SYDNEY, Australia -- Waratahs coach Rob Penney has breathed a sigh of relief after perseverance in a maligned offload game paid off for his side on Friday night, with the cellar-dwellers earning a bonus point 29-17 victory in their first win of 2020 and lifted themselves off the bottom of the table.
Recording their worst start to a Super Rugby season to date, the Tahs entered Round 5 with one goal: to win. It didn't need to be pretty, they simply needed to replace the donut sitting next to their name on the table with a five, and with sharp lines and slick offloads they split the defence and secured four tries -- two within the opening 10 minutes.
In previous matches the quick offloads played against them, often finding the turf instead of the hands and in most cases resulted in opposition points. Tonight, however, the passes stuck and gaps were created. For much of the opening 20 minutes the Lions were scrambling and struggled to shut down the fast moving attack.
Just three minutes into the match and the Tahs' game plan was obvious -- keep the ball in hand, keep it alive and always backup in attack. It worked perfectly.
Shuffling the ball from side to side the Lions were pushed within 30 metres of their line before Michael Hooper ran the perfect line from behind the breakdown, making a half break before offloading to prop Angus Bell who shrugged off the defender to cross for the opening try.
It was just the first of the five tries created through strong lines and smart offloads, and the first of the four scored by the forwards.
It was a much relieved Penney that fronted the media post match, where he credited several factors for his sides improvement, both in attack and defence.
"A couple of factors; probably time in the saddle, a dry ball and a willingness to express themselves," Penney said. "The boys would have been as disappointed, more disappointed than anybody in the way we've gone the last couple of weeks. But the ownership was there, they wanted to express themselves and those factors all culminated in really effective rugby.
"I'm really self-critical -- on the performance, lots of elements were really, really pleasing both the growth in defence -- we've been very leaky on that side, we're a massive improvement tonight.
"Then being able to utilise the ball and as I say often trying to seek space and find that space wherever it is. The boys had confidence and belief and really proved that they're a very capable rugby team, which was nice. We're nowhere near where we need to be yet, but it's a great step in the right direction."
The few times the side did move away from ball in hand and instead decided to use the boot resulted in lost possession and territory and was clearly the poorer option. With ball in hand the Tahs made easy metres and created several holes in the defence. Flyhalf Will Harrison beating seven defenders with Bell recording five, while all the backline, bar Karmichael Hunt, recorded double digit run metres -- Harrison standing out with over 100 metres run.
After three tough clashes to open his Super career, Harrison seemed to have found his feet within the Tahs' game plan, while 19-year-old Bell took his game to another level and was justly rewarded for his work.
"It's early days [with the young players], and there'll still be some ups and downs along the way. But the reality is those young boys have been given an opportunity because they are good enough and as a coaching group we've got a lot of faith in them, that's why they've been given the opportunity.
"Will, his mental toughness, resilience, call it what you want, to go out and perform like he did today off the back of a couple of tough performances just shows the level and the depth of his character, which is great for the future. Doesn't mean he's a finished product yet, but it's a great comeback for him where he was probably last week."
However, there were passages where the offloads turned into a sequence of hot potato -- no one was willing to take the ball into contact and reset -- rather they continued to give the ball off, sometimes to a player in a poorer position. The key now for the Tahs will be to work on their decision making -- when to kick, when to pass and when to hold strong and take the hit.
Defensively the Tahs were strong, with the Lions forced to rely on their rolling maul for their two tries -- one while playing a man up -- however, there's still plenty of work to do, with forwards coach Matt Cockbain pinpointing discipline as a work in progress.
"Definitely discipline, I think we've got to play referees a little bit better and make sure we're not giving teams an easy leg up into our territory," Cockbain told media post match.
"Particularly teams like the Lions who'll just keep mauling and you'll give away another penalty and you'll end up losing someone to the bin then. We've got to be better at that.
"We've tried to work really hard on our maul defence, obviously there's some strong teams coming up that we've got to play, so we really want to continue focusing on that if we can and just shut that area down."
The season doesn't get any easier from here, however, with the Tahs to take on a hungry Chiefs side in Wollongong on Saturday, before they face the Brumbies in Canberra. But Penney and his side will rightfully celebrate an impressive win and strong performance before they turn their focus to next week.