Former Ospreys team boss Steve Tandy is making waves with his work as defence coach after the Waratahs shocked Super Rugby’s champion team.
The Crusaders, winners of back-to-back titles in the southern hemisphere competition, have been talked of as one of the sport’s greatest sides and were last year described as "invincible".
But a team containing Sam Whitelock, Codie Taylor, Ryan Crotty, Jack Goodhue and Matt Todd came unstuck 20-12 in Sydney, with the Waratahs’ uncompromising tackling seen as the key to their win.
Only one other side in the competition, the Sharks, have conceded fewer tries this season and the Waratahs head their conference after five rounds of matches.
Social media praise for Tandy came in quickly and lavishly, with one Aussie rugby journalist suggesting he should have his pay doubled as the team’s defence “is light years from where it was two years ago”.
There were other messages in the same vein.
All of which would have seriously embarrassed the man himself.
His time at the Ospreys ended abruptly.
Some felt he had taken them as far as he could take them, others felt that finance issues worked against him.
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Whatever, after his departure he had the choice of either dwelling on events or looking to prove a point.
He appears to be making a decent fist of rehabilitating himself, with the Waratahs having the third best tackle success rate in the competition and priding themselves on their newly acquired defensive steel.
Blindside flanker Ned Hanigan said of their rearguard: “We refer to our defence as the blue wall; you just keep turning up.”
It's all a bit different from a year or so earlier in Christchurch, when the same team relinquished a 29-0 lead to the Crusaders, losing 31-29. It was the biggest comeback in Super Rugby history and it highlighted the scope the Australian side had to improve.
Crusaders conceded 39 tries in 2018. The Waratahs leaked 65.
That had to change, with head coach Daryl Gibson saying: “If we’re true contenders in 2019 we have to get that figure under 40. We have to be miserly on defence and build a real toughness to us.
“One of the biggest challenges for us is that we don’t concede as easily as we did in 2018.
“Steve is going to bring to us a real northern hemisphere sort of style to the defence.
“The thing I see most in our game that moves the quickest in terms of trends is defence and we have seen through Australia's tour of Europe just how difficult teams are to break down, so if we can have a little bit of that I think it will go a long way to us being successful.”
Tandy is helping to give them a bit of what they wanted.
Michael Hooper led the way against the Crusaders, putting in 22 tackles. Lock Rob Simmons made 19 hits without a single miss and Hanigan came up with 18.
Tandy himself was pleased with the attitude of the players after they let in a late touchdown.
"The boys are still annoyed to concede the last try in particular,” he said, displaying a miserliness Shaun Edwards would be happy to put his name to.
“We feel we want to build a mentality where we don't give anything cheap...it would have been better as the defensive coach to win 20-7.”
It would take a hard heart not to be pleased for one of rugby’s most honest and hard-working individuals.
He phoned this writer in the autumn after he had been appointed as the Waratahs’ defence coach, saying: “I’ve come over here to sample the sport in another country and look to develop as a coach. That should be seen as a positive."
Indeed, it should, all the more so as Tandy funded his own professional development, initially working in an unpaid capacity.
No one worked harder for the Ospreys during his time at the Liberty, or cared as much as the former flanker who had played for his home region before stepping up to coach them.
And no one will work harder for the Waratahs.
Will he return to Welsh rugby one day? Not an easy one to call, but if he does the chances are the game here will land a better coach.
Many will wish him well.
