Israel Folau wants more aerial balls

Waratahs full-back Israel Folau believes his aerial skills have been under-utilised and hopes his team will make better use of it in future.

The 29-year-old scored his 59th Super Rugby try during the Waratahs’ 20-12 victory over the Crusaders in Sydney on Saturday and in doing so joined former Blues and All Blacks winger Doug Howlett as the tournament’s all-time leading try-scorer.

Folau equalled Howlett’s record when he scored a try against the Crusaders after contesting for a high ball and also got the better of his opponents in an aerial duel before offloading to Cam Clark, who raced away before crossing the whitewash.

But, Folau believes he can still score more tries if he gets to compete for more aerial balls.

“Of my 59 tries, I’ve probably been lucky to get maybe 10 of them off kicks,” he told AP.

“So it’s something that I’d like to see a lot more because I’m obviously confident in my ability to try and get up and contest for the ball.”

Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson admitted that his team can utilise Folau’s talents more often.

“Like the champion player he is, when you ask him to pull out something special, he does,” said Gibson. “It’s probably the first time that we’ve actually played that tactic.

“We haven’t really been kicking him enough ball, nor been good enough in putting it in the right areas for him. The best way to get through (the Crusaders) is through the air and the best way to do that is to go to your go-to man.”