The Waratahs celebrate at the final whistle – Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

by Brendan Bradford –

The Waratahs have pulled off another last gasp victory with a 28-22 defeat of the Brumbies at ANZ Stadium in Sydney on Saturday night.

Showing grit, determination and confidence in their own ability to rebound in the face of adversity, the Tahs – who trailed for large parts of what was a battle of attrition – were boosted by the second half introduction of Berrick Barnes and snatched a famous win with a try to winger Peter Betham with six minutes to play.

 “Berrick changed the shape of the game for us, he gave Foley a bit more room to manoeuvre as well, so we could attack from both sides of the field when we got to centre field,” said Waratahs coach Michael Cheika.

Peter Betham dives over for the match winning try
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

“They worked really well together and (Barnes) kicked well for goals, so he was good for us.”

The fierce contest saw both sides hit by injury as Waratahs Kane Douglas, Brendan McKibbin, Rob Horne and Tatafu Polota-Nau and Brumbies George Smith, Pat McCabe and Christian Lealiifano all left the field.

“Taafs [fractured forearm] is pretty crook,” said Cheika.

“We’ll have to wait and see, but it was a pretty nasty hit, he took it all on his forearm. Apart from that, there’s a few bumps and bruises.”

The Waratahs got off to a terrible start with second rower Douglas subbed off with concussion after just 30 seconds.

It didn’t get much better for the Tahs in the opening half and after Lealiifano and McKibbin traded penalties, Ben Mowen exploited some soft defence close to the ruck to take an 8-3 lead after 20 minutes.

When a hurried Drew Mitchell clearance was charged down ten minutes later, Tevita Kuridrani pounced to further increase the visitors’ lead but neither try was converted.

Doing themselves no favours, the Waratahs put two restarts out on the full, had a misfiring lineout and too many handling errors in the face of a staunch Brumbies defence as the visitors went into the sheds with a 13-6 lead.

Polota-Nau’s injury added to the Waratahs’ woes shortly after the restart but replacement back Berrick Barnes sparked life into the attack and threw a brilliant pass to Michael Hooper who levelled the scores at 13-all with a blistering turn of pace to outrun George Smith to the tryline.

Replacement Berrick Barnes added 12pts to help
the Waratahs 2nd half fightback
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

Barnes added a penalty as Kuridrani was sin-binned for not rolling away but the Tahs couldn’t capitalise on their advantage and Mogg slotted three of his own to give the Brumbies a 22-16 lead after 62 minutes.

The Tahs continued with an up-tempo, positive style of play with the introduction of Sekope Kepu and Will Skelton off the bench and man of the moment Barnes created a try out of nothing on the right edge to reduce the deficit to 22-21.

In a true team performance, flyhalf Bernard Foley sent the crowd of 21,117 into raptures with a perfectly placed pass for winger Peter Betham to scythe through the defence for the match-winner with just six minutes left on the clock.

The win keeps the Waratahs’ finals hopes alive, but Cheika says he’s just focusing on one game at a time.

“I’ve learnt as a coach that predicting all that stuff only leads to disappointment, there’s no point in me predicting it,” he said.

“It’s about planning the next game and trying to get it right. I just try to get us right for the next game especially when we’re only in our first season together.”

The Waratahs travel to Melbourne next week to face the Rebels who are riding high after an upset defeat of the Stormers on Friday while the Brumbies are away to the Blues.

Waratahs 28 (Michael Hooper, Berrick Barnes, Peter Betham tries; Berrick Barnes 2 cons, pen; Brendan McKibbin 2 pens) bt ACT Brumbies 22 (Ben Mowen, Tevita Kuridrani tries; Christian Lealiifano pen, Jesse Mogg 3 pens)