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Michael C Jordan

Pity he wont be playing for the boks..

Compare Thurston at the very end against NZ with Giteau at the very end against Scotland last weekend. Both were attempting a conversion from exactly the same spot. Ian Millward on the radio commentary I was listening to screamed “I’ll tell you something for free – Thurston’s going to kick this over the black dot”. He did, and a loss was averted. Giteau never looked like making his kick, and a terrible loss was not averted. Sometimes isolated events do say an awful lot. (And yeah, yeah, I’m aware that for Thurston this was kicking on his favoured side, for Giteau not.)

The other thing is that in the same match NZ tried the policy suggested above: the left-footed Bryson Goodwin took kicks from the right, while the right-footed Issac Luke took conversions from the left. Luke missed a relatively easy conversion that ended up being crucial.

One would have to ask goalkickers this, but my gut feeling is that they like either to do it all or not do it at all. I’d suggest it’s a mental thing, including their mental preparation for a match.

South African rugby this season was one exception, but their demarcation was distance rather than side of the field: Morne Steyn took anything within 50 m of the posts, but Francois Steyn took penalties beyond halfway. It worked, especially against NZ in Hamilton, after which match the Bok captain called FS “a rocket launcher”.

Smith’s kicking performance in big games (especially grand finals) is poor.

If anyone has ever trained indoors (aussie rules), you’ll note that for some reason the natural curve on your kicking is accentuated (even if you think you are kicking directly).

This phenomenon manifests itself under the roof at the Dome, where players have learned to use the natural curve of their drop punts (I’m not talking about snaps and boomerangs, just straight ahead punts).

The kicker will know intuitively whether a particular angle is close to impossible for his natural curve.

In a situation where you can choose the kicker, as in League, it’s common sense that you go with the natural advantages of your kickers to optimise conversion.

Thurston should be professional and knowledgeable enough to confirm this when the time comes, and to call over the left-footer if the situation warrants it (what they call in the modern game “player empowerment”).

http://stats.rleague.com/rl/scorers/overall_sc1.html

There must be more extensive stats somewhere, but I don’t know where. I seem to remember kicks missed in the 1977 grand final that we’d consider pretty straightforward nowadays, without a hue and cry being made.