Since the Wallabies didn’t provide me with any material for another ‘things I liked’ article I thought I’d discuss something that has been nagging me for a while.
As I post this article I have my hard hat on, protective face-mask and Kevlar vest, fully aware of the comments onslaught that will undoubtedly come. Because I am going to talk about a few players who get a bad rap and don’t deserve it.
These five guys have all played for the Wallabies. They have all been very good at Super level at one point or another. And yet for some reason they can’t do a thing right in the eyes of some (if not most) rugby fans.
Now I’m not saying these players are brilliant, and deserve lengthy Wallaby careers. Just that they may not be as terrible as they are made out to be.
Nick Phipps
Halfback depth in Australia is not great at the moment. Our best two scrummies are injured. So it’s natural to expect that the third-string halfback may not be carving up the international scene. And Phipps certainly isn’t carving up. But he is a decent enough halfback. His pass is generally good, and his defence is much improved (against Italy he made six tackles with no misses). He made a great break and threw an excellent pass to set up Nick Cummins at Twickers, and made a similar play against Argentina on the Gold Coast — both were arguably game-winning actions. And yet every time he plays he receives a torrent of abuse. He rarely gets above 13th in the Ranker order. He is probably the most hated player in Aussie rugby at the moment.
The Italy game was a prime example. Sheehan played the first 30, and was solid. His passing was OK, his defence was good. Then Phipps came on, and did roughly the same. He lacked the bulldog intensity that Sheehan had, but I’d argue his service was faster. And yet Sheehan is lauded, and Phipps derided. A two-point difference in the GaGR ratings. And I still can’t work out why.
The bloke is no Genia. He isn’t a great player. He’s a passable halfback. And far from the cause of Australia’s backline troubles. I reckon we all need to tone it down a bit in our criticisms of him, it’s getting to be a little too much.
Cooper Vuna
Widely seen as the worst winger ever to pull on the Gold shirt. And yet to my eyes he played pretty well in his two games against the Welsh. He didn’t tear them a new one, but was industrious with the ball and made a couple of nice busts up the middle. But the critics were hounding ‘what about Shipperley?’, and they may have had a point as Dom’s Super form was pretty good. But then Ships comes along and plays pretty much exactly the same as Vuna did. I’d argue his defence was a little better and his tackle-busting a little worse, but it ended up roughly the same. And still Dom is seen as a quality player and Vuna’s name is mud.
The bloke deserves a bit better, and I hope we see it in 2013. He has an ability to break down defences like few others in Aussie rugby, and I’d love to see him patch his defence and make the next step to become a long-term Wallaby. Yes, I think it could happen.
Berrick Barnes
Berrick will go down as a Wallaby great. And rightfully so. But a lot of fans still blindly hold on to the opinion that he is a conservative kick-bot who is the enemy of attack. According to this opinion he is the reason the Tahs are so boring, and all he wants to do is kick aimlessly. But even a cursory glance at any Tahs or Wallabies game shows this is grossly exaggerated. He takes on the line just as much as anyone, and the stats show this. Against Wales he was MoTM for two games and very close in the third. He played attacking rugby close to the line at 10, and produced a style of play that was fairly good to watch. Yes he kicks the ball but mostly when it is appropriate to do so.
Like the previous two players, it’s all about the blind spots. For example, against Italy one Wallaby kicked 13 times in the game, and many (if not most) of these kicks were aimless and went straight to Italians. That player was Kurtley Beale. I can’t see him picking up the Barnes kick-bot title, even though the stats suggest he may be more worthy.
Saia Faingaa
It does occasionally happen to Queenslanders as well. Saia is a prime example. He was a key player in the Reds’ triumph in 2011, and is a good hard player in tight. He’s a charismatic bloke who puts in a lot of work off the field. He has not been a brilliant Wallaby but he is far more than the plank-headed Frankenstein’s monster that some seem to think. I’d suggest he is roughly as good as James Hanson, and yet the word seems to be Hanson is destined for greatness where Saia is a waste of space. I would have to disagree.
Rob Horne
I thought I’d leave him until last, as he is the king of the unreasonably hated players, a crown he inherited from Matt Giteau. I have never seen a more painstaking analysis of a player’s faults in scoring a try as happened after the third Test against the Welsh at the SFS. Here’s a hypothetical scenario: imagine if it were Rob Horne who threw the looping, overhead pass to an open Nick Cummins against the Poms. It arguably cost us a try, but because it was Ben Tapuai who threw it not much has been said. But if it had been Horne I can guarantee it would be a hate-fest of epic proportions.
Horne has always been a solid defender, and has rarely ever let the Wallabies down. He hasn’t been brilliant, but few Aussie 13s since Morty have. The current crop aren’t faring too much better than he ever did.
So there. I said it. Now I am braced for the consequences….
Did I miss anyone? Who else gets a bad rap in the eyes of the fans?
