Israel Folau took a little over a minute to open his account for the new Super Rugby season
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com

by Brendan Bradford –

Sixty seconds. That’s how long it took Israel Folau to open his Super Rugby try-scoring account in 2014.

Twenty-two minutes. That’s how long it took the Waratahs’ fullback to score his first double of the season as the Tahs defeated the Western Force 43-21 at Allianz Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Sixty-five minutes…well, you can probably guess the rest.

It’s early stages, but it doesn’t look as though hat-trick hero Folau will suffer second-year syndrome in his latest code. Better still, the rest of the side looks set to follow in his footsteps as the New South Welshmen scored a confidence boosting six tries to two win in their first hit-out of the 2014 season.

“It’s not coincidence he ends up in the right place at the right time. That’s the quality of the player, to read the game and make the impact,” said coach Michael Cheika of Folau.

Welcome Back: Wycliff Palu got through
the full 80 minutes for the Waratahs
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

“It’s a good start for him and it’s good for the crowd to see him celebrate scoring a try. That’s what we want to have in the game.”

It wasn’t a complete performance by any stretch of the imagination for the Tahs, but Cheika said there were plenty of positives to take out of the match.

“We’re happy enough with that, the Force are a good defensive team so they’re not easy to break down at all. They put lot of guys up in the line so we had to work hard to score those tries,” he said.

“We still made too many handling errors in the first half, but by nature because we pass the ball a lot, mathematically you’re going to have turnovers. It’s the maths I suppose, but the ratio of dropped ball to passes made was too many.”

In a starting side stacked with 13 players boasting Test match credentials, it was a couple of rookies who set up the opening five-pointer. Giant lock Will Skelton spotted an opening on the right and distributed to Folau who found Alofa Alofa in space down the wing. The West Harbour flyer drew the last defender and hit Folau on the inside for the go-ahead score with just a minute on the clock.

Wycliff Palu offloaded to Folau for his second while the Force notched a couple of penalties before crowd favourite Nick Cummins barged over to narrow the gap to 15-11 after half an hour.

Alofa got a favourable bounce and had the quickest reactions to score when Bernard Foley hit the post with a penalty after the siren and the Tahs had a 22-11 lead at the break.

The Force set up camp in the Tahs’ 22 for the opening ten minutes of the second half and although Paddy Ryan was sent to the bin the visitors had to content themselves with another penalty.

New Recruit: Former Bull Jacques Potgieter showed plenty of his trademark abrasiveness when he came on in the 2nd half
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

Lurking on the right wing, Kane Douglas was on hand to finish off an overlap for the bonus-point try before Force young-gun Kyle Godwin gave his side some hope by scoring under the posts when Cummins disrupted a promising Waratahs move and took off up field.

The hint of a comeback was squashed when replacement winger Matt Carraro’s 40-meter run set up Folau’s third try and a set-piece linebreak allowed Kurtley Beale to score in his first match in Waratahs colours since 2011.

In a solid team performance, there were plenty of standouts for the Tahs. Folau, Foley and Beale were potent on attack while Skelton put in a dominant 50 minutes and Wycliff Palu was powerful in an 80-minute effort. Off the bench, Jacques Potgieter made a huge impact while Carraro was the lynchpin for the last two tries.

“Potgieter made some good impacts and took the ball straight up,” said Cheika.

“Him and Tolu Latu and Kepu gave us some real sting and Matt Carraro made a great entry as well.”

There’s been a heavy focus around Moore Park this pre-season on playing entertaining rugby and showing the fans ‘what we’re all about.’

In the past, such declarations were hollow promises, but with this victory, the 2014 Waratahs proved there may be some truth behind the bluster.

NSW Waratahs 43 (Israel Folau 3, Alofa Alofa, Kane Douglas, Kurtley Beale tries; Bernard Foley 5 cons, pen) bt Western Force 21 (Nick Cummins, Kyle Godwin tries; Zack Holmes con, 3 pens)