New South Wales and Brumbies add to Australian Super Rugby woes following embarrassing defeats
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Australian rugby has little to cheer about in 2017 and the pain felt by fans only intensified after New South Wales and the Brumbies both posted humiliating defeats on Friday night.
The Waratahs were booed off the Sydney Football Stadium after slumping to a shock 26-24 loss to Super Rugby's hapless Southern Kings, while the Brumbies were pummelled 56-21 by the Hurricanes across the Tasman in Napier.
Plumbing new depths, the Waratahs lamely surrendered a 17-0 lead with a listless display in front of exasperated supporters.
The Kings are the competition's dead men walking, consigned to the scrapheap in 2018 as part of SANZAAR's restructuring to 15-teams after managing just three wins in the past season and a half.
But the South Africans may well have sounded the death knell on the finals hopes of the Waratahs, who now have a 2-6 win-loss record and sit fourth on the Australian conference standings.
"It was a pretty embarrassing performance from us," Waratahs captain Michael Hooper said.
"There was a lot of talk, not much action … It's going to be a tough weekend."
Hooper laid the blame squarely on the Waratahs forwards and admitted his side was suffering a crisis of confidence.
"There are scrum errors, line-out errors and then there is just handling — where does it stop?" he said.
"It is probably just us not being confident at the moment.
"So it is probably a mental thing coming in to the game at the moment and it is tough to put my finger on what it is right now."
Brumbies destroyed by rampaging Hurricanes
The Brumbies were attempting to record the first win by an Australian team over a New Zealand opponent this season.
New Zealand teams held a 12-0 advantage ahead of the encounter but the Brumbies appeared to be in the box seat to halt the winning streak when they led 21-14 at half-time.
The defending champion Hurricanes, however, piled on 42 unanswered points in the second half, scoring faster than a point a minute to shut out the Brumbies, who lead the Australian conference despite only winning three of their eight matches.
Hurricanes centre Vince Aso bagged a hat-trick, including two in six minutes early in the second half to blow the match wide open, while Callum Gibbins collected a double at McLean Park.
Boasting the best defence in the competition heading in to the match, the Brumbies simply had no answer after the break as Beauden Barrett delivered an attacking masterclass.
The reigning world player of the year had a hand or foot in most of the Hurricanes' five-pointers, while his brother Jordie was flawless with the boot, landing seven from seven conversion attempts.
Any argument for Australia to retain five Super Rugby franchises will attract little interest in light of Friday night's results, considering the Waratahs and Brumbies have been its best-performed teams the past three seasons.
AAP/ABC
Topics: rugby-union, super-rugby, sport, sydney-2000, canberra-2600, new-zealand, south-africa
