Cron backs Folau to continue to jump for high ball in return from ban
A week after warning rugby risked turning into a "nanny state" if Israel Folau was suspended for his role in an aerial challenge with Ireland's Peter O'Mahony, Waratahs assistant coach Simon Cron has promised the high-flying NSW fullback will continue to do what he does best against the Sunwolves on Saturday.
After losing an appeal last Thursday, Folau served a one-match suspension, missing the Waratahs' match against the Rebels on Friday.
There has been no shortage of debate around whether World Rugby’s decision was the right one after Folau was cited for a mid-air collision with Ireland's captain in the third Test.
Early last week Cron said he would have been “stunned” if Folau was suspended and that is exactly what transpired.
The Waratahs have put the Folau issue to bed for now and are adamant he won’t be perturbed by his time out of the game.
"Izzy will be back and jumping," Cron said. "He’s an athlete, there’s no doubt about that. Izzy won’t change. He’s going to go for the ball and when he’s going for the ball I’m sure he’ll be fine."
Cron said it was "disappointing" to see Folau ordered to the sidelines for a week and implored rugby officials to let aerial contests continue.
"We and Izzy made the decisions to appeal it because it’s what’s best for the game," Cron said. "You've got to keep that in the game because it's such a great part of the game. If you have a look at the best in the world at it - your Beauden Barretts, your Izzy Folaus, they’re going to want to keep it in the game. If you’re both going for the ball it’s pretty clear.
"The referees and the TMOs and the touch judges ... if you asked them I’d take a wild guess and say they’d agree."
The Waratahs have an eight-day turnaround for their penultimate game of the season against the Sunwolves at Allianz Stadium.
A win would guarantee the Waratahs a spot in the Super Rugby finals and give them peace of mind before a final clash against the Brumbies on July 14.
With this in mind, Cron said the Waratahs would pick their best team possible despite a handful of Wallabies representatives potentially in need of a break. An opposed session at training on Wednesday appeared to confirm this.
"We will no doubt pick our best players for this week and I’d say [we will be at] full strength," Cron said.
Waratahs back-rower Will Miller, who had his best game in a sky blue jersey against the Rebels with a couple of crucial turnovers and a five-pointer, said the next two weeks were massive for the group.
"If we can’t win our last two games then we probably don’t deserve to be there," Miller said. "So we may as well try and win those and see where we finish and keep going into semis hopefully.”
Cron added: "Do we deserve to be there? I believe so at the moment but success breeds success. If you’re going to make finals, you’ve got to go in there winning. Our focus is the Sunwolves. We’ve got to be better against the Sunwolves than we were against the Rebels."
Despite easily accounting for the Sunwolves in their last outing 50-29, the Waratahs know the Japanese franchise won’t be a walk in the park given they have won three of their last five games.
"They've got a pretty brutal attack and for us we’ve got to make sure we shut that down for us to win," Cron said. "For us there will be a fight in that contact zone and it will be a war over that gain-line, so it’s one we have to win."