Week 11 of the Super Rugby gives us the This or That portion of the tournament. With only 2 games featuring Australian teams we had the Waratahs go down to the Sharks at the new Bankwest Stadium and we had the Brumbies come up short against the Jaguars in Argentina.
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1. Harry Johnson Holmes (Waratahs)
Had a good showing this week. Made 12/12 tackles and even earnt a scrum penalty against the beast. His scrumming was a touch inconsistent though.
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2. Folau Fainga’a (Brumbies)
A couple of mis-skewed throws did put a slight dampener on his performance but it was still a pretty good effort. He looked good with ball in hand making 20m from his 10 runs. Linked up well with other players and scored another 5 pointer.
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3. Allan Alaalatoa (Brumbies)
Another part of the a good Brumbies showing at scrum time. 11/13 tackles but seems to miss a few trying to make them count.
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4. Tom Staniforth (Waratahs)
He was subbed on with 30 to go to make up for the fact they were missing a forward and did his best to make a difference. 5/5 tackles and made 12 runs for 18m.
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5. Rory Arnold (Brumbies)
Not hard to pick this one considering his competition in Jed Holloway was red carded early in the Waratahs second half. Didn’t have the flashiest of games with only a few small mistakes. Was a great target at lineout time as always.
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6. Jack Dempsey (Waratahs)
His yellow card could not have come at a worse time in context of the game, but you can’t look past the fact he had a great showing if you take out his 10 minutes on the pine. He didn’t miss one of his 7 tackles and beat 4 defenders on his way to 29 run metres.
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7. Michael Hooper (Waratahs)
This one is on work rate alone. I thought Tom Cusack from the Brumbies had a good game but Hooper made 3 more tackles and 9 more runs. He earnt 31m with 3 defenders beaten in his 15 runs. This one was a close one due to Cusack having a good game.
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8. Pete Samu (Brumbies)
Neither of the number 8’s set the world on fire this week. Samu made 80% of his tackles at 12/15. While Wells wasn’t bad, Samu was slightly better.
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9. Jake Gordon (Waratahs)
No handling errors all night, made 6/7 tackles and setup his own try with a nice snipe off a collapsed maul, passing to Rona who ran down the sideline to pass back to a supporting Gordan.
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10. Christian Lealiifano (Brumbies)
Had an okay week but struggled to get the backline into full flight. Still made his tackles and ran when he could. Done enough to beat out Foley who didn’t have the most inspiring week.
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11. Curtis Rona (Waratahs)
Back into the starting line, he added a nice strong ball runner for the Waratahs to throw too. He worked really well with Gordan to get a try assist down the left touch line as he made 36 run metres for the night. Made 5/5 tackles too.
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12. Karmichael Hunt (Waratahs)
Another player that didn’t set the world on fire but what I liked about his performance this week was he was trying things. He runs really hard with ball in hand which drags in defenders and isn’t afraid to slide a grubber behind the defensive line. Although a few of his kicks missed the mark, the attempt was the right idea. Hits hard in defence too making 9/10 tackles.
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13. Tevita Kuridrani (Brumbies)
Did what he does every week. Made 7/8 tackles and trucked it up when he could with his 7 runs for 32m.
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14. Cameron Clark (Waratahs)
Almost an unsung hero for the Waratahs. Consistently making good run metres and did that again this week. He made 63m and made a great call in defence landing a cracking shot on his opposite number shutting down an overlap.
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15. Tom Banks (Brumbies)
Banks was 1 of 2 Brumbies to make over 30 run metres this week, the other being Kuridrani on 32m. Banks made 101m beating 3 defenders with 2 clean breaks.
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On the fringe of selection:
Tom Cusack – Had a good game. Made 13/13 tackles and 6 runs for 12m. Let down by 2 handling errors.
Irae Simone – Looked great when he came on. Playing for only 14 minutes he managed 4 runs for 29m with 2 defenders beaten.
Joe Powell – Another that sparked the Brumbies coming on. He tried his best to get the Brumbies going but it didn’t click fast enough. Continued to show why he has started ahead of Lucas for the majority of the season.
Disappointments:
Jed Holloway – Wasn’t having a shocker but you can’t look past a stupid elbow that gets you a red card in the 45th minute.
Bernard Foley – He had a great game last week and seemed to be coming back into a bit of form. It would be hard directing everyone with only 13 on the park but missed 5 tackles out of 9 (44%) and missed his lack kick to earn the Waratahs a bonus point.
