The New South Wales Waratahs have seized underdog status for next weekend’s Super 12 rugby final with Canterbury Crusaders, but coach Ewen McKenzie has warned that their season of firsts may not yet be over.
The Sydney franchise won a physically demanding semifinal over South Africa’s Northern Bulls 23-13 in Sydney on Saturday to book their first Super 12 final appearance against the four-time champs on the Kiwis’ own patch next Saturday.
The Crusaders are in their seventh Super 12 final in 10 seasons after obliterating the Wellington Hurricanes 47-7 in the other play-off in Christchurch on Friday.
The Waratahs have expunged the ”choker” tag with a trailblazing season where they missed out on hosting the final by just one try in failing to prise a bonus point from their last-round 25-20 win over Auckland Blues.
The Crusaders — the tournament benchmark team — are justifiable favourites for the southern-hemisphere provincial series, but the Waratahs head across the Tasman on Wednesday with hopes of capping a memorable season.
”We’ll go into the final at long odds, I’d say, if everyone looks at the performance tonight,” Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie said after beating the belligerent Bulls.
”But the reality is it’s going to be a different style of game and one that we are looking forward to. It’s been a year of firsts for us, so you never know.”
They beat defending champions ACT Brumbies in Canberra for the first time this year and also downed interstate rivals Queensland Reds for the first time in the Super 12.
The Waratahs, whose forwards matched up well against the formidable Bulls’ pack on Saturday, are much improved this year from previous seasons and have generally run the Crusaders close in Christchurch, with one glaring exception.
New South Wales won 43-19 on their last visit to Jade Stadium but two years before they were humiliated by a record 96-19 when the Waratahs put several players in cotton wool a week ahead of the 2002 play-offs.
Bulls coach Heyneke Meyer said the Waratahs had an outside chance of upsetting the Crusaders.
”The Waratahs play a tactical game and are always going to have a chance, but I think this game took a lot out of them,” Meyer said. ”I think the main thing is the Crusaders know how to win finals.”
In a torrid forwards-dominated semifinal, the Waratahs scored two tries to one to overhaul an early Bulls’ 13-6 lead and blunt the South Africans’ efforts with committed defence.
Led by outstanding Wallabies winger Lote Tuqiri and Test number eight David Lyons, the Waratahs grabbed the decisive advantage with tries on either side of half-time by centres Morgan Turinui and Nathan Grey.
”We toughed it out and defended very well and worked very well around the edge of the ruck, and in the end they didn’t have much to go to so I’m pleased about that,” McKenzie said.
”We stuck to our guns in the hard part of the game and we were a bit messy elsewhere, so there’s a bit of work to be done before next week’s final, but we’ve got seven days to work on that.”
New South Wales scored the only points of an attritional second half through Grey’s 46th-minute converted try. Despite plenty of possession the Bulls, coming off six consecutive wins, could not crack the home defence.
It was a record win for the Crusaders over the Hurricanes in the Friday match and saw the Wellington franchise spending much of the game desperately struggling to hold back the red-and-black tidal wave.
All Black scrumhalf Justin Marshall steered the Crusaders game plan, capitalising on a relentless flood of turnover ball delivered by star flanker Richie McCaw.
”We tried not to get the ball turned over and they turned us over a number of times, and they’ve shown throughout the year that any turnovers they can capitalise on those,” Hurricanes skipper Tana Umaga said. — Sapa-AFP