Waratahs grind out win over Stormers in ugly rugby

[Darren]

The New South Wales Waratahs carved out a dour 12-6 win over spoiling Western Stormers to be joint top of rugby's Super 14 provincial series here Saturday.

Winger Lachlan Turner scored two tries for the Waratahs in an ugly spectacle with both sides almost cancelling each other out with attritional forwards-dominated rugby.

The home side only locked up the points when substitute Kurtley Beale produced one of the few attacking bright spots of a frustrating contest to set up Turner's second clinching try four minutes from fulltime.

Beale, playing at fullback, stepped into a gap and kicked ahead for Turner, who toed the ball and won the chase to score to the relief of the home side.

The Waratahs are level on 27 points with New Zealand's Waikato Chiefs, who earlier Saturday beat South Africa's Golden Lions 36-29 in Hamilton.

"We started well, getting a try early was important, but it was disappointing not to close them out of the game," Waratahs' skipper Phil Waugh said.

"The most important thing is we got a win because we have a tough couple of weeks coming up so it's important we keep going."

The desperate Stormers, needing a win to keep alive for next month's playoffs, came into the match with high hopes having won on each of their last three visits to Sydney.

But Turner gave the Waratahs a rousing start when he scored his first try in the sixth minute.

Turner eluded the tackles of Gcobani Bobo and Schalk Burger before chipping ahead and diving on the ball for the try.

Flyhalf Peter Grant kicked a 25th minute penalty to keep the Stormers within touch 7-3 at halftime.

Turner almost scored another try eight minutes after halftime after good leadup work from Tatafu Polota-Nau and Lote Tuqiri, but could not accept a low pass with the tryline beckoning.

The Stormers conceded penalties for indiscipline in the rucks, but Waratahs' goalkicker Daniel Halangahu could not make them pay, missing three penalty attempts and Turner another long-range shot.

Grant kicked his second penalty for the South Africans to trail 6-5 after 65 minutes and they threatened to steal all the points before Beale's moment of improvisation led to Turner's match-sealing try.

The Waratahs will have to back up for another expected torrid forwards' battle with the Northern Bulls at home next weekend, while the Stormers take on the ACT Brumbies in Canberra next Saturday.

"Defensively, we were very solid and they did well for their two tries off kicks, but we can take a lot of heart out of this performance," Stormers' captain Jean de Villiers said.

"The Waratahs are a very good defensive unit and we crossed the line a few times but we couldn't convert them into tries."

AFP

[Flamethrower]

[JediKnight]

Turner showed glimpses of last year's form. Beale was better at fulback than he has been at #10...maybe Drew'll have some competition for the #15 jersey next year!
Posted via Mobile Device

[robyn <3]

What a crap game. Ugly is a compliment! The tahs took ugly to new levels! It was so dull to watch and mistakes were plenty! The Stormers hooker was having SUCH an off night, everytime a whistle was blown he was there. Turner looked alright. What happened to the lineouts!?

Turner showed glimpses of last year's form. Beale was better at fulback than he has been at #10...maybe Drew'll have some competition for the #15 jersey next year!
Posted via Mobile Device

Well then maybe he'll have to stay if there is competition ... But Beale was fairly good there, I was, to be honest, quite extremely suprised. It's good news for the Tahs and for us .

[Burgs]

Actually nodded off a couple of times watching this, which isn't a good look in a room full of night shift miners ready to go to work!

I would have prefered to watch Turner's excellent two tries in a highlights package, the rest was worse than Soccer.

Oh, apart from watching a decent Waratah Tighthead in action...

[shasta]

If The Force had 27 points on the board I could live with boring.

[rahrahgirl]

i was there and although it wasnt as exciting as the force, live it wasnt bad, it was a tight game and i thought the defence was good from both sides and they both really wanted to win and thats why the mistakes came.

if the waratahs had thrown two more passes backwards and the new hooker had held onto the ball then they would have scored five trys as well and no one would call it boring! just a few simple errors!!!!!

but i had a couple of beers whcih maybe made my opinion different to the tv crowd! lol!!!!

[Burgs]

To be a little fair, it was probably the last twenty which blemished the whole match, the "last twenty" probably took about thirty five once all the scrum resets, replacements, injuries etc were accounted for.

[rahrahgirl]

the last twenty after the stormers second prop injury and uncontested scrums made the defence really easy, the forwards were breaking from the scrum really quickly and shutting everything down.

there was also alot of tension, that being said, the tahs made alot of line breaks and will be very dangerous in a couple of weeks when the force boys finally get here (ive been hanging all season to see them, stupid moving to sydney!!!!) hopefully they can be as up for that game as they were for the reds and brumbies!

[GIGS20]

I remember thinking last night when I was watching the replay how we were in with a real shot of beating both of those teams.....If we can keep playing like we did against Queensland we had the measure of both of them.....Unfortunately, it's still yet to be proven that we can turn up to two games in a row!

If we continue to alternante, I want to be sure we're Jekyll against the 'Tahs and not Hyde!

[mudskipper]

IF Beale didn't make that chip kick and Lachies 2nd try... Because the Tahs were not dominating the game in the second half and were on they way to a loss...

[rahrahgirl]

i dont understand your point of view mudskipper, the tahs were always threatening to score tries they just bombed a few, as a brumbies supporter im sure you know about that!

they were ahead almost the entire game so to say without kurts chip they wouldnt have won is stupid, they were already winning and the stormers didnt put anymore points on the board!

its like saying the force only won cos they scored all those tries, i dont really understand if its an actual opinion or if there is a reason (being the intellegence in your head!) as to why you get hassled around here so much!

[travelling_gerry]

C) All of the above.

[GIGS20]

its like saying the force only won cos they scored all those tries,

But that's true, If they hadn't scored all those tries, they would've lost!

[mudskipper]

i dont understand your point of view mudskipper, the tahs were always threatening to score tries they just bombed a few, as a brumbies supporter im sure you know about that!

they were ahead almost the entire game so to say without kurts chip they wouldnt have won is stupid, they were already winning and the stormers didnt put anymore points on the board!

its like saying the force only won cos they scored all those tries, i dont really understand if its an actual opinion or if there is a reason (being the intellegence in your head!) as to why you get hassled around here so much!

My point is they were not the dominate team in the second half and looked like they could lose the match... Beales chip try just saved their day... There was a point where who score next wins lucky for the Tahs they did...