Waratahs coach Rob Penney has kept his faith in youth for this weekend's clash with the Lions but admitted his commitment to sticking with emerging talent will be tested if the side's horror start to 2020 continues deep into the Super Rugby season.
Penney announced his team on Wednesday for Friday night's clash with the Lions and once again it was dominated by youngsters.
Will Harrison will start at flyhalf for the fourth time this season against the Lions while fellow youngster Mark Nawaqanitawase returns to the starting side after being wrapped in cotton wool against the Rebels.
In the pack, Lachie Swinton comes into the no. 6 spot, pushing Jed Holloway to the pine.
With Nawaqanitawase's elevation, James Ramm comes onto the bench after two impressive outings for the Waratahs A side.
Penney said in preseason that he was committed to giving his young players opportunities and he has stuck with that view through the first month of the season.
With a 0-3 start to the year and another big test against the Lions on Friday night, Penney admitted there would be a tipping point where patience would have to be shelved.
"The clock doesn't stop ticking," he said.
"There's going to be a need to get some results.
"We need, for Waratahs rugby we need to be better than what we are but there's elements of the game where there's actually no talent required which we're slipping up in and we need to fix those because that's totally contrary to the values and the vision for the group ," he said.
"We're passionate Waratahs men and we're desperate to show that we want to represent this state with a lot of pride and there's elements of our game that wouldn't reflect that."
"I've got a side of me that's nurturing, that has a degree of empathy for the young blokes and the position they're in but that's not bottomless and there'll be a point if things don't improve that changes will need to be made."
While that tipping point looms, Penney said the pain and pressure the players found themselves in now would only give them long-term benefits.
"Like anybody they're anxious, that's understandable, but there's only one way to deal with pressures at this end of the spectrum and that is to go through it," he said/
"It's not nice for anyone but they've handled themselves really appropriately.
"It'd be easy for them to look outside and not take responsibility and blame those external factors.
"The core of the leadership have really stood up and been amaxing in terms of what they've been driving in the last 10 days or so and on the back of that, the young blokes are seeing what needs to happen when adversity strikes.
"It's difficult at the time but if these boys go on to have really good careers it's money in the bank."
While the Waratahs have often lamented execution errors in the wake of their losses, Penney also admitted that he was growing tired of signs of poor work ethic within games.
"I actually think there are moments in the game where you can question the work ethic and the commitment to each other," he said.
"There are times when that the talentless tasks of working hard and committing yourself totally to whatever you're involved in at the time isn't happening and that's reflected in being opened up a few times in defence and that's caused a large degree of frustration on both sides, playing and management.
"You can make a whole lot of excuses for those things and at the end of the day if you work really hard and you put your body in a position to be able to make a defensive effort or to carry the ball hard and you look after the pill, there's a whole lot of guys out in club land that could do that effectively and with passion and they are the sort of tasks that we're really disappointed that we're not able to achieve more consistently.
But also our ability going beyond that, our ability to build pressure is frustrating when we don't have the ability to get past two or three phases.
"When we do put some phases together our game starts to look like it's going to be threatening and because of the nervousness around the situation we're in we don't often consistently call the right option and that's growing pains we're growing through defensively."
The Waratahs take on the Lions on Friday February 28 at Bankwest Stadium, Parramatta, kicking off at 7:15pm AEDT, LIVE on Foxtel, Kayo Sports and via RUGBY.com.au RADIO. The women take on the Brumbies earlier in the day, kicking off at 4:35pm AEDT, LIVE on RUGBY.com.au, Foxtel and Kayo Sports.
TEAM
Waratahs to face the Lions
1. Angus Bell
2. Robbie Abel
3. Harry Johnson-Holmes
4. Tom Staniforth
5. Rob Simmons
6. Lachie Swinton
7. Michael Hooper
8. Jack Dempsey
9. Jake Gordon
10. Will Harrison
11. Jack Maddocks
12. Karmichael Hunt
13. Alex Newsome
14. Mark Nawaqanitawase
15. Kurtley Beale
Reserves
16. Damien Fitzpatrick
17. Tom Robertson
18. Tetera Daulkner
19. Jed Holloway
20. Ryan McCauley
21. Mitch Short
22. Lalakai Foketi
23. James Ramm
