'Same old Bernard Foley': Missed kick condemns Waratahs

Bernard Foley has broken the Super Rugby pointscoring record for the NSW Waratahs, but a costly late missed penalty has condemned his side to a 20-19 opening-round loss to the Hurricanes in Sydney.

Foley, who surpassed Matthew Burke’s record of 959 points with a third-minute penalty goal at Brookvale Oval, had landed all five attempts on Saturday night before the costly miss.

But with just over a minute left, the normally reliable pressure kicker failed to land a penalty from just beyond 30 metres, to the horror of most of the 17,111 crowd.

While some rugby fans could not believe Foley put it to the side, others felt it was no surprise:

The Waratahs could hardly complain about the result as they had little ball in the last 20 minutes and lived on their nerves.

The Hurricanes trailed 19-13 but had two tries disallowed in that period.

However, the visitors’ pressure was rewarded with little more than five minutes to go when Du’Plessis Kirifi raced through some tired defence and Jordie Barrett converted.

Replacement forward Kirifi went from villain to hero. He had earlier been responsible for a try to flanker Ardie Savea being rubbed out, after a review showed he caught Waratahs captain Michael Hooper high with a forearm.

The Hurricanes had another five-pointer overturned on review a few minutes later, when Ben Lam was shown to have put a foot in touch after some last-ditch defence from Hooper and Curtis Rona.

A big scrum earned the Tahs a late chance to steal the game, but Foley was off target.

The first half was a stop-start affair, with both teams conceding seven penalties.

Referee Angus Gardner issued a formal warning to each captain for the frequent infringements.

The Hurricanes’ only lead of the first half, 10-9, came when Barrett converted a try to flanker Savea, who burrowed over the line after multiple close-range phases.

Foley ensured the Waratahs held a 12-10 halftime advantage, nailing a 40-metre penalty just before the break after Barrett was adjudged to have caught Israel Folau in the air.

The closest NSW came to a first-half try was when prop Harry Johnson-Holmes was held up over the line.

NSW couldn’t capitalise from the following scrum, where they were penalised after being shoved backwards by the Hurricanes’ pack.

The Tahs’ only try came in the 43rd minute when winger Rona sprinted 20 metres and went over in the left-hand corner after taking a pass from Folau.

Barrett kicked a penalty to reduce the deficit to six points.

NSW played the last 17 minutes with two newly capped props, Chris Talakai and Rory O’Connor. In the final 10, they blooded a third debutant in back-rower Lachie Swinton.

with AAP