A little eyebrow-raiser this morning when reading the Wallaby team sheet for the Boks match was the inside centre position. I had (for better or worse) solidly expected to see the familiar name of Matt Giteau there, but instead the man chosen to help dig the Wallabies out the merde they created last weekend is none other than two-Test wonder and G&GR podcast guest, Pat McCabe.
How should we feel about this ‘deposit of belief’ being paid into a new kid on the international block, just weeks ahead of the big show? My reading of general blog and forum comment was that opinion was a little mixed — many seeming to question whether McCabe is up to international standard.
However, when I watched the replay, my impression was that — considering the man-raping defence from the Samoans, poor go-forward in general from the team and precious little direct threat of the line from those inside him — he made some very solid yards and some great hits. Was I dreaming?
‘Flanker’, a long-time lurker and now valued contributor to the site, put together some video and stats to answer just this question. From his analysis, we can see that McCabe made:
- 14 runs for 105 metres (averaging 7.5m per run; tied at most runs with Digby Ioane)
- 12 runs over advantage line; 2 failed advantage line
- 2 tackle busts
- 5 passes
- 4 tackles (1 dominant)
- 14 breakdown involvements (excluding involvements after own runs; the most in the entire team)
- 1 Turnover – knocked-on in tackle
- 1 Ineffective tackle (Kane Thomson offload)
Check out McCabe’s involvements in Flanker’s video compilation:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq2nY-EExl4[/youtube]
For me, that’s an impressive starting debut in a match that otherwise went to shit. For a while now some of us have been lamenting the lack of a hard-running ball carrier at 12 for the Wallabies, to play off Cooper and turn shit ball good.
Have we found our man?
Listen to our interview with Pat on our podcast from early in June:
Download this episode (right-click and save)
