Little James grows up

Watching the Force this season hasn’t been easy. Not only have they somehow managed to injure the bulk of their international representatives, but they have also played some truly shithouse rugby as well. Not that they haven’t been putting in effort mind, they have, and chief among those trying the hardest is James O’Connor.

Young Rabbits has been pitch-forked into an un-accustomed role of being a senior player, despite still only being 20 years of age. Let’s not forget that this time last year JO’C was being used off the bench by Mitch in an effort not to put too much pressure on him, doesn’t a year make a difference.

In fact, watching JO’C in the flesh last week against the Reds I couldn’t help but notice how few mistakes he made. In a side that was losing its collective shit completely, he managed to keep his head and play with a level of maturity that was way above the other Force players.

The stats below confirm how much JO’C is being called upon this year as opposed to 2009. Last season he played a total of ten games, with a couple of those coming off the bench – this season he has played every minute of all four games.

The most telling stats in my opinion are the kicking stats. It is clear that JO’C is the man who has the responsibility of getting the Force around the park. In the first four games this season he has averaged 294 kicking metres per game as opposed to 125 metres in 2009, and now kicks almost 10 times per match when last season he averaged around 4.

It is also fairly clear looking at the stats the added responsibility he has taken on in attack. It has been interesting watching him grow into the role of play-maker as it is not one he has filled with any regularity. Perhaps his finest game of this season was against the Hurricanes at Wellington when he took over from the badly misfiring Sam Harris and ran the show.

With Quade Cooper deservedly getting all the plaudits as the form Australian player of the season so far, it is not surprising JO’C hasn’t rated a mention. Based on the stats however, it stands out like dog’s balls he is doing a pretty decent job.

So far this year JO’C has laid on 3 of the 5 tries scored by the Force after not setting up any last season. Add to this the fact that on average he is making twice as many line-breaks and offloading on average three times more often than last season and his importance to the team is not hard to see.

And that is before you throw in the fact he has scored 38 points out of the Force’s total of 66.

The Force has suffered many set backs this year, but with JO’C fit and firing, and a few troops due coming back from injury in the coming weeks, maybe a win isn’t too far away.