Out-of-form and injury-hit, the NSW Waratahs refuse to run up the white flag and promise to take the fight to the Blues in a mountainous Super Rugby Pacific quarter-final challenge in Auckland.
As if striving to become the first Australian side to win a playoff game in New Zealand in 27 years of Super Rugby wasn’t a daunting enough assignment, coach Darren Coleman revealed the Waratahs would be without talismanic captain Jake Gordon.
Gordon was concussed in Saturday night’s 33-24 flop loss against the previously-winless Moana Pasifika, while prop Harry Johnson-Holmes has also been ruled out with an ankle syndesmosis injury.
Strike centre Izaia Perese (hip) and barnstorming back-rower Langi Gleeson (back) are also in doubt for Friday’s do-or-die encounter.
“They copped some bumps there. They’ll sort of race the clock to get right,” Coleman said after the Tahs followed up a 42-18 drubbing from the defending champion Crusaders with a lacklustre loss to the 2023 wooden spooners.
“It always seems to be the way when you play poorly, you get injuries and then you look up and it looks like it’s a massive mountain in front of you.
“Obviously we won’t get too much training done with a six-day turnaround and a trip over there mixed in. We’ll take stock of who we’ve got. I think we’ve put too much work in for the last eight months to fly the white flag.”
The Waratahs have lost their past eight games against the Blues, including a record 55-21 defeat last month, and have won only once at Eden Park in 14 Super Rugby meetings since 1996.
Their last win at Australian rugby’s so-called burial ground came in 2009. Before that, NSW’s only other victory at Eden Park was in 1928.
“Look, It’s tough. It’s one of the toughest assignments you can have,” said Waratahs lock Hugh Sinclair.
“We had a decent learning curve with the Chiefs last year, that was the first week of finals as well, so I think we take some lessons out of that.
“But yeah, Eden Park, it’s a different beast. It’s their fortress. Australian rugby hasn’t done well there.
“But finals are a funny thing. Strange things can happen. Scrap for everything, as DC (Coleman) said, effort on effort. We’ve got to stop them from scoring points and if we do that, anything could happen.
“You’ve got to have a crack. As DC said, we’re not going to wave the white flag. We’re going to go out there and have a go.
“We’ve got a couple of injuries, but it’s 15 versus 15. At the end of the day, it’s 15 Kiwis versus 15 Aussies. We play the Aussie way, we play our way. We play with some more accuracy, we play tough and we’ll be alright, we’ll get the result.”
Australian Associated Press