Number 7
Darby Loudon (17)
This is genuinely one of the dumbest articles I've read in a long time.
So Bishop posits that White should be captain. His evidence for such a claim:
1. We've had good halfback captains in the past.
2. Halfback is well suited to captaincy as a position.
3. There was a huddle in the Perth Bledisloe where White was doing a lot of talking. We scored immediately after that huddle.
4. Because he played for Exeter and the Brumbies he 'knows what a winning culture feels like'
5. He's a good kicker.
6. He's a smart rugby player.
I don't dispute points 1,2,5 and 6.
But it's point 3 that carries the weight of this argument and unfortunately for Nick it's a pretty dumb one. He says "In Perth versus the All Blacks, the man the Wallabies turned to for guidance and inspiration was Nic White". The basis for this claim is one clip from just after halftime in a huddle, where Nic White is clearly giving some sort of rev up speech. He attributes the result of the whole game to that speech. Logically you could argue the actual captain for that game (one M.Hooper) could also take credit, but that is not addressed.
He doesn't mention that White (to my knowledge) has never been captain at any point in his professional career. He doesn't mention that White isn't guaranteed a starting spot. He doesn't mention that White hasn't played meaningful rugby in Australia for about a year. Or, as Reg so eloquently put it, he's just a yappy halfback.
I'm not even against White as captain, I'm just against dumb arguments that take way too much from one clip from one match in one huddle.
But more than that, I just think arguments about captaincy are a bit stupid, because unless you are in the dressing room, in the camp, in the huddle under the goalposts, then you really don't know who the good leaders are.
So stop making shit guesses based on half-baked analysis.
.
Yes, it was a bit of a stretch taking that Perth clip and extrapolating it to a feature article concluding White should be the captain. However I think that Nick Bishop has written some good in-depth analysis lately and as others have pointed out, our rugby sources seem to be lacking in thoughtful critical thinking. His last article on how QLD are using Tupou to stretch opposition backrow defence was pretty insightful I thought. Hopefully this article was an aberration.