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Potential Wallabies rookie Will Harrison lathered in praise after guiding Waratahs to maiden Super Rugby victory

(Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

Emerging NSW Waratahs five-eighth Will Harrison has earned praise from his coach and Springboks stalwart Elton Jantjies after steering his side to their first Super Rugby victory of the season.

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Highly regarded Harrison distributed the ball well and also ran effectively as the Tahs ran in five tries in their 29-17 victory in Sydney on Friday.

The Junior Wallabies playmaker has started all four of the Waratahs’ games but has struggled at times in his last couple of matches behind a beaten pack.

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“Will’s mental toughness and resilience, call it what you want, to go out and perform like he did today on the back of a couple of tough performances, shows the level and depth of his character, which is great for the future,” Waratahs’ coach Rob Penney said.

“It doesn’t mean he’s a finished product yet, but it’s a great comeback from where he was maybe last week.”

Harrison was directly opposed to Lions captain and pivot Jantjies, a 37-times capped Springbok, who was part of South Africa’s 2019 World Cup winning squad.

“I think he (Harrison) went well, he made some good decisions,”Jantjes said.

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Penney attributed the Tans’ sharpest attacking display of the season to playing with a dry ball after toiling in wet conditions in previous games and the players willingness to express themselves.

“We’re nowhere near where we need to be yet but it’s a great step in the right direction,” Penney said.

He was also pleased with his team’s vastly improved defensive effort and the way his leadership group lifted the team in the time since their last start loss to Melbourne before last week’s bye.

“Simmo (captain Rob Simmons) needs to take a lot of credit for what he’s done, he showed a lot of real leadership credentials, which is wonderful,” Penney said.

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Asked what the leadership group had done lock Simmons said: “We wanted to stand up and I think we took a lot of responsibility on ourselves to really voice what a good game looks like and we trained that day in day out,” Simmons said.

“Our four big sessions since the Rebels, we came off the field feeling like we played a game.

“There was a big focus on raising our intensity and I think that showed on the field today.”

Simmons lauded another non-stop effort from flanker Michael Hooper, the man he succeeded as captain.

“He’s an impressive athlete, isn’t he? His work rate is unbelievable,” Simmons said.

Simmons (ankle) and halfback Jake Gordon (hamstring) will both undergo a scan after coming off early on Friday.

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– AAP

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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