Waratahs happy to laugh off Tevita Nabura's kick to the face as Kiwi streak ends
Tevita Nabura sees red after catching Cam Clark's face with a stray kick in Sydney.
He was the second New South Wales player in as many weeks to become the target of foul play from a New Zealand rival, but Cam Clark was all smiles after the Waratahs drought-breaking win in Sydney on Saturday night.
Clark was kicked in the face by Highlanders winger Tevita Nabura in as brazen a red card offence as the competition has seen in recent times.
Nabura beat Clark to the jump under a high ball in the 18th minute of the match but lashed out with a right leg fly kick as he came down, hitting his rival in the jaw.
Nabura left the field with a sheepish look on his face.
He was sent off for the remainder of the game in what turned out to be a pivotal turn of events. The Waratahs exploited the one-man mismatch for the remaining 62 minutes and ended Australian rugby fans' misery with a 41-12 win.
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Nabura was due to face the three-person foul play review committee on Sunday evening and was expected to receive a suspension. But, much like team mate Kurtley Beale in the aftermath of his run in with Crusaders prop Joe Moody last week, Clark was in no mood to milk the moment.
"I don't have a martial arts background," he joked, before adding: "It's a tough one. You grow up as a back three player contesting high balls. He [Nabura] has obviously been taught to protect himself, use the hard parts of your body, and I guess it's unlucky he's kicked his foot out at the wrong time and got his timing wrong. But nothing [more] on my end. It's happened, get on with the job."
But Cam Clark laughed off the incident after catching one in the chops.
The Waratahs were in the mood to be forgiving after seeing a game through for the first time in more than a month. The win was not only a watershed for Australian fans, it was much-needed validation for the team.
"The last couple of weeks we've played some really good footy in patches, and we talked about not taking a step in the wrong direction [on Saturday], so we had permission to go out and have a really good go at what we know we can do," Clark said.
"We saw that. We were able to string a few phases together, score a few good tries and, yeah, finally get a win over a Kiwi team. But the guys in the group believe what we're doing is going to work in the end so it was a step in the right direction."
The Waratahs celebrate ending that long-time Kiwi streak of victories in Super Rugby.
It has been a big few weeks for the Sydney winger. Coach Daryl Gibson handed Clark his first start against the Blues last month and the former Australian sevens representative wasted no time making an impact, putting a try-saving chase on Blues utility Rieko Ioane.
"The hammys were a bit sore the next day, I haven't run that fast in a while," Clark joked on Saturday. "That's one of the things we like to pride ourselves on, working off the ball and making plays like that. You look through tape any week, a lot of the guys are doing big efforts like that. Hopefully we can keep it all going."
The Waratahs head to Hamilton later this week to take on the Chiefs in their second last game before the June break.
- SMH
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