The Weekend Edition with Sully 25/5/24

Welcome, once again, to the Weekend Edition. I won’t tell you what happened in games on Friday night, and I’m not going to tell you what I think is going to happen in games that’re on Saturday afternoon, or on Sunday. But, I’m not going to stop you talking about those games in the comments; in fact, I’d love it.

So, what will I write about? I’m interested in the news that falls through the cracks each week. I’m hoping to pick up the odd bit of news that comes in after Hoss’s marathon news-gathering efforts on Fridays. If that fails, I may have to make some shit up.

This week, I’m going to look at a Tongan trip for Harry, a plea to just take the shot for goal, and news today the Sekope Kepu is to retire.

A Problem With Patience

Or is it greed?

On the Talking Teams podcast last Wednesday, I talked about my frustration with Australian sides and their inability to build scores.

This was highlighted in the Reds v Drua game when the Reds, trailing 18-14 in the 46 min were awarded a penalty 15 metres out and directly in front of the posts. An easy shot at goal would’ve left the Reds one point behind and receiving the ball from the kick-off. The Reds lineout wasn’t travelling well, they’d already lost three of their own throws. The Reds ignored the game situation, the ease of the shot and their lineout woes and kicked for the corner.

Anyone who watched can tell you what happened next. The Reds lost their fourth lineout, the Drua broke out of their 22, ran the length of the field and scored under the posts. Along the way, a Reds winger stuck his leg out for the second time in the match and was red carded for his effort. The Reds trailed by 25 to 14 and were down to 14 for 20 minutes.

This was the turning point of the match.

I have seen the same pattern repeated over and over in the last two decades, with varying difficulties of kicks at goal. Australian sides will almost always turn down the kick, no matter how easy it is, no matter what the game situation is, no matter how our lineout is going, no matter how good the maul defence is.

Our sides turn down a better than 50% chance at three points for a chance at five points that we convert less than 50% of the time. Then we take a kick from the sideline for an extra two points that our kickers convert less than 40% of the time. I’ve made all these figures up from just my feeling for the game. I don’t have the ability to go back and find how many shots at goal we have turned down for a lineout in the corner.

I’d suggest to you, that unless our teams are chasing the game, we should be attempting every shot at goal we have a better than 50% chance of getting. I think that we think we need to score tries to entertain our fans, but these tries aren’t very entertaining, and winning with penalties is far more interesting than losing with lineout tries.

So, please, Australian coaches and captains, think about winning more games and start taking every easy point that’s available to you.

Reds Tongan Tour Continues To Excite

The twin tours of Tonga in July by the Queensland People’s Republic of Queensland Reds men’s and women’s sides continues to build. Adding to the spice is the possible return of Harry Wilson from his broken arm for the tour.

Wilson was vying with Rob Valetini for a spot in the Wallaby back row. While it would be tempting to try to shoehorn their skill sets into the same backrow, neither of them are great lineout jumpers and I think we’d be better served by a workhorse, jumping blindside flanker in the test side. Liam Wright, Ned Hanigan and Rob Leota come to mind. So you’re left with a choice between Valetini’s power game and Wilson’s connection with McReight and his work ethic and offloads. It’s an interesting conundrum.

Once again, I’ve been distracted.

“I’ll definitely be fit in July to be considered for a great trip,” Wilson said in a statement. “I was lucky enough to travel to Tonga last year with Australia A, so I know how awesome the local crowd is. They only cheer for one team, but that’s pretty cool being on the other side of it. The ground was so packed, people were watching from trees.”

Young reds prop Massimo De Lutiis is also keen for a place on the tour after a 14-week lay-off with injury. “We’re all really excited, especially the young boys. They’re all excited to develop their skills playing against an international team with different styles of rugby,” De Lutis told rugby.com.au.

“I’m definitely putting my hat in the ring, but it’s obviously up to the coaches. I’d love to play, and I’d be so excited to go to Tonga. I was a bit jealous of the boys going to Fiji, so I’d love the opportunity to go.”

Sekope Kepu Calls It A Day

After 110 Wallaby caps, thousands of Super Rugby caps and 19 years playing at the top level Sekope Kepu has decided that this is his last season of top level rugby.

“In the last couple of weeks, it’s sort of dawned on me that this is the right time. Everybody that retires says you know when it’s time,” he said in a statement. “All I dreamt of was to play rugby professionally, and I’ve been very blessed to do that. While I will miss it, I’m looking forward to being there for my kids.”

“I just want to thank the fans, because without them, we don’t have a game,” added Kepu, who is considering moving to coaching. “My parents as well, the old man used to come to my training and games every weekend and that planted the seed.”

Everyone at greenandgoldrugby.com wishes Sekope Kepu all the best in the next chapter of his life. Enjoy this time with your family, you’ve done your country, your state, and your clubs proud.

Shout Out To Gus Gardner.

Gus became the most capped referee in Super Rugby last night. Respect man. Well done!

That’s it from me. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you in the comments.