The New South Wales Waratahs kept their play-off hopes alive with a 28-9 win in the wet over the Melbourne Rebels in their Super rugby match in Sydney on Saturday.
The Waratahs, who handed the competition newcomers a 43-0 trouncing in the first round, stifled the Rebels with a miserly defensive effort and ran over two tries in the last eight minutes on a rainy night at Sydney Football Stadium.
Fullback Kurtley Beale, who will join the Rebels next season, slotted three penalties and two conversion kicks in a 13-point haul against his future teammates as the Rebels slumped to their seventh loss of the season.
“We did a lot of work early and probably didn’t get a lot of pay out of it,” said lock Dean Mumm, who celebrated after planting a last-minute try in the right corner.
“It was pleasing for us to stick to a gameplan for 80 minutes and get a little bit of pay at the end.”
Wallabies front-rower Tatafu Polota-Nau barged over the line for the Waratahs’ first try in the 12th minute but the match then descended into a dour arm-wrestle as both teams struggled in the damp conditions.
Fullback Julian Huxley slotted two penalty goals to cut the Rebels’ deficit to a point, but his direct opponent Beale added a penalty kick of his own in the 26th minute and the Waratahs held a 10-6 lead at halftime.
Danny Cipriani, who was demoted to the bench after his poor defensive skills were exposed over successive weeks, came on in the second half to miss a penalty that would have put the Rebels within a point with 20 minutes to play.
Beale gave the Waratahs’ breathing space with his third penalty a few minutes later before Dave Dennis crossed to put his team up 21-9 with eight minutes left.
Following a textbook rolling maul that drove the Rebels back 15 metres, flanker Dennis broke a tackle before diving between an opponent’s legs and reaching an arm over the line at the right corner.
Mumm clambered over at the same corner in the 80th minute to complete the Waratahs’ sixth win of the season, a victory soured slightly by a second-half head-clash that knocked Polota-Nau unconscious. – Reuters