An electric 34-point performance from fullback Peter Hewat ensured the Waratahs equalled their best-ever Super 12 season start with a crushing 42-12 win over the Bulls at Aussie Stadium on Saturday.
Hewat, who only moved into the No.15 role when regular Mat Rogers was injured a fortnight ago, scored three tries, two conversions and five penalties in an outstanding individual display.
In the process, he bettered erstwhile Waratah Matt Burke’s record Super 12 match haul of 33 points, scored against Northern Transvaal in 1997. With Rogers in the mix to return against the Crusaders next week, Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie will have an interesting dilemma but is likely to push Hewat back out to the wing.
”I don’t mind where I play – I just hope I’m there somewhere,” Hewat said. The Waratahs ran in their fifth win in as many matches, the same start the side had in 2002, the only year NSW has made the competition’s semi-finals.
It seemed there was little Hewat could not do, his evening punctuated by a length-of-the-field try midway through the second half. Despite much made of the Bulls pack, the Waratahs consistently had the South Africans on the back foot, pilfering lineout ball, dominating the other set pieces and making crucial turnovers.
Yet the home side did make some clumsy handling errors and relinquished ball of its own, something McKenzie said needed to be rectified.
”There are things we need to work on but you can’t get too down on yourself when you score a win with a bonus point,” McKenzie said. The Waratahs were again dominant in attack tonight and Hewat took care of all the scoring in the opening 40 minutes. He scored after a short-side play in the 15th minute and made the Bulls outside backs look silly as he simply straightened up with the ball in hand to go over six minutes later.
But the Bulls hung tough — at least in the first half. A remarkable try through winger Akona Ndungane with the winger doing his best impression of Elastic Man as he stretched over to score and a careless Lote Tuqiri flick pass which handed five eighth Kennedy Tsimba a try, ensured the Bulls were just 21-12 down at the break.
But NSW shut the Bulls down in the second half, a try to replacement hooker Adam Freier — who’d only been on the field a minute — virtually sealing the visitors’ fate six minutes after the resumption of play.
Hewat’s 95 metre effort in the 57th minute earned NSW a bonus point. Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer said the Waratahs were the pick of the sides his team had come up against this year. ”They are a good all-round side and I think they can go far,” he said. – Sapa-AAP