Tonight we made our way down to the Sydney Football Stadium (SFS) to watch the HSBC Waratahs take on the Highlanders from Southern New Zealand in Super Rugby.
The game was pretty decent, with the exception of a series of stop-start periods in both the first and second half. The Highlanders were still within reach of the Waratahs at half time, trailing by two tries. Rain, though, started to bucket down early in the second half and seemed to favour the home side. The Waratahs capitalized on a number of broken field opportunities – and their luck extended to the bounce of the ball – carrying away at least three luck-of-the-draw tries.
The Highlanders scrum was very inefficient, being shunted around the park at times. They had plenty of opportunities though, especially in the first half, where they had several trips deep into Waratah territory and coming away without any points to show for it. Handling errors plagued both teams, but it seemed to hurt the Highlanders more in key situations. Stray passes and kicks out on the full were frequent as the game see-sawed across the stadium.
In the end, the Waratahs proved to be the far better team, coming away with a five tries to one victory (33 points to 7) and securing the four try bonus point.
Here are some match photos:
