NSW Waratahs must park bus on ACT Brumbies’ turf to overcome giant Canberra Stadium challenge

The truth is much of the win was achieved by the NSW tactics that night, to camp in the Brumbies territory for long periods of the game. It denied the Brumbies the chance to sustain pressure in the Waratahs half, and a drought-breaking win was secured.

As far as strategies go, there might just be something in that for the 2021 Waratahs. How fortunate they have that talismanic skipper from 2005, Whitaker, on their coaching staff.

Injuries to captain Jake Gordon, Will Harris and Joe Walton and the suspension of Izaia Perese allows Jack Grant his run on debut at scrumhalf, Lachie Swinton to slot straight into the backrow and perhaps most significant of all, Tepai Moeroa to start at inside centre. Newly-appointed captain Alex Newsome moves in one to outside centre and Mark Nawaqanitawase is off the bench and onto the wing.

The selection of Moeroa will address one of the key issues the Waratahs had in attack against the Reds.

Too often they went side-to-side and not direct, forgetting the age old adage that in rugby “you must go forward before you go wide”. This mistake, coupled with their inaccuracy at the breakdown, meant they overworked and rarely created enough time and space for their backline.

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Moeroa has one job in attack and he is well suited to it as an abrasive and effective ball runner, with the ability to offload post-contact.

The former NRL player’s job is to get the Waratahs attack over the advantage line, allow the ball to be recycled quickly and available for Swinton and Dempsey to then do the same. Do it once, first play of the game, then keep doing it.

Then, and only then, can the Waratahs unleash their significant firepower out wide.

Flyhalf Will Harrison can be hugely effective when able to play flat on the front foot and the back three trio of Jack Maddocks, James Ramm and Nawaqanitawase can be lethal when given the opportunity.

However Moeroa’s job doesn’t end there. It will be important that he copes with the defensive demands of this game as well.

The Brumbies will send runners down the Waratahs’ 10/12 channel and then play out the back with deception and block plays to try and isolate Newsome.

How effectively Moeroa can read the Brumbies’ intentions and move laterally and stop the excellent Brumbies centre Len Ikitau will be hugely important.

If Newsome is left isolated it spells trouble for the Tahs, with the No.13 needing to defend passively until help arrives, or to come up hard alone and try a spot tackle to close the Brumbies down. He might even sniff an intercept attempt if desperate.

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Which brings us to the true deciding factor in this game. Set Piece. The Brumbies forwards are “the excellence of execution”.

In 2020 they scored 69 per cent of their tries from possession beginning with a lineout. The Force tried to counter this in round one by keeping the ball in play as much as possible and the Brumbies countered by scoring all three of their tries from scrum possession.

The Waratahs cannot give the Brumbies possession and territory because if they do, the margin will be significant.

The best way to do this is to improve their set piece. The Waratahs lost three scrums and three lineouts against the Reds.

When they have the ball, they’ll want to to go through a Brumbies team who aren’t committing numbers to defensive breakdowns.

Rob Penney’s team must find a way to do this and have their own camping trip in the Brumbies half if they want to have any chance of emulating McKenzie, Whitaker and the 2005 Waratahs.