Welcome to Hugh’s mailbag, a new segment where I empty out my email inbox and answer all your rugby questions.
If you have a question, send it to barbarian@greenandgoldrugby.com and I assure you it will be read, and a typically thoughtful, considered response may well make this very column in weeks to come. Or I might just get bored of the whole thing and forget about it completely. Either way it’s going to be a fun ride. Let’s get to it:
What do you make of the ARU’s recent changes to allow foreign-based players the chance to be selected for the Wallabies, provided they have played 60 tests and held an ARU contract for 7 years? Ken, Toowoomba.
Let’s get straight to it – I think this is a commonsense idea from Bill Pulver and I applaud him for doing it. It’s not throwing open the floodgates, Saffer-style, but instead allows for a small number of experienced veterans to earn their deserved Euro while also being able to play for the national team if required. In reality it only affects a handful of current Wallabies, many of whom are on their last legs anyway (AAC, Palu, Benn Robinson etc).
What of Matt Giteau, you ask? I don’t think any of us can say for certain if he is truly our best option at 12. Playing rugby in Europe is like going to Thailand for plastic surgery – while you end up way better off financially, you never really know what you’re going to look like when you come back to Australia. I’m not willing to judge Gits until he has a run in a Gold jersey, which he will surely get at some point this season. My gut is he lacks the physical abrasiveness we will need from our 12, but may end up wearing the 23 jersey.
The other point to note from today’s announcement is the clause giving eligibility to overseas players who have signed a Super Rugby contract for the following season. This is also welcome news, and gives yet another incentive for such players to return to Super Rugby and a big carrot for the Super teams to dangle when they are approaching foreign-based Aussies.
The issue might arise once players hit the magic 60 test, 7 year mark. They are then essentially given the license to shop themselves far and wide, and you can’t see many of them hanging around to play Super Rugby for less cash than they can get overseas. But I think what we are seeing this year is that the majority of players aren’t even waiting that long any more. Previously we saw the Northern Hemisphere option largely reserved for players in the twilight of their career, who move over once they have decided they don’t have much more to offer Australian rugby. Now we are seeing players of all ages and experiences heading off, with scant regard for what they are leaving behind.
It’s going to take a few years to see just how this affects the Wallaby squad make-up, and the level of player drain to the Northern Hemisphere sides. I can’t see it making a massive difference, to be honest, but it will allow for more frequent SOS calls to veteran players when the International season rolls around, a bit like what the Saffers have done for years with guys like Fourie du Preez, Bakkies Botha, Morne Steyn etc.
Hugh, the Melbourne Rebels are sneaky good this year. Do you reckon they can make a run at the finals this year? Joe, Melbourne.
Good call Joe, the Rebels are a rough finals hope this year. They have had the talent in their side for years, but big Tony McGahan has finally instilled some backbone in his troops and last week’s game showed that they are starting to learn how to close out close games. I was just waiting for the Rebels to commit a series of mind-boggling errors and lose to the Brumbies, and at times it looked like they were desperately trying to do so. But they held out in tough conditions, and for that they deserve plenty of credit.
Although they are in 11th they are just seven points out of the top six, and have either one or two games in hand over each of the higher-ranked teams (with the exception of the 7th placed Waratahs). They probably aren’t going to make the finals, and may end up missing by a fair margin, but I have a feeling something is building down south.
They have discovered a number of exciting prospects this season and with the sad exception of Paul Alo-Emile they are all staying put for a few years more (unlike most of the top-end talent at the other Aussie teams). Lopeti Timani and Sefa Naivalu are close to the form two players in the Australian conference (though that title still belongs to Ben McCalman), and with Nick Stirzaker and Jack Debreczeni in the halves they have the building blocks of a team that can make the finals next season, and win the comp in a few years’ time.
If they were a listed company you’d be buying shares in them for sure.
Who would win an all-in cage fight between all of the Australian Super Rugby coaches? Sam, Sydney.
The obvious answer here is just to say ‘Michael Cheika’, put down the phone and walk away. But that would be the wrong answer, and this isn’t a phone-in column.
Tactics are important here, and are the reason that Cheika doesn’t win. Because he is the biggest, most intimidating presence in the cage it wouldn’t take long for the other coaches to realise this and gang up on him. Also you’d have to think they would harbour some bitterness about the whole Wallaby thing, as well as just reverting to type and kicking the one Waratah in the ring (haters gonna hate). Now Cheik would obviously put up a fight, taking out Woody Graham in the process, but the other three have enough power to fell the giant and take him out of the equation.
So we are left with Foley, McGahan and Larkham. The obvious loser here is Larkham, but I don’t think he goes down so easily. Firstly he would be taped up to the hilt, with his trademark agility I can see him running the big two blokes around the ring for hours on end. He also has a reach advantage. The smarter of the remaining two will quickly work out that running after Larkham is a fools errand, and get stuck into the other guy. To me the smarter bloke is Foley, who has somehow kept a top line coaching job for years despite limited evidence he is any good at all. He takes down poor old totality Tony, and we go to a two man race between him and Larkham.
Larkham will quickly realise he doesn’t have the power to fell Foley from arm’s length, and will be forced to fight at closer quarters. That is Foley country right there, and I can’t see Bernie getting the job done. Foley has the bulk and the power, and as the fight drifts into it’s 14th hour I’m not sure Bernie’s frail body can hold up any longer. He goes down.
Michael Foley wins. He is your Super Rugby Coach Cage Fight Champion.
Hi Hugh. With Super Rugby starting to slowly move towards the finals series, it’s time to ask the question: are the Brumbies genuine title contenders? John, Tamworth.
Nope. Brumbies can’t win. They. Are. Goneski.
The writing is on the wall, and after nine games we can form a better rounded view of the Brumbies season. They have had five wins – two convincing victories against the Reds, a narrow win over the Rebels at home, a good win over the Force at home and a decent if slightly unconvincing win over the Cheetahs a few weeks ago. Those teams lie 15th, 14th, 12th and 11th.
They have lost to the Waratahs (7th), Chiefs (2nd), Blues (13th) and now the Rebels.
With the injury issues they now have, their best case scenario is scraping into the finals, or hoping the Waratahs fall in a heap and they win the Aussie conference in a cripple fight. Either way the story doesn’t end with Stephen Moore hoisting the trophy.
Their next two games are crucial, at home against the Highlanders and Waratahs, and could leave me with egg on my face. But I doubt they will. They rely too heavily on the creative force of Matt Toomua and Nic White, and the destructive power of Tevita Kuridrani. Their forward pack is very good, but the conditions last weekend were perfectly suited to the Brumby game plan and yet they were out-enthused by a younger, less experienced Rebels pack.
Alarm bells should be ringing loud and clear in Canberra. I hope they can recover, as the last two seasons have shown that they have the class to go all the way when they assemble their best 15 players. But I doubt they can.
Hugh, how are these genuine reader questions, given this column hasn’t existed before today?? And why do all of your column and podcast ideas seem to be direct rip-offs of identical segments on American sports websites and talkshows? Mary, Brisbane.
Typical anti-Waratah bias from up north. And it’s one question per person Mary, so tell your story walking.
Anyone with a genuine question can send it to barbarian@greenandgoldrugby.com and I will come at it with brutal force next week.
Until then, sayonara.
