Waratahs Singing in the Rain

Tries to Morgan Turinui and Sam Norton-Knight a minute either side of the half time break has given the NSW Waratahs a hard fought 20-3 victory over the Otago Highlanders tonight at a wet and windy Carisbrook Stadium in Dunedin.

With terrible weather plaguing the Otago region throughout the week the conditions for the Friday night clash were abysmal and it translated into a dour affair that saw defence dominate proceedings for the whole eighty minutes of play.

Point scoring chances were at a premium and it was the Waratahs who were able to take their chances best, scoring two opportunistic tries off errors from their New Zealand opponents.

“We showed a fair bit of patience and the Highlanders had a lot of ball, but our defence held in there and we got a couple of mistakes and scored a couple of tries,” said a weary NSW captain Chris Whittaker.

“We’re not used to those type of conditions in Australia obviously. It was wet and pretty tough out there.”

After only getting into Dunedin yesterday due to an aborted flight on Wednesday the Waratahs looked under prepared for the wet environment and it showed early on as they dropped ball after ball in the opening stages of the match.

NSW were lucky to still be in the game after the first quarter of the match as Otago dominated both possession and field position, but thanks to some great scrambling defence they managed to hold the Highlanders at bay and on their first foray into the home side’s 22 they were able to come away with points when fullback Peter Hewat slotted over a penalty goal to give the Waratahs a 3-0 lead after 25 minutes.

Otago bounced straight back from that setback with fullback Ben Blair levelling proceedings at 3-3 with a 35 metre penalty goal, but that was quickly countered by Hewat’s second penalty goal to put the visitors back in front at the 34 minute mark.

NSW struck a major blow just a minute before the main break when centre Morgan Turinui dived on a loose ball in the in goal area after Highlanders second rower Tom Donnelly was unable to secure a long range kick.

Hewat curled over the sideline conversion to give the visitors a 13-3 half time lead.

After gifting a try to the Waratahs just before half time they did it again one minute into the second stanza when another error from the Highlanders off a kick gave the Waratahs their second try of the game when Hewat pounced on a loose ball and then sent it on the inside to an unmarked Sam Norton-Knight who scampered over to score next to the posts (20-3).

Otago looked to have got themselves back in the match in the 52nd minute when replacement half back Chris Smylie dived over next to the posts, but he was denied when referee Mark Lawrence ruled that he dropped the ball when trying to place it over the try line.

Three minutes later Hewat did exactly the same dropping the ball cold with the try line at his mercy after he had been put away by a sensational flick pass from winger Wendell Sailor and then soon after another try went begging for the visitors when winger Lote Tuquri was unable to keep the ball in play with his toed ahead kick.

The win moves NSW level at the top of the table with the Canterbury Crusaders on 42 points and they will look to add to that tally next Saturday night when they take on the Chiefs in Hamilton.

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