Waratahs to throw young blood into battle in Sydney
WHEN the Southern Kings face the Waratahs in Sydney on their Australian tour in April they will be confronted by a new-look team who feel they will be a force to be reckoned with in Super Rugby.
This season, five of the Southern Kings’ 15 Super Rugby matches will be against Australian opposition, with three being played in Australia and two in Port Elizabeth.
On their Australian tour, in the first half of the season, they will play the Western Force in Perth, the Reds in Brisbane and the Waratahs in Sydney.
Later in the campaign, the Kings will host the Rebels and Brumbies in Port Elizabeth.
Last year, the Kings did not play any Australian teams, but faced teams in the New Zealand conference.
The Waratahs are confident the growing pains experienced during last year’s Super Rugby season will lead to sustained success this season.
Last year the Waratahs squad looked vastly different to the one that won the competition in 2014, with a number of young players making their debut through the season.
A new-look frontrow could be the difference for the Waratahs this time with Sekope Kepu and Damien Fitzpatrick returning from stints with Bordeaux and Lyon.
The team is hopeful that those youngsters will find their feet this year and help propel the Waratahs back to the finals. The Waratahs are looking for youngsters such as Jed Holloway to step up this year.
“It’s a great period for us as coaches to put a lot of time into those guys, both from a tactical and technical point of view and, on top of that, for a lot of them around leadership growth,” Waratahs forwards coach Cam Blades said.
“We’re obviously seeing guys like Jed and a few of the other guys really take on leadership roles. They’re our future as well, so we need to make sure we’re not just focusing on the guys who are already there. We’ve always got to be looking at the guys coming through and developing them.
“You obviously can never cover world-class players leaving, like Ben Robinson and Tatafu Polota-Nau, but to be fair, Ben didn’t really play much of last season at all through injury and obviously then through retirement.
“So it gave us a really good opportunity to blood some young guys.”