Marauding Marx a menace for Waratahs
THE Waratahs will be on a mission to shut down the Lions’ turnover specialist Malcolm Marx in Saturday’s Super Rugby semi-final and give their backs the best chance to take the game away from the South Africans, lock Jed Holloway said.
The marauding Springbok was in menacing form in the quarter-final win over the Jaguares, winning five penalty turnovers to further burnish his claim as one of the world’s best hookers.
He looms as a big threat to the Waratahs’ hopes of quick ball to unleash a backline that proved too hot to handle for the eliminated Highlanders in Sydney last week.
“We’ve just been focusing as the forward pack on really shutting those guys down. Malcolm Marx has been great for them,” Holloway said from Johannesburg yesterday.
“We believe if we shut down their players, our backs will take over... We believe we have the best backline in the competition.”
Flyhalf Bernard Foley and fullback Israel Folau ran in three tries in seven minutes to turn a 23-6 deficit against the Highlanders into a rousing 30-23 win in Sydney.
But the Waratahs have had little joy in recent times against the Lions.
The Lions held the Waratahs scoreless for the first time in a 29-0 humiliation on home soil in April and ran in eight tries against them in a 55-36 drubbing at Ellis Park last year.
The 2014 champion Waratahs lost their only other play-off in South Africa against the Stormers in 2010.
However, assistant coach Chris Malone said the Waratahs had no plans to tone down their attacking game to conserve themselves in the thinner air of the Highveld.
“We’re a hell of a lot fitter than that stage last year,” Malone said, referring to last year’s loss in Johannesburg. “For us not to play our game would be crazy...” — Reuters THE STORMERS “management issue” was addressed during a “fruitful and amicable” meeting yesterday, according to the Western Province Rugby Union.
Reports stating that Stormers assistant coach Paul Treu walked out of a meeting last week sparked a series of questions regarding the nature of the reported divide in the Stormers coaching team – which was believed to be related to Treu feeling that his input isn’t valued by head coach Robbie Fleck and assistant coach Paul Feeney.
The WPRU didn’t make a final statement on the outcome of the meeting, and in a press release issued yesterday, they stated that the meeting – aimed at a “fact-finding” and “diagnostic exercise” – was only part of the season review, which started yesterday.
It is believed that a follow-up meeting will take place soon. Yesterday’s meeting was attended by WPRU president Thelo Wakefield, Group chief executive Paul Zacks, director of rugby Gert Smal and all the members of the coaching staff.
“A fruitful and amicable meeting was held today, with all members committed to finding solutions. Today’s meeting took the form of a fact-finding and diagnostic exercise, forming part of our season review process,” said Wakefield.
“The team management matter in our opinion has been overly amplified in the media and is clearly an internal personnel matter that will be resolved.”