Hewat sparks Waratahs
October 23, 2005 - 2:21pm
Story by: SPORTAL
New South Wales fullback Peter Hewat continues to rewrite the record books after setting a new mark for the amount of points scored in a calendar year for the Waratahs.
Hewat scored 17 points in the Waratahs' 47-18 victory over Russia in Moscow, the final match of the Gulf Air Development Tour.
He is now the fourth highest points scorer in NSW's history with a total of 248 edging past David Knox on 244.
Also, in breaking Matt Burke's decade old record for most points in a calendar year, Hewat finished 2005 with 243 points, five better than Burke's 1996 tally of 238.
"It's great to break records but more importantly we finished the tour with a clean sweep and that's very satisfying," said Hewat after the game.
"Russia came out firing in the first 10 minutes and we were lucky they only led by three points before we started to click."
The Russians opened the game with good ball control and attacked for 10 solid minutes before wing Pavel Novikov kicked an easy penalty.
But the home side's hopes were soon dashed when a three-try burst put the Waratahs in control.
A rolling maul ended with Will Brame claiming the first try and then Josh Holmes scored back-to-back tries within the space of two minutes.
The Russians hit back with a try of their own in the 22nd minute to reduce the margin to 21-10, but as the break approached, Hewat intercepted a ball on halfway then scored under the posts to set the record.
Five minutes after taking to the field, Ben Jacobs scored the first of his double for the day from broken play, before adding the second as a result of a well-worked scrum move to make it 42-13.
In between the Jacobs tries the Russians elected for penalty shot which was successful and in the 25th minute they scored again through Alexander Voitov.
The Waratahs rounded off the match 10 minutes from full-time through a Sam Norton-Knight try.
"It was a good win and once again the guys had to tough out some hard stuff early," said Waratahs head coach Ewen McKenzie.
"Russia were pretty good and it's that hard physical confrontation that is invaluable to us."
"We'll take a lot out of this tour and the foundations for next year's Super 14 campaign are well and truly laid."
The Waratahs will fly home via Athens on Monday where they'll have a team dinner and announce the tour awards. The squad will arrive in Sydney on Tuesday night.
