Australian sides struggle to make the grade
Roar Pro
By James Mortimer, 3 Apr 2009 James Mortimer is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- Rugby Union, Super Rugby
For a nation hoping to enter a fifth team in the Super 14, Australia will struggle considering that only one of their teams is in the top nine.
While the Waratahs are surprising many with their place in the top four, and the Reds are clearly still implementing an attack at all costs attitude, the Force, and Brumbies of late have disappointed.
Robbie Deans will be keen to get his stars back in national camp, as there still appears to be much potential, but quite simply the Australian teams are the worst performed of any nation.
Brumbies: 13 tries scored (12th), 20 tries conceded (11th)
Key statistics: First in lineout retention, second in tackle percentage, third in offloads, eleventh in ruck retention, tenth in turnovers.
Brumbies: (penalties/free kicks): 24: 49
Brumbies (13): Cheetahs (away), Stormers (home), Bulls (home), Hurricanes (away), Queensland Reds (away), Blues (home), Chiefs (away)
A good team that unfortunately has dropped off as the season has progressed. Struggle in the ruck area which is surprising considering their solid loose forwards.
As always a brilliant structure based team, being the best lineout and an accurate defensive team.
Far weaker without Stirling Mortlock in the team, and have struggled without a consistent playmaker.
Reds: 17 tries scored (6th), 16 tries conceded (equal 6th)
Key statistics: fourth in ball carries, second in offloads, thriteenth in turnovers conceded, ninth in total rucks won, third in passes, fourth in running metres
Reds (penalties/free kicks): 31: 38
Queensland Reds (12): Western Force (away), Highlanders (away), Lions (home), Blues (away), Brumbies (home), Crusaders (away), Hurricanes (home)
For Queensland, the statistics tells the entire story. A positive, pill in hand attacking team that sits at the top of the statistics in regards to ball playing.
But equally, they turnover often in general play, as befitting a fast playing running orientated team that does not like to build slowly through the phases.
A very tough back end to their season.
Waratahs: 16 tries scored (equal 7th), 13 tries conceded (2nd)
Key statistics: 2nd in kicks from hand, 1st in scrum retention, 2nd in lineout steals, 5th in offloads, 12th in running metres
Waratahs (penalties/free kicks): 29: 52
NSW Waratahs (23): Stormers (home), Bulls (home), Western Force (home), Cheetahs (away), Sharks (away), Lions (away).
The best performed Australian team, has not changed too much in the way they play despite early promises by Coach Chris Hickey.
They love to kick, and don’t like to run as often as a team with such a solid and fast backline should. Despite the early season misgivings about their pack being weaker with player losses; their set piece remains among the most impressive in the Super 14, with the best performed scrum in the competition.
Western Force: 12 tries scored (13th worst), 16 tries conceded (equal 7th)
Key statistics: equal 1st in turnovers, 2nd in tackle completion, 4th in passes made, 9th in rucks won, 12th in rucks lost
Western Force (penalties/free kicks): 37: 48
Western Force (12): Queensland Reds (home), Hurricanes (home), NSW Waratahs (away), Lions (home), Bulls (away), Stormers (away), Highlanders (home)
Solid and a ball playing team, as indicative of a side being controlled by the current world’s best first five Matt Giteau. But he is not being supported by his outside men, as they toil to cross the chalk.
Despite a capable pack, the Force is struggling within the ruck and tackle areas, considering how well drilled they are in defence and not losing their ball.
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Roger said | April 3rd 2009 @ 10:07am | Report comment
James, selective table watching there…if you look at bye situation and the teams that they have played, there are many much more accurate explanations about why Brumbies and Force are where they are. Sure, they have some good games and bad games, but they are always in the contest.
If all favourites win this weekend, Crusaders, Canes and Stomers all lose, Highlanders have a bye, so Brumbies and Force will move right up table.
I would be more concerned if I were SA, the Lions and Cheetahs are abyssmal and rarely in games. Hope Saffas creat relegation system for their teams if Spears come into picture.
sheek said | April 3rd 2009 @ 10:10am | Report comment
Regrettably James,
I have to agree with you. While having 5 Super teams appears very feasible on paper, in reality it’s as far as Mars from happening in the near future. But I should qualify that by saying, it’s a difficult ask under the current structure.
If Australian rugby had just 5 provinces playing amongst themselves, it wouldn’t be such a problem. Because the ARU would ensure the 5 teams be more or less similar in strength to each other. And if collective they were weaker than their Kiwi & Saffie counterparts, no-one would be any wiser if we weren’t playing them on a regular basis.
But there seem to be greater problems about than that of Australian rugby, as hard as that is to believe. At present I’m struggling for interest on the provincial concept, because I’m not even sure what kind of game we’re going to be playing two years hence.
Right now the future of rugby looks very murky. SANZAR is struggling to come up with a better product to present to the pay-TV empires, who have little competition themselves in buying the product. The global economic downturn, despite the optimism of some, may be with us right through to the end of 2010 at least.
The southern hemisphere nations are struggling to match the money on offer from northern hemisphere conglomerations. Yet if you listen to some northerners, the game is far from healthy in Britain, Ireland & Europe. Then there is the continuing arguments over the ELVs.
Rather than converging ideas on the best way to play rugby, it seems attitudes remain poles apart. Philosophically, many people are more confused than ever as to what actually constitutes real rugby union.
The game has been professional now for 13 years. Yet there are many who remain caught up in an amateurish mind frame. Sometimes, you can’t help but feel there are people out there actually spiteful of seeing rugby enjoy any fulfilling & lasting success.
Who would have believed that the game might eventually be destroyed from within? I say “might”. It’s not over yet, & maybe this is just a long night’s journey into day (hmmm, that sounds like a good title for something!).
True Tah said | April 3rd 2009 @ 10:25am | Report comment
Roger
the Lions were able to beat the Brumbies and pushed the Hurricanes all the way last weekend.
The Cheetahs are pretty hopeless, no arguments there, they must have a real problem hanging onto players, Ronnie Cook and Zane Kirchner are good young players from Griquas (in Cheetah zone) yet they play in France and Bulls respectively.
The Stormers are a hot and cold side, very mercurial, you could say they are the Hurricanes of South African rugby.
Brett McKay said | April 3rd 2009 @ 10:34am | Report comment
Roger, I’m with you on the table observations, and I think once again the teams finishing in positions 5 through 11 or 12 are going to be pretty close in terms of wins/losses. While the Sharks look to be out in front comfortably, and the Cheetahs similarly languish, on any given day, the remaining 12 teams are all pretty competitive. And yes, I say this including the Bulls and Lions in this group. I’m not sure about other Roarers, but I found tipping this week’s round to be bloody difficult!!
Of course we’d love the four Aussie teams inside the top half, but I think there’s still time enough for the Force, Brumbies and Reds to rise up the charts. The Force-Reds derby should be great tonight, and I’d expect the Shawn Mackay factor to significantly lift the Brumbies (who, realistically, were nowhere near 20pts worse than the Sharks last week). Wins in this mid-table area can have a much bigger effect than wins at the top.
Of course, this just makes the decison to stick with the four-team finals all the more frustrating!!
Roger said | April 3rd 2009 @ 10:36am | Report comment
The fact is, is if the favourites win this weekend, Force and Brumbies will be within 1 win of leapfrogging 5 teams above them into 5th and 6th place.
True Tah said | April 3rd 2009 @ 10:36am | Report comment
Sheek
you seem pretty down on rugby’s prospects – the reality is as a playing sport, the game is going great outside Australia that is.
The fact is despite the rules, teams will play to their advantages wherever they can. In southern France, South Africa and Australia the grounds and climate suit hard running backs, yet these teams are beginning to lose track with their traditional playing pattern. I guess coaches need to be drummed into the fact that their sides need to be coached to play attractive rugby – by that I mean rugby which is attractive to that particular market.
Australia’s problem is we have two direct competitors in AFL and rugby league, by this I mean the sort of players we target. None of the other rugby nations have to deal with this, arguably the US/Canada arguably may be in the same boat, as a lot of the guys who could be potentially great rugby players have dreams of being in NFL, basketball, ice hockey or wrestling. The ironic thing is, rugby has grown exponentially in the past few years in US high schools particularly amongst African-Americans, prior to this it was only really played in colleges.
This leads to the other question in how can the US achieve this, with a fraction of the resources of the ARU? Is it that the focus is simply on getting guys to play the game?? To my mind, this is the whole problem with the ARU approach, the focus is on the Wallabies and Super rugby sides, there’s no real advertising to get people interested in playing the game and it seems to be sorely neglected. The thing with rugby is once you get people to play the game, there is a pretty good chance they will take to the game…its a bit unique amongst sports, but thats the main falling of the ARU these days.
Hammer said | April 3rd 2009 @ 11:04am | Report comment
Despite the draw and the byes the facts are plain … over the last 2 rounds Aussie teams have notched up only 1 win …. take out the Aus v Aus games and there’s been only two Aussie wins over the past four weekends .. those are telling stats …
Australia will once again end up with 3 of their 4 teams in the bottom half of the table … which ever way you look at it there is no case for a 5th super franchise … it’ll dilute the competition even more …
Brett McKay said | April 3rd 2009 @ 11:20am | Report comment
“once again” Hammer?? There’s definitely been 2 in the bottom half, but has there ever been 3? I ask not to start an arguement, but to see if the expansion to Perth really has dragged the other teams down..
ohtani's jacket said | April 3rd 2009 @ 11:24am | Report comment
I can’t understand the push for a fifth Australian franchise. To me it seems like an extra financial burden. The rugby administrators in Australia need to wake up to the fact that the game isn’t that attractive to the Australian public. Either you work on the game at the grassroots level or you maximise the potential of the Wallabies and existing Super 14 teams so that they actually win something.
oikee said | April 3rd 2009 @ 11:25am | Report comment
You cant really blame sheek for being down on Rugby, now that league has started “and very well this year” all eyes are on league. You really have to be a die-hard Union supporter to even be slightly interested in whats happening with union, lets face facts now, you have 3 countries involved and yet nobody gets really excited. They have 6 nations involved over seas just to draw a crowd. ? Has anyone ever thought that you are killing the game with so much inter-action between countries.
Theres no longer a dominate country, so all games are becoming more or less the same. The game cant thrive to get better because all countries now play the same. League has a few tricks up their sleeve because oz is the marker for teams to beat, others rise to the occasion to knock them off there pedestal, if they lose we go home happy, if they win we go home happy. You no longer have that higher acheivement factor, its totally gone now.
Dont even get me started about the all-blacks, anyone ever heard of the harlem globe-trotters, well meet the all-blacks.