Konichiwa Cobbers,
I hope all is well in your world, that the donuts are warm, that the chips are hot and the whiskey is spelt with an ‘e’.
Firstly for this week, well done Braidwood Redbacks (banner pic). Typical of many country rugby clubs these days, they have had a tough few years in terms of surviving. But this year, while wins were still hard to come by, nonetheless they did put a team out on the park each weekend regardless of the travel or opponent. And that’s no small ask these days. So well done lads.
Secondly, Brissy covered the weekends big games with a most excellent and straight-to-the-point synopsis yesterday so I won’t rehash well trodden ground in-terms of the matches themselves.
But there is one question I would pose to the group about the Wobbly schellacking: was it all bad? I would say ‘no’. To be clear, a 38-7 loss is not good in anyone’s language. But at the same time it wasn’t all bad either.
Why? Because while other teams come and go from the World No1 spot, the constant benchmark side of form in world rugby, the bloody All Blacks, have set their recent dominance on one huge cornerstone: their start. This doesn’t mean they lack elsewhere – they still clear the ball lightening fast in the 7th minute and the 70th minute (not allowing teams to reset defence) and their option taking and execution is as high-percentage, direct and smooth as ever. But it’s their lightening starts that sow panic among their opponents so well. And while overall we were well beaten, we did not fall victim to their start like everyone else has.
We saw this well-demonstrated in the opening AB try. Scott Barrett was wildly offside with his opening tackle from the lineout, but he got away with it and Frizell snagged a great early try from it. If our lads needed any reminder of the calibre of the opponent they faced, there it was. And simultaneously, you could just see, hear and feel all the face-palming of all the Wobbly fans throughout the known universe. But instead of imploding into a back-foot, catch-up conundrum as they have in recent years, the Wobbs regathered, regrouped and stuck to their guns for near 30min with options, with changing shapes, with variations and with abrasive combativeness. And that was different.
Most surely the wheels fell off the Wobbly bus by allowing the now-familiar 38th minute try. And certainly the 2nd half turned into a nightmare in-terms of injuries and poor decisions (eg what in God’s Name was Petaia doing with that grubber after Skelton jagged the kick-off turnover?!?!?) while the AB’s continued to recycle ball at blinding speed and take smart options. I am not avoiding that. But critically, we withstood the mighty All Black rugby opening blitzkrieg like no one else has in recent times.
What does that show? Why is that important? It shows that we did not lose because we were 20pts down after 20min and started doing dumb, panicked stuff in response. We collapsed because of stuff entirely of our own making against a ruthless opponent who then punished us for. Some may say that’s semantic. I say not. I say that shows we are not the same as everyone else. What beat us on the weekend was more us than it was the AB’s.
My opinion is further supported by the two pieces of play in the opening 20min where we split the AB’s wide open but then did not convert. In both those breaks we did not execute efficiently and turn those breaks into clean 7pts. Go back in time (I wish) and convert those two breaks into pies, cleanly and efficiently, and the match has an entirely different complexion. But that’s the clincher – we didn’t. And against teams as good as the AB’s, you just can’t do that.
So am I disappointed? Yep. Am I unaware of the significance of a teams will and confidence in a major tournament year when they just got handed their butts 3 matches in a row AND lost the two most critical men in the squad in the process (first man picked? Tighthead prop. Second man picked? Reserve tight head prop)? Nope. Not at all.
But is all lost? No. Why? Because on the weekend we showed that unlike anyone else in world rugby, we can go with the AB’s for the opening 30min AND within that time we also create try-scoring opportunities. So the raw ingredients are there. Now we just need to grasp that we can’t win with only 1/3 possession and 1/3 field position.
And, by the way, will someone PLEASE text Ollie Hoskins phone digits to EJ and get him on the bloody plane back to Australia? As in now please?
Nutta’s Team of the Tourney (wk3)
It’s back! The rules are simple. It’s jersey versus jersey. Who played better in the (say) No4 jersey? And points awarded are likewise simple:
- 3pts if selected because you clearly ‘owned it’
- 2pts if you marginally ‘owned it’ against strong competition
- 1pt if no one else was good enough
- 1pt extra if your were my Man of the Round
Teams for Wk3:
Nutta’s Selection for Wk3:
Kwik Komments:
- Getcha Kitsoff played a monster match and with 3 turnovers to-boot he would normally have stolen the No1 jersey, but Bell’s combination of set-piece and workrate was just irrepressible for mine
- The rest of the world beware: Malcolm ‘Karl’ Marx is in awesome form.
- Some will question my selection of Skelton. But it’s this simple – everyone else prepares to defend against his disruptive influence and they still can’t stop it. That says a lot. Throw in 2 turnovers and a bunch of housekeeping and he was an obvious pick.
- The South African De Allande & L.AM combo makes you forget how good Jesse Kriel is.
- I’m sorry I didn’t pick more Argies, but they were consistently no2 behind someone else who had a blinder (eg Julian Montoya vs Karl Marx).
- I would pick Kwagga Smith in just about any team, anytime. The guy is as dependable as your best work dog.
Given that round of matches officially concluded the tournament in this World Cup year, I’ll save my Team of the Tourney for next week to have a think and give myself something else to chat about.
Lastly for this week, huge congratulations to Al Liebick who racked up his 500th club game for the Grenfell Panthers last week. Al won his first premiership in 1987 and was part of Grenfell’s all-conquering 1990-1999 10x Premierships in a row, as well as a host of other accomplishments. And he’s still truckin’. So well done that man.
So that’s it for this week. Closing thoughts:
- Was Bell better than Kitsoff?
- Should Juan Cruz Mallia have been carded for the hit on Bokke Grant Williams?
- Has anyone ever had a shorter debut than Bokke Grant Williams (16 seconds)?
- Is Kwagga really from Wagga? Or should he be?
- Is your local team in the finals?
Feel free to comment below…
