After another … ahem … disappointing weekend for Australian teams, here is our weekly dose of the Tuesday Top 5. This week we do the usual grading based on performance and results, look at the good, bad and ugly bits of the weekend, listen to Phil Kearns’ and Rod Kafer’s words of wisdom and look at those that just didn’t give up.
Report Card
Rebels E: They just aren’t getting any better. Mafi was a standout but every other player across the park was outplayed by a long way. To be fair, they were kind of in it until half time, but the second half was just plain dire. They need to work on defence, attack and ball handling, with some set piece practice thrown in too.
Reds D: They looked very threatening for the first 20 or so minutes, but then fell apart in the 2nd half. It looked like they really missed Hunt at 15, but even he couldn’t have made it much better. The main issue seemed to again be discipline, which teams like the Chiefs will take full advantage of every day of the week.
Waratahs C-: Despite getting a losing bonus point, they didn’t play well. 21 of their 33 points came in the last 12 minutes which means that for 68 minutes they were pretty rubbish, letting in 40 points. I keep reading that they “won the second half” but so what? They need to be able to win both halves for it to matter. Is it a psychological issue or are they just not an 80 minute team? Perhaps Gibson needs to talk to Stiles. One had the first 40 covered, the other the second.
Force D: The Force got out to an ok start, at one point leading 7-6. But they couldn’t contain the young Sharks players who were pouncing on everything. They had their moments in the match where they played quite well, but were, like their Aussie counterparts, out played.
The Good, Bad and the Ugly
Good: The last 12 minutes of the Waratahs match. 21 points, getting themselves an all important bonus point. Shows what they are capable of.
Bad: The defence of all the Australian teams this week. There were 21 tries (including a penalty try) scored against Aussie teams in this round. That just isn’t good enough, and isn’t an anomaly. Australian teams have some of the worst defensive stats in the competition. 170 points were scored against Australian teams this round alone, with an average of 42.5 per match. To make matters worse, the Waratahs have the 3rd most points scored against them in the competition at this point. Should we be worried that their defence coach also happens to be the Wallabies defence coach? (The same guy who said something along the lines of “defence is easy to fix”)
Ugly: Waratahs fans booing their own players. Yes, it may have been deserved, but the Tahs are a team who seem to not be in the best place psychologically at the moment and I imagine their own fans booing the might not help.
A bad case of foot in mouth … AKA Think before you speak
Greg Clarke in the 78th minute of the Tahs v Blues
“Time is off as the Blues just try and milk a bit of time here”
(Is it possible to milk time when the clock has stopped?)
*Moulds limps off assisted by medico
“So apologies to Matt Moulds … He wasn’t milking it trying to eat away a few seconds, he is injured. Let’s hope it isn’t too serious for him.”
But that’s nothing compared to what spewed out of Phil Kearns’ mouth at the 24 minute mark during a stoppage. If you listen carefully you can hear the exact moment the penny drops and he seems to realise what he is saying.
“The Blues were such a dominant force early in Super Rugby, won a title. They haven’t really been able to dominate even in the terms of New Zealand teams for quite a while and you’d think being the most populous city in New Zealand they’d have … (pause)… a better record Sekope Kepu so important to this Waratahs side.”
Yes, that’s right. He actually said the team with the bigger population should have a better record. I wonder how he feels about the team with Australia’s most populous city ….
I love the seamless transition (topic change!) into how important Kepu is to the Tahs.
Behind the times or out of touch?
One other comment that caught my attention was a piece of wisdom from Rod Kafer during the Rebels game.
“A player who’s come through the development pathways of Australian rugby union right through from a young age … right through and eventually gets an opportunity at age of 23, 24. That’s the right time to bring them into Super Rugby. Give ‘em some time in club footy.”
Most of the time comments like this go by the wayside as we just usually ignore them. But this captured my attention after watching the previous night’s game where the name of “that other” Barrett cropped up due to his exploits. Not the veteran at 25 years old Beauden, his younger brother who is 20.
It also gave us, the Mst’s a chuckle as we collectively joked that obviously Kafer hadn’t seen any of the Aussie halfbacks lately; Gordon, Tuttle and Powell.
As I continued on with my Rugby marathon it wasn’t long until the rich irony became apparent as we watched the damage being imparted on the Tahs by a 20 year old Rieko Ioane, Kafer’s comment serving as the backdrop. We were blissfully unaware that this was slowly highlighting something bigger. Coincidently Jamie Pandaram from the Daily Tele had a similar realisation while watching the Tahs game.
Slowly the universe started aligning the stars into a compelling narrative. The Sharks v Force game was punctuated by the fact that not only was their starting flyhalf Curwin Bosch, filling in for an Injured Pat Lambie, playing his last game for the season as he was off to play in the World Rugby Under 20’s Championship, but there were several other players in their very early 20’s that started and wow, did they make an impression. Check out the try below (Never give up!) that features 3 players all under 21! This was just one of the many part of the game they influenced.
Then I moved on to the Crusaders v Bulls. The Crusaders were at their ruthless best with their backs putting on an attacking master class. Lead by the 23 year olds Mounga and Drummond, and with at least another 4 of the back line 22 or younger, 2 under 25 (bench included) its starts to make you think about Kafer’s comments more critically. 60% of the Crusaders backline in that game are 23 or younger. Only one player in the starting backline was over 24 years old.
So going back to Rod Kafer’s comment it makes you realise that although only a philosophy, is it a philosophy that Aussie rugby is subscribing to? Is 23 a good age to start them is to Super Rugby? Well as a measure, at the 23-year-old mark we have F/A 18 pilots buzzing around our skies and on the verge, if not already able to be deployed in to combat. Many other military roles are already on the frontline by that age. AFL teams feature many players in the early 20s age group, with some already having 4 season or more under their belt by 23. Yet Aussie rugby has a belief that around 23 -24 for Super rugby is the right age.
Based on selection policies of recent times it appears until recently that is the case. Larkham, the Wallabies backs coach seems to subscribe to this policy like many other Aussie Super Rugby coaches from the past and even present.
Nick Stiles seems to be the most willing to break the mould in recent times and it’s been relatively positive. Recently the Reds team of a few weeks ago feature 8 players in the low 20’s age group, and although not getting a win they certainly pushed the Tahs. But these selections were the exception rather than the rule in Aussie Rugby.
So is this, like many other philosophies and practise in Aussie rugby, as we are discovering, from a bye gone age? Is this that amateur game mindset formed many years ago that has slowed us down and put up behind the curve? Are we simply now years behind?
There will always be a place for experienced players, even veterans, but somewhere in-between should there not be some foresight in place that cuts the under performers and allows the new blood flow through? Apparently not; until it’s forced through crisis. Gordon, Tuttle and Powell underpin that argument fairly well.
Consider this extract from the weekends Oceania U20’s game report from Rugby.com.au after the Kiwis big win over the Aussies: “ … the Australians who struggled to cope with the cohesion and overall speed and skills of the New Zealanders”.
The key question this leads to is pathways. The disjointed and un-unified structures and seemingly complicated pathways that aren’t always accessible freely, let alone bye gone ways and institutionalised thinking are a tough obstacle to overcome for any budding player. But with the impending cuts to Super Rugby, is it closing more of the already limited opportunities?
Never Give Up!
There were quite a few instances this round where players/team nearly left their charge too late. But through sheer determination (maybe a bit of luck too) their last-ditch efforts paid off (well close to in one instance)
First up we have Jordie Barrett. When it looked certain that the Stormers player would beat him to the ball he kept chasing, diving at the death. And it certainly paid off.
Perhaps the best example of the weekend came in the form of the Highlanders. With 75:30 on the clock, that’s right, just 4 and a half minutes remaining in the match, the score was 41-24 to the Cheetahs. Unbelievably the full-time score was 45-41 to the Highlanders! 21 points in 4 and a half minutes. Talk about a comeback.
So by comparison the 12 minutes it took the Waratahs to score 21 points seems like an eternity. And while it didn’t get them the win, it shows that fighting till the end can get you on the board, even if just a losing bonus point. Perhaps next time they’ll start fighting a little sooner.
And finally we have the group of young players from the Sharks proving that you should never stop chasing a loose ball, never assume the ball is going out and always believe that you can do everything you can to get the ball to the try line. To be honest I though it was a pointless chase and the ball was going to go out. Just goes to show what I know!
