So, that's the season. Here's a review:
Bad News:
There isn’t much to mention! The Brumbies low rankings for possession, runs, linebreaks, offloads, etc. may seem a negative, but this is clearly a part of our play style. Indeed, these stats are only inflated by our finals appearances, which hides the that we had the least overall.
We missed out on finishing first overall (!!!) by screwing up three very winnable games: Rebels home, Rebels away, and Jaguares away.
We have slipped up in lineout success, and fallen from one of the best in the competition to being middle of the pack. Similarly, we are winning fewer opposition scrums than ever, with the fourth-worst record in the competition. We concede the third-most sending-offs in Super Rugby, though this may be inflated by the sheer amount of defending we do.
One stat which is disappointing is our advantage line success, which has dropped below 75% and puts us in the middle of the pack. Likewise, only the Sunwolves have put together fewer 7+ phases, and this is also because we managed to do it twice in playoffs.
But I won’t labour on this section for too long, because there is very little bad news to come from this season.
Good News:
We were legitimately one of the best teams in Super Rugby this year.
The top four teams were so dominant that the other eleven teams had to battle for an average of only six wins per team. We scored the second most tries in the competition, with twenty-four individual try-scorers. We made the least errors in possession per game. We scored the fourth-most points while only scoring four penalties. We beat six of the nine foreign oppositions we faced this year. We would have finished top of the table if we hadn’t made three mistakes in three games.
While we are losing key players like Arnold, Carter, Lealiifano, and Speight, we can have a lot of faith in guys like Swain, Frost, and Muirhead, and the coaches’ faith in our young flyhalves is encouraging.
The coaching staff of the best-coached side in Australia, and probably the second-best coached side in the competition, is staying together.
You can't really do much other than say how well we performed this year.
Coaching Review:
It is fair to say that the Brumbies are the best-coached team in the Australian conference, and probably only second to the Crusaders overall (though fans of the Jaguares may disagree). Teams coached by McKellar historically have a slow start, and we saw that yet again with the team winning only two of their first seven games, but, unlike last season, we managed to put it together by the halfway point in the season and made the playoffs as one of the four best teams as a result. There aren’t many teams outside NZ who don’t have a losing record agains NZ teams, nor who have beaten every South African team this season. Indeed, unlike the Larkham Brumbies, this team has earned its record outside the conference more than it has inside the conference.
Some teams try to play a chameleon style which ultimately robs them of any claim to a style of their own. This Brumbies team joins the Crusaders as a team with a style and with options, which is a tremendous credit to the coaching team. I have been critical (some even say hypercritical) of McKellar’s rugby IQ in the past, but this season proves that he has the ability to not only develop alternative play styles, but also shows his ability to use them in a way consistent with his rugby philosophy, to effectively coach the players in how to use them, and to transition between them in-game. We haven’t seen that in Australia since Link.
Overall, I’ll give this coaching performance a B+, as it still has not overcome the early-season rustiness issues which would have seen us finish 1st overall if it was overcome. But I am tremendously hopeful going forward.
Best Game: Stormers away.
This Stormers game set the record for the lowest possession to win a Super Rugby game of all time. I love a good defensive, low-possession victory; I still talk about the 2014 win at Suncorp like it was the greatest game of all time.
This Stormers game had a truly horrid refereeing performance, with the ref calling halftime before calling the players back onto the field to give one of history’s softest penalty tries and a yellow card. The ref found excuse after excuse to penalise the Brumbies, all to no avail. From the Stormers, he constantly missed forward passes, players off their feet, high tackles, illegal cleanouts, and only encouraged the Stormers to continue their poor form by penalising Joe Powell for being tackled high, and penalising Pete Samu for being cleared out past the breakdown, and just a myriad of terrible calls. I don’t like having to point out a poor reffing performance, as refs truly are essential to all the good things about rugby, and generally have a thankless job, but this refereeing performance was truly hopeless. And that just makes the victory all the sweeter.
This game was something else. The Brumbies scored three tries to two with barely 30% possession. The team made 224 tackles to 91. They won ten turnovers to one.
I don’t know if my favourite thing about this game is the sheer determination of the team in defence, or overcoming a hopeless ref, or the fact that the winning try came from sheer bravado by the backline, or Jahrome Brown winning MotM for his first start. It’s a game which should go down in Brumbies folklore.
Honourable mentions to Bulls at home, Waratahs away, and Chiefs at home.
Worst Game: Rebels away.
I’ll quote what I said about the Rebels game in 2018, with a few revisions: “We lead
24-10 (
19-3). This game is literally the difference between us
making the finals (
hosting a semi-final) and not. Our only points in the second half came from a
single penalty goal (
converted Rob Valetini try). This game was atrocious and ultimately showed why
the Hawera-Lealiifano 10-12 axis (
passing the ball around inside our 22 with no plan B) does not work. The one comfort in this game was that our forwards were dominant, which you can say for most games this season.”
There is a slight mitigating factor in this loss, and that is the refs not having caught on to the Rebels clear-everyone-past-the-breakdown-even-if-they-aren’t-in-the-breakdown strategy, which made a lot of gaps around the breakdown for Genia to exploit, but that can’t justify losing a three-score lead.
Dishonourable mentions to Rebels at home and Crusaders away.
Best Player and Best Back: Tevita Kuridrani.
Stats aren't everything. The eye test shows just how amazing Kuridrani is. We all have a memory of him shepherding opposition towards the touchline to shut down a three man overlap, or making a big tackle after coming out of the line at the perfect time, or hitting a defensive line after drawing three defenders and making space out wide, and this season we can all remember a time he hit a perfect angle and broke a few tackles to make twenty metres.
But still, here are some quick stats on Kuridrani: the second-most tries made by any Australian back this year. The third-most runs made by any Australian back. The second-most metres per run made by any Australian centre. The second-most linebreaks made by any Australian back. The second-most assists per pass made by any Australian back. The third-most metres per kick made by any Australian back. The most tackles made by any Australian back. While not top these stats, Tevita Kuridrani is the only player to rate so highly across run metres, linebreaks, offloads, tackle busts, chances created, tries scored, effective kicking percentage, metres per kick, tackles made, and tackle success.
I have previously said that Kuridrani is in the conversation of who is the best outside centre in the world. I now say that he is the best outside centre in the world.
Honourable mentions to Christian Lealiifano, Joe Powell, and Toni Pulu.
Best Forward: Rory Arnold.
I really struggled with this. How do you pick a best forward in a forward pack which is probably among the best club forward packs in the world? How can I look past the return of James Slipper? How can I overlook the continued development of Folau Fainga’a and Allan Ala'alatoa? Sam Carter’s average tackle count of 12 over 17 games has to be worth something? How do you overlook Pete Samu’s ability to do everything required of a backrower at a test standard while still putting up running stats that a centre would be proud of? Or Lachlan McCaffrey and his effective adoption of the Fardy mantle?
But only one player has made so many key tackles, has taken nearly eighty lineouts with over fifty of them effectively contested, has a tackle success rate over 90% with over 120 tackles made, has swum through nearly two-dozen mauls to legally force a scrum to the Brumbies, had so many effective inside-passes to make linebreaks happen, and just done the work of a lock at a world-class standard while doing so many other things better than anyone else.
Honourable mentions to Pete Samu, Lachlan McCaffrey, and Folau Fainga'a.
Most Improved: Folau Fainga’a.
Last season, my main criticism of Folau was his poor form in the set piece. I celebrated the inclusion of McInerney (though, in part, because he plays for Royals) because he did the "meat and potatoes" of the position where Folau was mostly providing the gravy. I worried that he would be like a Polota-Nau, who earned the nickname "barn door" in early-2010s Wallabies camps for his inability to throw in the lineout, and only really turned that corner later in his career.
But wow, how he has developed. I know that it helps when you have the only lock partnership in Super Rugby history to each take over seventy lineouts, but a massive part of that is the throwing ability and decision making which Folau displayed in lineouts. Likewise, our secure scrum is in large part due to having a hooker who could get the ball out of the tunnel ASAP. He makes his tackles and he is a menace in the breakdown.
Having developed his ability with the "meat and potatoes", he hasn't lost the gravy either: he has the most linebreak assists of any Australian front rower, and the third most of any Australian forward (Rory Arnold and LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) finishing ahead); he made the most passes of any Australian forward (only one more than Sam Carter and Rory Arnold), in part because he had as more possessions of the ball than any Australian player not wearing a 9, 10, or 15 on their back; he makes tackle-busts, linebreaks, and metres as if he were a backrower; his clearing kicks are into space and have resulted in tries; the only backs to make more effective offloads than Folau Fainga'a are Kurtley Beale, Samu Kerevi, and Quade Cooper. I could go on.
What we have is a hooker who is good at all the basics while also making an amazing impact around the field. I know that he was doing the around-the-field things last year, but now he's doing all the core work as well.
Honourable mentions to Rob Valetini and Joe Powell.
Try of the Season: Kuridrani against the Lions.
It's a play that sums up how we played this season in less than half a minute. Defending, defending, defending, force the error, jump on the ball, quick offload, kick into space, powerful chase, hit the breakdown hard, force the turnover, hit the blindside and score. It's almost a replica of Roff's first in the 2004 final, only with a better chasing line and less depending on an error from the opposition fullback. It's absolutely brilliant.
A particularly honourable mention to
Arnold's individual effort against the Stormers, which ultimately won us the game, and is my favourite individual try of the season.
Honourable mentions to
Peni's second try against the Chiefs,
Samu against the Sharks,
Banks against the Chiefs,
Powell against the Sharks,
Speight's first try against the Sunwolves at home,
Samu against the Sunwolves at home,
Banks against the Sunwolves away, and
Speight against the Reds away.
Team of the Season:
- Scott Sio
- Folau Fainga’a
- Allan Ala'alatoa
- Rory Arnold
- Sam Carter
- Rob Valetini
- Jahrome Brown
- Lachlan McCaffrey
- Joe Powell
- Christian Lealiifano
- Toni Pulu
- Irae Simone
- Tevita Kuridrani
- Henry Speight
- Tom Banks
