Well it is truly a sad day in Australian Rugby. Yes, the day we have all been dreading is finally here. Welcome to the final edition of the Tuesday Top 5 for 2017. What a ride it has been. We’ve been up, we’ve been down. We’ve broken TV’s, prayed to the Rugby Gods, sworn at the Rugby Gods, sworn at all the Aussie franchises, sworn at the ARU, sworn at the Wallabies, had hope, lost hope, laughed and cried.
This week we mull over the good, bad and ugly from the weekend, try and forget about the match against Scotland, talk refereeing (not in the way you might be expecting) share happy memories, not so happy memories and look to next year. Plus we have thrown in some more highlights.
Yes, that is more than 5. It’s the last one, so indulge us a little!
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Good – Ummm I actually liked the way the Scottish played. They played very well and were entertaining to watch. Our backs could learn a thing or two from theirs (likewise our coaching staff. Hope they were taking notes)
Bad – The performance we put on against Scotland was bad. It was pretty much summed up by Simmons’ lack of chase (props to Enever for trying his guts out there). Was Simmons injured? If not there’s no excuse for giving up the chase 5 minutes after the break. If he was then WHY THE HELL WAS HE STILL ON THE FIELD?! He went off eventually – 20 MINUTES LATER!!!
Ugly – Kepu’s red card. Stupid act, right penalty. Did it cost us the win? Who knows, but the fact that he was dumb enough to put us in that position was just stupid.
Ok, here we go. The Scottish match.
As I said above, the Wallabies performance in this match was bad. To be honest, there isn’t really that much to say, so let’s look at some of the reasons offered up as to what went wrong (admittedly, a lot of people are saying we just played poorly and Scotland played well).
Cheika has been pretty quiet on the excuses front for once, though he did say “We’re over here with about 10 or 12 guys that aren’t here but could be in in the mix for this squad, without a doubt”. True, we were missing a number of players. Coleman, Folau, Dempsey, Hanigan, Arnold, Haylett Petty Pocock etc. Some of those players may have made a difference. But then we have to look at Scotland who went into the November internationals without 10 of their regulars, including 3 props and 2 hookers. Laidlaw and Richie Grey were missing and Hogg was a last-minute withdrawal from this match. So we weren’t the only team missing key players.
Cheika also said “We just need to take that extra little step of maturity”. Isn’t that what guys like Genia, Moore, Hooper, Kepu, Simmons etc should be bringing to the team? Each of those players has over 75 Wallaby caps and should be leading the way. Oh, and speaking of maturity, the ultimate example should be the coach of the team. There are times when it is quite plain to see where the playing group have gotten their “lack of maturity” from.
This is one I have heard but it didn’t directly come from Cheika, though he did say that the extra fitness training mid-year may have made them fatigued at the end of the year. We were tired. It was the end of a very long season.
Saturday night marked the end of our very long season. It was the final match, 275 after the opening match of Super Rugby. In June, Scotland defeated the Wallabies at the end of their season, 288 after the Aviva Premiership kicked off. Yes, we had more travel and the boys may have been tired. But come the World Cup they need to be able to play as many matches with travel thrown in as well. If we make the final it could be around 12 matches in a row (assuming a 2-match Bledisloe and shortened Rugby Championship). This was our 11th match since the end of the Super Rugby Season.
Ok, here we go. Here are the stats from the match.
After the last few matches I have scrutinised the back row and compared their performance to the oppositions. I’ve throw the stats in again for comparisons sake, but this week it’s the backs I really want to look at.
At one point in the second half when Kerevi was running the ball at the defence I said “Kerevi needs to get some more tricks up his sleeve”. Right now, his main go to is to run at the defence and hope he breaks through. When it works, it’s great. But its getting predictable, the opposition know he probably won’t pass and doesn’t often step. Same with Tevita. And Koroibete, and Hodge. They are all big, strong, fast and tend to run straight at the defence in an effort to break through.
Here are some of the stats for the wings and centres.
This wasn’t an anomaly either. In the match against Wales Kerevi carried 14 times and passed once. In fact, in that match between the 12, 13 and 14 they made a combined 2 passes. In the same match those 3 players combined also made 21 and missed 8 tackles. So not only is their defence generally a bit dodgy, their attack is predictable. Against Scotland, I didn’t see too many times when the defence were concerned about one of these players out stepping them. They just had to stand their ground and make the tackle. When Beale is at 12 it’s a whole different story, he keeps them guessing.
I suppose we will have to wait until 2018 now to see how Cheika’s preferred back line takes shape.
* stats courtesy of Rugby.com.au
2017 – The Best Bits
Ok, so here are our favourite things in rugby this year.
The NRC. It was a fantastic competition this year, every game was enjoyable to watch. There were some outstanding tries scored and some tough defence. Seeing so many new names stand up and really put themselves forward as a chance in Super Rugby was definitely a highlight. It was great to see Fiji enter the competition, with time (and more discipline) they will be one heck of a force in the coming years. It was also so good to see the Shield end the season in Perth. Pretty fitting after the year that was I think!
Super Rugby had its good bits, my personal fave was the try the Brumbies put on against the Hurricanes. It was good to see some new talent coming through, Gordon at the Waratahs, Banks at the Brumbies, Hardwick at the Force. I loved seeing Matt Hodgson’s passion when he addressed the Force and Rebels players.
The Wallabies win over the All Blacks in Brisbane was another highlight. It was good to see some new blood coming through the Wallabies. Guys like Koriobete, Hunt, Hardwick (before his injury) and Dempsey (again, pre-injury) all putting their hand up for selection.
2017 – The Worst Bits
The worst thing about this year was without a doubt the whole saga surrounding cutting a team. The way it was handled from the outset was a disgrace, and even now we are hearing more that puts doubt on everything the ARU has said. The culling of the Western Force marks a very dark time for Australian Rugby.
The finals of the NRC clashing with the International tour put a bit of a dampener on what was otherwise a fantastic season. Key players who had played much of the season were missing for the finals, guys like Perese and Powell were whisked off to Europe where they spent the whole tour twiddling their thumbs. Surely it wouldn’t have hurt to have them play the final and then join the Wallabies.
The fact that we didn’t beat a single team from New Zealand in Super Rugby is definitely a negative from the year. Crowds were down, viewers were down (a pattern that is following most sports viewership) and a lot of the games were really quite dull.
The Wallabies set a few records this year, and not the good kind. Biggest losing margins to England and Scotland and the All Blacks scored their highest ever score against us. Plus, we were unable to beat South Africa (a draw is NOT a win. Just because we didn’t lose, I refuse to look at it as a positive) and lost twice to Scotland. There is a hell of a lot of work to be done before 2019.
2018 – What do the MST’s want to see?
Gazing into my magic crystal ball, which shows me the things I would like to see no matter how fantastical, (not necessarily the things we will see) this is what I’d like to see in 2018.
I’d love to see the NRC run longer. This year it was a great comp, we need more of it! I’d like to see a more even distribution of Super Rugby players amongst the teams, if a team of club players keeps getting thumped by a team packed with Super players it won’t take long for their fans to lose interest.
The biggest thing I would like to see in Super Rugby is for all of the Aussie teams to be competitive. I know this is a bit of a pipe dream, there are definitely stronger and weaker teams. The Reds and Tahs have stuck to their guns and are developing younger, local players, the Brumbies have a bit of both, some good new recruits and a good foundation from this year while the Rebels have been able to pick and choose the best players from two franchises to fill their roster. Speaking of this, I’d love to see the salary cap enforced. For ALL teams. For the good of the game and to make sure all teams remain financially viable and don’t put themselves into trouble in a couple of years.
What do I want to see with the Wallabies … where do I start? The number one, absolutely most important thing I want to see is players picked on FORM not reputation, past form, sentimental reasons or the “he has the potential to be good but he isn’t there yet so he needs some more game time” line. At the moment I think half the side or more fits into one of those last four categories. Personally, I think it’s time for a new coach. I said last week, I believe Cheika has hit his ceiling and we saw nothing against Scotland to show us otherwise. No, I don’t have an alternative in mind, I honestly don’t know if there is anyone even available (which is why I can’t see Cheika going anywhere) but in my perfect 2018 there is someone different at the helm.
In Aussie rugby in general I would like to see more local coaches being developed so they can coach at the highest levels. Currently we have a Kiwi (Gibson), a Saffa (Wessels), a sort of Kiwi depending on who you are talking to (Thorne) and an Aussie (McKellar). I know there are some pretty good Australian coaches out there, but like some of our best talent, they are currently overseas.
You go girl!
Just a quickie – when I was looking through for highlights to post below I noticed something in the France v Japan match that I wasn’t expecting. So I did a bit of checking up and was pleasantly surprised with what I found.
Joy Neville is a former player who earned 70 caps for Ireland. She is also a referee, she refereed the final of the Women’s World Cup in August and is one of the first women referees to officiate an international men’s test match. It was Joy who caught my attention in the video, she was one of the assistant referees in the match between France and Japan. It wasn’t her first men’s international, but I believe the first involving a tier one nation.
To top it off, on Sunday night she was named World Rugby’s Referee of the Year, beating out some pretty big names in the world of refereeing.
Hopefully we see more women, such as our own Amy Perrett, following her up the refereeing ladder.
Embed from Getty Images
Highlights
Here are the highlights from most of the other internationals played on the weekend. Again, the quality on some may not be fantastic, but better than nothing, right?
*** Just as a final note we would like to thank all those who have read our stuff and given some great feedback this year. We have worked with time pressure, lack of sleep, lack of interest (at times it was seriously hard to find good things to write about when everyone was performing like crap), too much coffee and an overly demanding boss (granted she’s only 14 months old, but definitely the boss). We even sat through some of the dullest games in rugby history, 9-9 Sharks, Rebels anyone? And I have looked at more stats than I really ever want to see again.
But it’s all been worth it to be able to bring you the Top 5 each week. Hopefully we will be able to live up to your growing expectations in 2018.
Cheers – the MST’s (surely by now you’ve worked out there are 2 of us?!)
