Running at 10: Kurtley Beale
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The Waratahs joined the Reds at the top of their Super Rugby conference on Friday after defeating the Chiefs 23-16 at Sydney Football Stadium.
It was not the most fluent of performances from the Australians but that will not bother Chris Hickey as another win was posted on the board.
However, the Chiefs will no doubt be ruing an opportunity gone begging as missed kicks from Mike Delany ultimately cost his Kiwi franchise.
The Waratahs began the game sprightly and opened the scoring via Atieli Pakalani, which was converted by makeshift fly-half Kurtley Beale. That effort was about as exciting as things got however as set-piece delays and mistakes held things up.
Delany did post a couple of penalties either side of a Beale three-pointer before the visitors were reduced to fourteen men when prop Nathan White was binned for repeated scrum infringements.
The hosts took full advantage as another collapsed set-piece saw them awarded a penalty try. Beale added the extras before slotting a penalty just before half-time.
Ian Foster's outfit rarely threatened the home whitewash in truth until they launched a late surge that regularly involved Lelia Masaga. Yet they will be disappointed not to get both Masaga and Sitiveni Sivivatu into the game more on the day. Tim Nanai-Williams did cross for the back-three on 58 minutes but it was in vein as Delany's off-key night continued.
The 'Tahs' victory moves them level on points with rivals the Reds while they also jump into the top four on the overall table, temporarily at least, as the Chiefs move up one position.
Man-of-the-match: Tough to pick out a standout player on Friday but we were impressed by the effort put in by Isaac Ross. He was a real handful in the loose and deserves this gong.
The scorers:
For Waratahs:
Tries: Pakalani, Penalty
Con: Beale 2
Pen: Beale 2
For Chiefs:
Tries: Nanai-Williams
Con: Delany
Pen: Delany 2, Nanai-Williams
Waratahs: 15 Lachie Turner, 14 Atieli Pakalani, 13 Ryan Cross, 12 Tom Carter, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Phil Waugh (capt), 6 Ben Mowen, 5 Pat O'Connor, 4 Dean Mumm, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Damien Fitzpatrick, 17 Paddy Ryan, 18 Sitaleki Timani, 19 Dave Dennis, 20 Pat McCutcheon, 21 Brendan McKibbin, 22 Daniel Halangahu.
Chiefs: 15 Tim Nanai-Williams, 14 Lelia Masaga, 13 Richard Kahui, 12 Dwayne Sweeney, 11 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 10 Mike Delany, 9 Brendon Leonard, 8 Liam Messam (capt), 7 Tanerau Latimer, 6 Scott Waldrom, 5 Isaac Ross, 4 Craig Clarke, 3 Nathan White, 2 Hika Elliot, 1 Toby Smith.
Replacements: 16 Aled de Malmanche, 17 Sona Taumalolo, 18 Culum Retallick, 19 Fritz Lee, 20 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 21 Tana Umaga, 22 Save Tokula.
Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant referee: James Leckie (Australia), Lourens van der Merwe (South Africa)
Television match official: George Ayoub (Australia)
Comments
StunTheMullet says...
The pied Peyper induced the scrum problems (as per the week before), notably the 5 minutes worth of resets, where it became baffling why he blew for resets (notably resets for Warratahs and penalties against Chiefs), when it seemed there was nothing wrong other than they couldn't follow his "Crouch pause Touch pause Pause Engage" so engaged early.
Once he yellow carded the Chiefs player and awarded the penalty try then that was the end of the game.
Job well done.
What game is he about to butcher this week?
Posted 10:20 04th April 2011
dylster says...
@ trinats...nice to see the usual insightful comments, there is only 1 "full-time" all black in the chiefs, mils, and hes injured. none of the other players that have played for the ABs have done so regularly.
Whereas the Tahs have how many "full-time" Aus players? at least 4 or 5...
rubbish reffing he handed the game to the tahs.
penalty tries are awarded if the ref thinks a try probably would have been scored...fair enough the chiefs scrum was back pedalling but pretty generous by Peyper.
Posted 10:06 03rd April 2011
KiwiLad says...
Plenty of Wallabies in the Tahs to Trinats, or do they not count?
Chiefs have had for the past two years internal conflict- Players - coach
Staggering nothing has been done about it..
Posted 04:33 02nd April 2011
StunTheMullet says...
The second week in a row of drive by shooting of scrums by Jaco Peyper.
Worst of all he starts penalising then ruining the game with a send off after his own mishandlings of the scrums with his mistimed and slow engagement calls "Crouch" "Touch" "Pause" "Engage".
The pause is for the pause you dolt.
Go back to refereeing the under 8s.
Posted 22:16 01st April 2011
KiwiLad says...
one of the top 2 Aus sides, struggling to beat one of the bottom 2 Kiwi sides......
Posted 19:44 01st April 2011
trappa says...
All this banter in previous threads about SH v NH...the tahs are a dead-set NH type side,,,plodding, forwards who are absolutely useless in the loose, and a philosophy of always taking the soft option of 3 points when they are awarded penalties. Give me the saders, blues, reds and lions any day.
Posted 13:28 01st April 2011