Waratahs Give Auckland the Blues

The NSW Waratahs have ensured that captain Chris Whittaker’s 100th Super rugby match was one to be remembered with a 43-9 annihilation of the Auckland Blues tonight at the Aussie Stadium in Sydney.

NSW never trailed at any stage of the game, dominating the Blues in every statistic and after the match Whittaker was delighted with the outcome.

“Defensively I think we came out tonight and really played well. I’m very happy with the effort,” said Whittaker.

“We didn’t want to play to fancy out there because the ball was very slippery. Our game plan wasn’t too exciting, but it paid off in the end.”

On most nights the wet and windy surroundings would have meant a low scoring affair, but early in the match the Waratahs showed that they meant business with robust hooker Adam Freier scoring the simplest of tries in the fifth minute after throwing one of the biggest dummy passes you will ever to see to stroll through some pedestrian Blues defence for the opening score of the game (7-0).

After conceding early Auckland settled down somewhat over the next 10 minutes and following a slew of possession they finally got on the scoreboard through a Luke McAlister penalty goal.

Hewat answered this with a long range penalty goal of his own to push the home side’s lead back out to a converted try at the midpoint of the first half (10-3).

McAlister landed his second penalty goal of the night after Mat Rogers was penalised for a high tackle in the 28th minute, but NSW stopped the Blues in their tracks when winger Lote Tuqiri caught the visitors napping by taking a quick tap from a penalty and racing down the right hand flank to score out wide.

Hewat’s curling conversion attempt from the sideline was perfect which helped the Waratahs extend their advantage to 14 points (20-6).

Both McAlister and Hewat knocked over a penalty goal just before half time to send the teams into the sheds with a score of 23-9 to the home side.

Hewat had his radar working again shortly after the main break nailing his fourth penalty goal of the match to give NSW a handy 17 point buffer early in the second half.

Yet another Hewat penalty goal put the result beyond doubt for the Waratahs in the 59th minute and he put the icing on the cake five minutes later when he put a little grubber through for himself to score the Waratahs third try of the match (36-9).

With only a bonus point try left on the agenda NSW made another surge late in the game and when flashy winger Wendell Sailor out leapt the Blues defence to claim a Daniel Halangahu cross field kick the mission for the night was complete.

Tonight’s crushing win sends the Waratahs to the top of the Super 14 table after seven rounds and with the Cheetahs of South Africa visiting Sydney next round their place at the top of the ladder looks safe for at least one more week.

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