Ryan: I am sorry
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Paddy Ryan was quick to accept blame after the team's dreadful loss to the Western Force, who were brave and gallant winners on Saturday.
The tighthead prop didn't hesitate when asked to explain the Super Rugby champions' woeful performance in Perth in which the Force thwarted them from playing their trademark game and instead dictated their own dogged terms.
Ryan didn't shy from taking accountability for his role in their 11-18 loss.
"From my perspective there were too many scrum collapses when I was on the field," said Ryan who came on from the bench.
"That is my role…to keep the scrum up, set a good platform for the backs. I think the forwards probably disappointed with our line-out ball in general.
"Our role is to lay that platform for one of the hottest backlines in Super Rugby, and I don't feel we did that to the best of our ability."
With the Waratahs now placed seventh on the ladder with 32 points – two points behind the sixth-placed Bulls – they can ill-afford to continue their stop-start season.
If the Western Force were so dangerous, then the 11th-placed Sharks will be equally as dangerous for the Waratahs when they play the South Africans on Saturday in Sydney.
Ryan said his deficiencies of last week "will be something I will be focusing on and other forwards will be focusing on" during the Waratahs preparation this week.
His candid assessment of his own performance last Saturday followed a forwards review meeting on Monday at the Waratahs' headquarters.
Ryan could not explain how the Waratahs allowed the Force to dictate the game's terms, especially as the Force had defeated the title holders in round one similarly.
He said it was possible the Waratahs' coaches might determine that "we spent too much time looking at the Force" in the lead-up to the game.
But it was disappointing the Waratahs had allowed themselves to be beaten by the Force "for three times in a row, now" over two seasons.
"They put us off playing our own game," Ryan said.
"The most disappointing thing beyond the result and beyond any other aspect of the game was the fact that we didn't play the way we played the last three years."
Source: The Canberra Times
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