FARRELL SAYS WARATAHS WATERED THE PITCH. WARATAHS SAY THEY DIDN'T

LIONS BOSS ANDY Farrell has suggested that the Waratahs watered the pitch at Allianz Stadium to make handling conditions more difficult.

The Lions’ catching and passing were poor as they recorded an underwhelming 21-10 win over the Waratahs.

There was heavy rain in Sydney earlier this week, a ‘bomb cyclone,’ as it’s known locally, with more than 70mm overnight on Tuesday. However, it has been sunny in recent days.

Farrell congratulated the Waratahs for their spirited performance at Allianz Stadium and expressed his disappointment with the Lions’ showing.

But the Lions boss raised the issue of the pitch when he was asked about how the Waratahs got such dominance at the breakdown.

“They did, yes, they did,” said Farrell. “For whatever reason, and I actually don’t care, it’s great for us. The pitch was very wet and I was asking Mike Catt after the game and he was laughing.

“I mean, that’s good tactics from them, isn’t it? That the ball’s slippy, the breakdown’s ferocious enough, and the linespeed is high octane stuff as well from them. And we kept on trying to overplay at times, certainly around halfway and putting ourselves back under pressure and keeping them in the game really.

“So I believe that it could be wet on Wednesday [against the Brumbies] anyway, so we’ll take that.”

Farrell was then asked directly if the Waratahs watered the pitch.

“I don’t know,” said Farrell. “I mean, he just laughed, Catty just laughed.

“We’ve seen that done plenty of times. I don’t know whether the pitch needed watering.”

It was pointed out to Farrell that Sydney was hit by a ‘bomb cyclone’ earlier this week.

“We know all that, but we have been here for two days now and it has been glorious,” said Farrell.

“The pitch was OK and we are not complaining.”

However, the Waratahs have denied watering the pitch at Allianz Stadium.

Captain Hugh Sinclair pointed to the weather this week.

“See the weather on Tuesday, that f**king sucked,” said Sinclair.

And head coach Dan McKellar joked that Farrell had missed the ‘bomb cyclone.’

“He was probably sunning himself in Brisbane on Tuesday, but no,” said McKellar. 

“No, I’d too much to think about to be worried about watering the pitch.”

Whatever about the surface in Sydney, Farrell was frustrated with his side’s performance as they struggled to hang onto the ball and win the breakdown battle.

The Lions’ scrum and lineout were good but their attacking performance was littered with errors.

“There’s a bit of frustration there,” said Farrell. “It’s nice to get a win but I suppose at this stage we’re trying to judge the performance a little bit more.

“Disappointed enough with the amount of possession and territory that we had and how we dealt with certain situations. A different type of game but are we glad that’s happened to us?

“Yeah, we are because there’s some good learnings that we need to learn quickly in regards to that type of game.”

2025-07-05T13:50:11Z