Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney
Kick-off: 17.30 (07.30 GMT)
Referee: Kelvin Deaker (NZ)
Touch Judges: Chris Pollock (NZ), Nathan Pearce (Aus)
