Special thanks to Marcoondam Images for permission to use this from the weekend’s game between Roma and the Toowoomba Rangers.
Fresh off a sensational rookie campaign in Super Rugby Pacific with the Queensland Reds, flyhalf Harry McLaughlin-Phillips is expected to play a leading role with the Junior Wallabies at the World Rugby U20 Championship in Cape Town. Australia U20 fielded a star-studded squad at the event last year, but they had their work cut out for them in a pool of death that featured England, Fiji and Ireland. The Irish were coming off an unbeaten run to glory in the Six Nations U20 from February to March.
The Junior Wallabies kicked off their quest for world title glory with a 46-37 win over Fiji but they were on the wrong side of a heavy score themselves five days later against Ireland. That set up a blockbuster match against England which they needed to win. Tries to Leafi Talataina, Max Craig and an effort in the 77th minute from McLaughlin-Phillips set up a grandstand finish but the English held on for a 22-all draw – their second of the competition after finishing level with Ireland 34-all on the opening day.
Australia finished fifth in the tournament after beating New Zealand 44-35 and then Wales 57-33 in Athlone; however, unlike last year, the Junior Wallabies are coming off a hotly-contested U20 Rugby Championship which was held on the Sunshine Coast.
“I think we’ve probably had a bit more preparation this year with The Rugby Championship and probably spent more time together as a group off the field so we’re excited to see how we can do over there.”
McLaughlin-Phillips made his debut for the Queensland Reds in the first round of the Super Rugby Pacific season before going on to make another seven appearances either off the bench or in a starting role. With Wallabies squad member Tom Lynagh and the reliable Lawson Creighton in Les Kiss’ squad, it’s quite impressive to note that McLaughlin-Phillips started three matches. For a youngster still eligible for U20s duty, that’s by no means an easy feat.
Whenever McLaughlin-Phillips was thrown into the deep end, whether they be in a starting role or off the pine, the playmaker certainly held his own. No Queensland fan will soon forget that match-winning penalty at the breakdown in the tense win over the Chiefs at home.
“It’s been an awesome experience being able to debut and play a few games this year,” McLaughlin-Phillips reflected. “It’s given me the chance to grow my game and learn different things and how to control a team a bit better.”
Australia open their campaign against Georgia on Sunday morning [AEST]. The Junior Wallabies will also take on Italy and familiar foe Ireland as they look to move on from Pool B and into the knockout rounds.
In the other pools, fans should keep an eye out for a blockbuster between reigning champions France and U20 Rugby Championship winners New Zealand in the early hours of July 5. Wales and Spain are also in that pool. Finally, in Pool C, hosts South Africa have been drawn in arguably the toughest pool against England, Argentina and Fiji.
Tahs Do Something Right
The NSW Waratahs are set to unveil Wallabies slayer Simon Raiwalui as their new Super Rugby Pacific director of performance. It’s a welcome and surprising move to look as far afield as north of the harbour. In a full-circle moment for Raiwalui, who moved to Tempe in Sydney with his mother at a young age before starting out his remarkable rugby career with Manly in the Shute Shield, the former Fijian international will become the Waratahs’ head of performance,
He’s the latest World Rugby employee to find a home in Australia since December following Peter Horne as Director of High Performance rugby and Wallabies coach, Joe Schmidt.
URC Final Bulls v Glasgow
In what was a cracking final Glasgow beat the Bulls at Loftus.
A heroic second half performance from Glasgow Warriors snatched this historic victory over a Bulls side who ran out of ideas and energy against an opposition who simply would not give an inch, no matter what, battling from the first to the last minute as though their lives depended on it.
This is arguably the greatest achievement by a Scottish team since the 1999 Five Nations victory given the journey Glasgow have been on over the last three weekends, finishing fourth in the league then beating the Stormers at home and table-toppers Munster away, before usurping almost all expectations outside the camp to fight back from 13-0 down to claim the URC title. They did it having travelled 8,500 miles during the week, playing at altitude, inside a hostile stadium and against a team packed with power and self-belief. Attitude was key to this, but so was game-plan, accuracy and fitness. To only allow Bulls three points in the second half and win the try count by three to one is the sort of stuff movies are made about.,
Bulls helped themselves to three early points with Johan Goosen firing home from long-range after Jack Dempsey was penalised for illegally ripping the ball away from the home flyhalf when his knee was already on the ground. There was an ominous moment on 11 minutes when the home pack powered to a penalty at the first scrum of the match, creating the field position for a Bulls attack which saw Sergeal Patterson and Kurt-Lee Arendse threaten on the left.
Kyle Steyn managed to get back to gather a grubber through but had to carry the ball into touch and then, with Bulls already playing an advantage after Warriors interfered with the line-out catcher in the air, Jamie Bhatti was whistled for not rolling away. Goosen stepped forward to double his and his team’s account from right in front of the posts.
The next scrum was a Warriors put-in and this time the visiting forwards stood firm to provide the platform for their team’s first foray into the home 22, but they struggled to find any gaps to exploit, and a loose pop out the back from Huw Jones was hacked downfield by Embrose Papier, meaning a loss of 50-yards before a Bulls knock-on allowed Warriors some respite just over 10 yards from their own line.
But they couldn’t find a way back out of their own half, and with the penalties stacking up against the visitors, referee Andre Piardi had a word with skipper Steyn. It took some super-human defending from Zander Fagerson and Rory Darge (who managed to get his arm between the ball and the ground) to prevent Wilco Louw from claiming the game’s opening try.
Eventually the pressure told, on 24 minutes, when Marco van Staden broke from a line-out, wasn’t held by Darge in the tackle, then powered over the line. There was a classless moment from home centre Harold Vorster, who went out of his way to patronisingly pat Sebastian Cancelliere on the back of the head as he lay on the ground having failed to halt the van Staden’s charge, leading to a mini-scuffle.
A weaving run from deep from Josh McKay provided a reminder of the threat Warriors can pose if given half a chance, a smart diagonal grubber by Sione Tuipulotu gave his team field position on Bulls’ 22, and visiting aggression in the contact area meant Bulls had to work hard to get back on the front foot.
Perhaps slightly frustrated that their dominant start to the match was beginning to falter, Papier tried to force a pass and Cancelliere intercepted before setting off on a 50m break downfield. When he was eventually closed down, the Argentinean winger managed to offload out of contact to Dempsey, and play was transferred from right to left to set up a Steyn charge over two men, which was eventually stopped five yards short of the line.
Ultimately, however, it came to nothing, with Johan Grobbelaar winning a penalty over Jamie Bhattion on the deck, and an excruciating break from Devon Williams followed by another excruciating reminder of home scrum power suggesting Bulls would finish the half in full control.
But Matt Fagerson, the catalyst of last weekend’s second half rally in Munster and man-of-the-match here, had other ideas. He carried hard thrice, with Johnny Matthews and Darge also weighing in with some important yardage, before Scott Cummings bustled over from close range to bring it back to a six point game on the stroke of half-time.
Warriors started the second half in lively fashion and it took another huge effort over the tackled man from Grobbelaar to win a penalty on his own line. Dempsey kept the pressure on with a powerful surge and a Steyn grubber had Peterson, Elrigh Louw, Papier and Williams scrambling to clear from their own in-goal area.
But it was Bulls who struck next with another Goosen penalty, awarded against Fagerson for not rolling away, but that was as good as it got for the hosts.
A mix-up at the restart allowed Warriors to kick to the corner, and that trusty lineout drive needed some help from the backs to rumble over for Glasgow’s 23rd maul try of the season – no other team has scored more than seven – with Japan-bound George Turner claiming the points.
It almost got even better for Warriors when McKay slipped out a tackle and surged out of his own 22 straight from the Bulls kick-off, but his hack ahead was slightly overcooked and bounced harmlessly over the dead ball line.
Jamie Dobie was one of a glut of replacements for the visitors just before the hour mark and made an immediate impact with a break up the right wing, and Warriors snatched the lead a few moments later, with a breathless passage of play sweeping left then right then left again, with Steyn twice making significant ground and on the second occasion he timed his pass back inside perfectly to send Huw Jones over.
That made it 16-21 to with just under 20 minutes to play and Dempsey thought he had delivered the killer blow when he gathered a loose ball on his own 10m line and charged the distance, but the TMO was called in to correctly identify an early tackle by Nathan McBeth on Arendse which had created the opportunity.
Bulls dug deep and spent a punishing few minutes bombarding the Warriors inside their 22, but the visitors stood strong, and when Horne was taken out in the air as he collected his own charged-down box-kick it gave the scrum-half a long-range opportunity to push his team’s lead out to eight points – but his effort fell agonisingly short.
Goosen then committed a moment of devastating self-harm when he rushed a turnover penalty and ended up kicking the ball dead, meaning play was brought all the way back for a Warriors scrum just outside the Bulls’ 22.
With just under three minutes to go, Jones did brilliantly to win a ruck penalty as Bulls slowly cranked up the pressure, but the TMO came in to point out a high tackle from Tom Jordan on Francois Klopper which led to a yellow-card for the Warriors stand-off, and significantly gave Bulls possession back just inside their own half.
Williams kicked towards the corner, and Bulls threw everything at the Warriors during nine tense phases, before Turner gave away a penalty for playing the ball on the deck in front of his own posts, and the hosts – trailing by five points – had to go to the corner.
There was then a collapsed maul penalty leading to another close-range line-out, and this time the maul rumbled towards the Warriors line, but somehow the ball was held up and amid near deafening silence around the sell-out 51,000 Loftus Versfeld, the victors summoned the energy for some euphoric celebration.
Thanks To the Offsideline
