Waratahs target win to impress Newcastle fans

Newcastle: Waratahs prop Harry JohnsonHolmes says NSW owes Newcastle a favour as they prepare to face “organised chaos” of the Blues in the city on Saturday night.

The Waratahs will return to McDonaldJones Stadium this weekend to take on the Blues, just under a year after they took on the Sunwolves at the same venue.

That last visit was an infamous loss to the Sunwolves, their only defeat to the perennial Super Rugby strugglers.

Johnson-Holmes, who is from Newcastle, said there was a sense that the Waratahs owed a debt to the city’s rugby fans. “Newcastle’s got a great community of supporters of all sports, rugby especially, so we want to be able to pay them back,” he said. “We had a great trip last time and we weren’t able to get the job done when we went there so we’ve got some favours to pay back to the Novacastrians.

“I think the Sunwolves had a very good day that day where everything seemed to be sticking for them.

“For us when things weren’t working for us they were able to capitalise and we weren’t able to defensively take the ball from them as much as what we would’ve liked, therefore they kept piling on points as a great attacking side will. “We weren’t able to hold them out and they were able to make our mistakes points and they chipped away ast us and by the end we were chasing our tails a bit and playing as such”

The Blues won’t be an easy prospect by any means for the Waratahs and Johnson-Holmes expects that he will be targeted in his newly adopted tighthead spot.

Johnson-Holmes had a breakout season at loosehead last year, culminating in a Wallabies debut in Johannesburg, but with the departure of Sekope Kepu he has switched scrum sides this year.

The 22-year-old, who missed the season opener with the flu, said he welcomed that pressure from their trans-Trasman opponents.