The Waratahs' season is on life support and they will need a miracle to make the Super Rugby finals but their Eden Park hoodoo is still very much a thing after they went down to the Auckland Blues 34-28 on Friday evening.
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Waratahs tumble in Auckland
The Waratahs will now be hoping the Western Force can down the Brumbies in Canberra if they want to play finals football after they fell to the Blues 34-28 in Auckland.
The Brumbies can breathe a sigh of relief but are not over the line yet and will need to either beat the Force, or ensure they do not lose by eight or more points, to go top of the Australian conference and make the finals.Â
"I think the odds of us going through as conference winners are pretty small," said Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson. "The game was there to win. At times we were our own worst enemies."
NSW should have arrived back in Sydney with their season done and dusted had it not been for a remarkable missed conversion in the dying minutes.Â
As Blues centre Piers Francis went back to convert a 76th-minute George Moala try, the score stood at 34-28, meaning a conversion would rob the Waratahs of a consolatory bonus point. Â
With the kick taken slightly to the right of the posts, Waratahs players could not believe their luck when the kick did not go over.Â
The Blues had another chance minutes later to sink the Tahs but debutant Jim Stewart pulled off a superb tackle to keep the final deficit at six points.Â
"We're in the quarter-finals at the moment," said an optimistic Michael Hooper. "Strange things happen, pressure is on. We've got a little bit of pressure on the Brumbies. We'll watch the game eagerly tomorrow night."
On a night when there were half as many penalty tries given (3) than regular five-pointers scored (6), Gibson expressed his confusion at a number of refereeing decisions, notably when the Blues were awarded a penalty try for a collapsed maul in the 30th minute.Â
"It's frustrating, two weeks in a row we've probably been on the end of a tough decisions," Gibson said. "There were some tough decisions that didn't go our way. It wasn't the reason we lost the game but certainly it contributed to us not being able to maximise our opportunities."
Trailing 12-7 at the main break, the Waratahs came out energised and after becoming the beneficiary of a second penalty try and would have believed they were on track to come away from Auckland with an upset win.Â
It was not to be though as a mobile Blues forward pack got the job done in trying conditions.
The Waratahs' most potent attacking weapon in Israel Folau was having one of his worst games of the season as he produced a few poor passes and turnovers.
And just like that, Folau dived over to give the Waratahs a flicker of hope at 22-21 but a horror deflection from a kick that fell into the hands of fullback Melani Nanai all but ended the Waratahs' year.Â
That was until Angus Ta'avao, against his old club, went over with nine minutes remaining to keep the team's season hanging by the thinnest of threads.Â
Club captain Dave Dennis did not get the fairytale ending he so richly deserved. He trudged from the field, shook hands with all his mates on the bench and has almost certainly hung up the boots after 10 stellar seasons at NSW.Â
"If it ends up being the end of our season, running the ball, hunting that ball to try and win the game in the 82nd minute, is a fair reflection of the quality of the group," Dennis said. "Anything can happen and you never say never in this game."
Heavy rain greeted the Waratahs in their warm-up and given their sloppy performance against the Crusaders in Christchurch, the unpleasant conditions were far from ideal for a team who like to spread the ball wide.
Gibson said the Waratahs would attack in the wet, something they did do, clearly with the idea of multiple tries on their mind – like when Bernard Foley kicked across field to Reece Robinson on the halfway line.
The Waratahs spent ample time on the Blues' line before doing something few Australia sides have managed at Eden Park – a penalty try as a result of a collapsing scrum.
However, as we have seen New Zealand teams do often, the Blues hit back with a try of their own down the left edge thanks to Patrick Tuipulotu.
It was referred to the TMO for a scuffle between Michael Hooper and his opposite No.7, Kara Pryor, but the decision stood and the scoreline remained at 7-5.
There were chances galore in the minutes leading into half-time for NSW to regain their early ascendancy, but when Folau was brilliantly stopped a metre out from the line – when he would have otherwise scored nine out of 10 times – it was clear this wasn't going to be the Waratahs' night.Â
Funnier things have happened.Â
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