Dan McKellar has taken aim at his Waratahs side, saying change is coming to NSW and that not everyone will survive after they dropped their fourth straight match to all but slip out of the finals reckoning.
“It’s definitely not an ability thing,” McKellar said.
“I’ve been here a while now, a number of months, and I think there’s some things that are going to take a while to change, I think there’s people who are too comfortable and that needs to change. Because if you’re too comfortable, happy to be here and wear the tracksuit, that will change.”
McKellar was speaking after his side’s latest defeat, a 48-33 loss to the Crusaders at home.
While the 15-point defeat didn’t necessarily reveal the hiding that it was, the Waratahs were smashed out of the blocks and trailed 31-7 at half-time.
Waratahs captain Jake Gordon described the defeat as the worst of his career.
“This is the worst, I reckon, because we’re a better team than that,” he said.
“For what was on the line and some of the guys that we were seeing off, this is not the way they deserved it to finish.”
Needing to win to stay in the mix for the finals with a fortnight left in the regular competition, the Waratahs’ defence and attack was shown up in the opening ten minutes.
Then their set-piece got a work over as the Crusaders scored from a rolling maul.
While the home side got on the scoreboard through Langi Gleeson, the Waratahs conceded another two tries, including one after the half-time hooter when Cullen Grace cruised over, to blow the game open.
It led McKellar to say at half time that “we’ve just got to run hard, tackle hard and show that we actually care”.
“We showed some fight in the second half, but you can’t get to 31-7 at half-time and need a spray from the coach to get a reaction,” he said in his post-match press conference.
“This is a professional game and we need to be like that from then first minute. People need to buy into the change otherwise we’ll change other things.”
Asked if he was being too nice and needed to be more brutal, McKellar said not enough players were acting like professionals.
“I wouldn’t say I’m being too nice,” he said.
“I’ve observed a lot of good things, but you’ve got to want to do it day-in, day-our and week-in, week out and a lot of guys are doing that, a few aren’t.
“It’s in daily habits. If you look at the Waratahs in the last few years there’s things that need to change and it’ll take time.”
First-year NSW head coach Dan McKellar says change is coming to the Waratahs after another disappointing season. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Gordon, who has been forced to cop the questions during the Waratahs’ leanest five years, agreed that changes need to be made.
“Yep, for sure. Results speak for themselves,” he said. “There’s been systemic issues for a bit of time now.
“We knew that was going to take time. I’ve spoken to Dan about this before. And there’s been issues for a while now and that takes a while to change. It’s just disappointing.”
He added: “We just need to worry about playing well and not be talking shit.”
The Waratahs will play the Force next Saturday in Perth, before travelling across the ditch to take on the Blues at Eden Park.
