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Waratahs want to send off departing Kepu and Phipps with a win

Nick Phipps. Photo / Getty Images.

The Waratahs will treat their showdown with the Highlanders as if it’s their last of the Super Rugby season, ensuring their focus is on farewelling Sekope Kepu and Nick Phipps in style.

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Qualifying for the playoffs is still a slim possibility for the New South Welshmen but they’d need to secure a bonus point win in Friday’s final-round match at soggy Invercargill and then hope other results fall their way.

Just securing a win without five resting Wallabies will be a steep enough task for a team that has stumbled throughout 2019.

Forward Ned Hanigan betrayed the team’s realistic ambitions when talking to reporters on Thursday, referring to a desire to finish the season on a high.

“It’s been ups and downs for us throughout the year and there’s a few guys playing their last game over there,” he said.

“(Let’s) send them off on a high and finish this season off the way we should.”

Hanigan was keenest to put in a big shift for veteran prop Kepu and captain for the day Phipps, who are both bound for English club London Irish after the World Cup.

“When I first game in, they were the guys who greeted you with open arms,” Hanigan said.

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“Keps is one of the best props in the world and it’s sad to see him go. It’s the same with Fang (Phipps), he’s just energy the whole game.

“So both those players, I’m mates with them off the field and on the field they’re always by your side.”

Hanigan said there was a determination among some of the lesser-used players introduced this week to prove themselves and enhance their chances of winning fresh contracts for next year.

While conditions are expected to be challenging, the Waratahs produced one of their best displays of the season when they beat the top-qualifying Crusaders in the wet of Sydney nearly three months ago.

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The Highlanders, who are also fringe finals contenders, won’t appreciate the heavy going either, having become accustomed to the pristine conditions of playing under the roof of their home base of Dunedin.

– AAP

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Flankly 2 hours 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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