The Waratahs' big problem
NEWS: Waratahs are focused on improving their discipline as they prepare to face a Western Force side they admit they “don’t know too much about”.
The Waratahs slipped to a 26-32 loss away to Queensland in the opening round of Super Rugby AU in Brisbane last Friday, the first defeat in their last 12 Super games against their oldest rival.
The ill-discipline which marked some of their early season displays before coronavirus shut down Super Rugby reared its head again as the season re-started against the Reds.
The Waratahs were on the wrong end of an 18-9 penalty count and had promising prop Angus Bell sin-binned.
“We had a meeting today and spoke about it again,” Tahs’ defence coach Jason Gilmore said.
“But there’s a difference between talking about it and actually doing something about it on the field, both at training and on Saturday.
“It’s definitely a focus point for us this week.”
In addition to being binned, junior international Bell was worked over in the scrum by Wallabies’ powerhouse Taniela Tupou.
But Gilmore, who also coaches the Junior Wallabies, is confident the youngster will quickly bounce back.
“Being involved with Angus for the last 12 months, he is a guy that is very mature for his age,”‘ Gilmore said.
‘”It was a really tough day at the office, so I’m sure he will take some good learnings out of that. Confidence-wise he will be fine.”
The Tahs’ next assignment is on Saturday at the SCG against a Force side that will play their first game of the fledgling competition after receiving a bye in Round One.
They have very little recent footage of the Force, who played just one game in the Global Rapid Rugby series back in March before that tournament was postponed and have since added several players to their squad.
“It’s a bit difficult. I’ve seen a couple of their trial games this year,” Gilmore said.
“For us this week we’ve just got to be careful that we are not too focused on the Force.
“We don’t really know too much about them. We’ve just got to make sure that our systems are as good as they can be.”
The Waratahs hope to have experienced centre Karmichael Hunt back from a hamstring injury.
