2012 preview: Super Rugby, average rugby, and all in between
Roar Guru By Elisha Pearce, 3 Feb 2012 Elisha Pearce is a Roar Guru
Australia's James O'Connor is tackled by Wales' Toby Faletau. AP Photo/Rob Griffith
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Welcome to 2012! In case you’ve been living under a rock and missed all the New Year’s signs, the Australian Test team is dominating, just like recent years.
Wait, we haven’t been good in a while you say? Well, like years gone by, then.
Then there is always the constant, relentless and brutal Australian sunshine and heat to remind you of January. Oh, not everyone? Floods and record low temperatures? Hmm. Well, my calendar is definitely still calling it 2012 and summer is past halfway even if it looks little different than recent years.
First of all, we would like to breathe a big sigh of relief.
The Rugby World Cup is now well and truly behind us. We don’t have to go through this year with its shadow hanging over us like a teacher making sure we don’t talk in class.
Still, a big congratulation is in order for the team that lived under the biggest shadow of them all – the All Blacks.
Well done on your world cup victory. (Insert obligatory home ground/about time/24 years between drinks jokes here.)
You didn’t always play pretty rugby but you were the best team in the tournament and I won’t say anything mean about stumbling across the line at the death like a drunk trying to find their way back to the bar.
It’s a big year, 2012. We have the Six Nations starting in about five minutes. The Super Rugby season is closing in rapidly. There has been big name player movement in Australia and New Zealand in particular, and big name players have departed South Africa as well.
Also, don’t forget this is the first year we’ll get to watch our old Tri-Nations teams play rugby jet-lagged in South America. That’s right – Argentina is joining us for the Rugby Championship, or Championship Rugby or Championship of Rugby Championships.
Whatever redundant name it has it’s going to be very interesting. Heck, look at the ARU website, they don’t even know where the Argentina home games will be played yet.
How exciting! Teams might even show up at the wrong city – Greg Growden would literally explode into a cloud of negativity trying to cover that.
So many questions: What will it all look like? Will you be able to understand it all? Who is going to read all the new Super Rugby team sheets before kick off?
We are.
We’ll be extensively previewing the season in the coming weeks. We will then hold your hand through the trials and failings of your team’s season, or dish out first rate tall poppy attacks as needed to leep some of you in check.
If we can be bothered staying up late we’ll tell you all about how exciting it was to watch England rebuild their rebuild.
If France can entertain us, we’ll tell you all about it, mostly off-field entertainment probably, but you never know.
Ireland might catch our eye if only because they’ve been using the same teamsheet since 2001 and that means we know their names.
Wales are a genuine chance to have me riveted to the screen at an ungodly hour; they won our hearts during the World Cup and are destined for great things.
Scotland and Italy will be there to make up the numbers. But if they do any better, come find us on The Roar.
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February 3rd 2012 @ 6:33am
The Grafter said | February 3rd 2012 @ 6:33am | Report comment
Scotland might surprise in a couple of their games.
Wales to beat France and win the 6 Nations.
February 3rd 2012 @ 7:22am
Mals said | February 3rd 2012 @ 7:22am | Report comment
Great idea, please send Greg Growden to the wrong City in Argentina! No doubt he would still be able to send his gossip column about Fort Fumble from their anyway but at least we wouldn’t have to read his below average game reporting.
Looking forward most to the Wales V Ireland fixture this weekend.
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February 3rd 2012 @ 9:35am
Will Sinclair said | February 3rd 2012 @ 9:35am | Report comment
“Greg Growden would literally explode into a cloud of negativity trying to cover that.”
It’s not rugby season until Growden has written his first article quoting un-named sources about politial turmoil at Fort Fumble. Or in Club Land.
Honestly, I’m almost looking forward to reading the same thing over and over again all season long. It’s comforting.
February 3rd 2012 @ 2:57pm
Skip said | February 3rd 2012 @ 2:57pm | Report comment
At least he covers Sydney Club Rugby.
Rugby Heaven has nothing on Brisbane Club despite it being Australias 2nd biggest talent pool.
February 3rd 2012 @ 9:37am
Snobby Deans said | February 3rd 2012 @ 9:37am | Report comment
Quote “and I won’t say anything mean about stumbling across the line at the death like a drunk trying to find their way back to the bar”
But you did. By your tone, I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be taken the wrong way. Still, as an AB fan, I’d rather be the stumbling drunk and not those who were drunk under the table (Wallabies) . . .
I’m picking England to win the 6N, with France a close second. Wales and Ireland to revert to their pre-RWC ordinaryness (is there such a word). Hoping Scotland can pick up a win or two, especially against England (but not holding my breath)
February 3rd 2012 @ 10:09am
rl said | February 3rd 2012 @ 10:09am | Report comment
Snobby, even as a Wallabies fan I was reading that line thinking “4 more years”! Well played.
England? Well, they’ve probably got the depth of talent to find good players at key positions, but if they can conjure up a 6N championship this year after their off and on field dramas, then kudos to them. Hopefully a Welsh victory, as I think they play a better brand of footy (although we all know running rugby can get monstered under the spotlight of big-game northern hemisphere rugby).
February 3rd 2012 @ 10:47am
Elisha Pearce said | February 3rd 2012 @ 10:47am | Report comment
Haha. I would never mean it to be offensive! Of course I’d rather be the drunk that gets to the bar.
I don’t even think the wallabies were under the table, more like drinking jack from the bottle at home thinking they were cool!
I hope wales wins too. Could be a close 6 nations. Can definitely lose a game and still get the win overall.
February 3rd 2012 @ 11:31am
Ben Farrell said | February 3rd 2012 @ 11:31am | Report comment
Wales have to many injury clouds, and will not beat Ireland or England away, it will be between France and England imo.
February 3rd 2012 @ 10:28am
Misha said | February 3rd 2012 @ 10:28am | Report comment
Watched the last 10 minutes of the final again last night – outstanding way the ABs shut the game down and didn’t let the French touch the ball…
February 3rd 2012 @ 11:08am
HardcorePrawn said | February 3rd 2012 @ 11:08am | Report comment
I can’t see the Welsh emulating their exploits at the World Cup in this year’s 6N, I don’t have a particular reason for writing that, just gut instinct. I reckon the French and English are probably the 2 favourites for the title, unless either of their new hierarchies implode under the pressure and their team selections don’t gel.
It will be interesting to see how the English play this year, hopefully the new broom will bring a change to their tactics and a move away from the dull negative play that they’ve become known for. The French, similarly, might find their mojo and will hopefully play like they did in the latter stages of the World Cup, if they do I can’t see any of the other nations keeping up with them.
The Irish look too familiar to pose too much of a threat, and the Italians and Scots may spring a few surprises (this weekend’s match at Murrayfield being a likely one), but I can’t see either of them not contesting for the wooden spoon by the end of the tournament.
February 3rd 2012 @ 11:38am
Busta Biltong said | February 3rd 2012 @ 11:38am | Report comment
I have only one S15 prediction, Cipriani gone from Rebels by round 5
February 3rd 2012 @ 12:30pm
Mike G said | February 3rd 2012 @ 12:30pm | Report comment
Hahaha I really worry about the terrible 3 getting up to much mischief on Chapel St, St Kilda etc etc…I give it till rd 3 before their first drunken shenanigans make the papers
February 4th 2012 @ 12:08pm
peterlala said | February 4th 2012 @ 12:08pm | Report comment
Too funny…I hope you are wrong. But it has the ring of truth to it.
February 3rd 2012 @ 1:45pm
Jaceman said | February 3rd 2012 @ 1:45pm | Report comment
An example of why it is so hard for other football codes apart from NRL in NSW. In todays SMH (Herald) in an article on Warners switch hit six,
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/tweak-rules-and-let-the-bowlers-switch-it-up-too-urges-kasprowicz-20120202-1qvld.html
they nominated 7 other game changing or rule changing exploits including Lindrum (billiards), Fosbury (flop in high jump), Pankratov (underwater swim start in butterfly), Jardine (bodyline bowling) etc. Bizarrely there were two NRL “gamechangers” highlighted in a list which has some significant sport highlights. The first was John Gray (a former English RU player) now English RL round the corner (RTC) placekicker who toured here in 1974. RL fans were then amazed that he kicked around the corner rather than straight on. If they had been paying attention they would have noticed that European RU touring teams had had RTC placekickers for at least 5 years before that. And of course overseas soccer players had been kicking RTC for decades. The final disgrace is that they end the piece by stating “Ron Giteau followed suit and it is now used all around the world in all football codes.” This would be news to the soccer people but also the AFL people. The second slightly less bizarre “gamechanger” was John Peards discovery of the tactical high kick “bomb”. Of course RU had been using the up and under or garryowen for 100 years. This narrow minded NRL history revisionism makes the NRL media look insular and amateur which is perhaps what it is..Perhaps in new newspaper business model the SMH wants the RU to cough up money for a Super 15 season launch liftout and/or some of that AFL money that is being spent in western Sydney.
February 3rd 2012 @ 2:33pm
King of the Gorgonites said | February 3rd 2012 @ 2:33pm | Report comment
good effort callng them out on it.
the fact is ignore MSM because i dont want the NRL hype drven down my throat.
i now rely on podcasts and the internet to get my rugby news.
February 3rd 2012 @ 5:02pm
Jaceman said | February 3rd 2012 @ 5:02pm | Report comment
I would like Spiros’ view (but especially Fagan’s) but unfortunately Spiros is a SMH contributor so may be unable to speak frankly.
February 3rd 2012 @ 5:16pm
JVGO said | February 3rd 2012 @ 5:16pm | Report comment
‘Round the corner kicking was an innovation in the 1940s of Willie Horne, the Barrow, Lancashire, England and Great Britain captain and rugby league player. His distinctive round the corner style of kicking enabled him to kick over 100 goals in the 1945–46 season and then he scored more than 700 goals for his club Barrow before his retirement in 1969. He is regarded as the original inventor of this system of kicking and the soft-toed boots he used at the time reflected his alternative to the toe-end style of kicking which was then prevalent in both league and union throughout the world before he revolutionised place kicking for all time.
The first global exponent of the ’round the corner’ style was Barry John. It led to a significant increase in the number of ’round the corner’ style players in the 1970s- Andy Irvine, Phil Bennett, Gerald Bosch. In New Zealand, they held onto the ‘straight up & down’, or ‘toehack’ as it was called down under, with such players as BG Williams, Bevan Wilson, Steve Watt…..until Alan Hewson came on the scene, the glove wearing kicker who kicked the last minute penalty at Eden Park in 1981, in an South Africa – New Zealand game. (CLA)’
Lucky your comments weren’t printed in the Herald Jaceman. It may well have been equally embarassing for you.
February 3rd 2012 @ 7:14pm
Jaceman said | February 3rd 2012 @ 7:14pm | Report comment
Speaking of embarrassing – Thanks for unintentionally validating my point. Gray didnt invent RTC kicking nor did it spread round the world after Grays visit..Apparently Gray was in cold storage in the Antarctic and did not display RTC kicking till he came to Australia and then amazingly Aussies copied it and it spread round the world and Europeans were stunned….Note I said it was in Europe for at least 5 years before that and I’m sure that other converted soccer players tried it in league and Union for the previous 100 years (perhaps not at the top level). Do you have another NRL spurious answer to the John peard bomb issue – perhaps Henry Smith of Widnes was bombing RL games in 1895 but certainly John Peard wasn’t the first.
February 4th 2012 @ 1:18am
JVGO said | February 4th 2012 @ 1:18am | Report comment
I didn’t even argue the point Jaceman, I just quoted WIkipedia on the round the corner kick and pointed out that your argument was equally innacurate as the SMH.
But I don’t know what exactly is the iissue with John Peard? I have never seen a bomb put into the ingoal in RU ever. Isn’t a Gary Owen a midfileld kick which the kicker chases through? Oh actually I do remember a crossfield bomb for Tuquiri during the WC in France. But Tuquiri was RL player right. Surely when they are close enough to bomb in RU they hold out for the try or more likely the penalty.
So since neither of the things you complain about are actually RU innovations jaceman what RU innovations would you think should be in the list? Tha Catchpole dive pass, the Campese goosestep, the ella run around?
The idea that this article was written by a RL journo is pretty unsupportable anyway. The whole focus was on Dave Warners switch hit. It was really a cricket focused article.
February 4th 2012 @ 7:13pm
Jaceman said | February 4th 2012 @ 7:13pm | Report comment
Which part of the following is incorrect
“If they had been paying attention they would have noticed that European RU touring teams had had RTC placekickers for at least 5 years before that. And of course overseas soccer players had been kicking RTC for decades. The final disgrace is that they end the piece by stating “Ron Giteau followed suit and it is now used all around the world in all football codes.”
John Gray didnt invent RTC.
Its inconceivable England etc where soccer reigns didnt produce RTC kickers in any code well before this.
I remember a Larkham cross field bomb to Tuquiri in the 2003 WC – so what. If Tuquiri was kicking tactically for the Wallabies we were in a lot of trouble..
I dont abhor RL. I will watch tonight but also call out propaganda whichever code it is in..
BTW garryowens were used all over the field and I have stopped using Wikipedia as a factual source a long time ago
I didnt contend RU invented anything but it was a cricket article (as SH points out below) and they had to sneak some spurious local RL connection which were incorrect and tried to compare the ground breaking Fosbury flop to John gray???
February 3rd 2012 @ 7:02pm
pierre agen said | February 3rd 2012 @ 7:02pm | Report comment
Not too sure about your analysis. England haven’t a hope. Wales will lose in Ireland. Ireland will lose in France and France will lose in Cardiff. Yet, it will be down to those 3 teams. Ireland might just shade it given the dominance of their provincial teams in Europe.
February 4th 2012 @ 11:22am
sledgeandhammer said | February 4th 2012 @ 11:22am | Report comment
The thrust of Jaceman’s comments are correct. Journalists don’t accidentally include rugby league references in cricket articles, the editor instructs them to. I emailed Richard Hinds a few months back asking him why he was suddenly writing so many league articles, when previously he was strictly an AFL man, and this in part was his reply:
“I am writing about a wider – and more Sydney-centric – variety of sports at the behest of my editors. Previously, I had done a lot more AFL and Swans stories.
Last year I was last year made ”chief sports columnist” and encouraged to write profiles/colour on NRL, particularly.”
February 4th 2012 @ 1:06pm
JVGO said | February 4th 2012 @ 1:06pm | Report comment
So you don’t believe that JM’s abhorrence of everything RL is clouding his judgement as to these matters since his contention that both these innovations were RU inventions is patently wrong. And meanwhile an AFL journalist like Richard Hinds has been instructed to write negative articles about RL? I don’t see how that is evidence of a pro RL conspiracy. I think the editor probably made a decision that Sydney readers are not interested in AFL stories at all and are more likely to be lured to negative stories about RL.RH is a tosser and a long term candidate for worst journalist in the world anyway. And the fact that a Sydney newspaper may be Sydney centirc? How outrageous.
February 4th 2012 @ 7:24pm
Jaceman said | February 4th 2012 @ 7:24pm | Report comment
SAH,
Thanks I was wondering myself on Hinds “conversion” He is a smart cookie and knows the appointment has some strings. I always laugh when media ownership and control come up (a la Rinehart). They say newspapers have editorial independence but they can appoint editors with the right thought processes who will comply with Boards directions. Also Journos arent fools and know which way the wind is blowing. Eg the SMH has lots of Dan Murphy (Woolies)liquor advertising but little Wesfarmers Coles liquor ads. Coles announces drop in fresh food prices and theres a front page photo and article about how its scam (maybe). However 2 days later Vintage cellars (Wesfarmers) has a full page liquor ad…..Welcome to the new newspaper business model..BTW I thought Fairfax was right into NRL and News Ltd esp after the Storm salary cap fiasco saying that News got RL too cheap. Then News talked to Fairfax about sharing printing costs which would save fairfax lots and anti News Ltd articles on thes NRL matters at least ended…
February 5th 2012 @ 1:01pm
JVGO said | February 5th 2012 @ 1:01pm | Report comment
Richard Hinds a smart cookie? Not everyone agrees. But maybe it’s a matter of taste.
http://www.australiasworstjournalist.com.au/component/content/frontpage/frontpage?start=10
February 6th 2012 @ 12:00pm
Jaceman said | February 6th 2012 @ 12:00pm | Report comment
So one person nominated Hinds so I assume he doesnt like him?? Wow I’m sure Masters would get more than one
I nominate NRL writer Massoud from the Tele who claimed 2 years ago that Craig Wing might be able to play Rugby at the Comm Games because he had a Filipino mother. I hope someone told him that the Phillipines was never in the British Commonwealth or Empire but a US protectoate and Spanish colony from memory..BTW I’m not sure they play much Rugby in the Phillipines.
But thanks for the link
February 7th 2012 @ 12:23pm
Jaceman said | February 7th 2012 @ 12:23pm | Report comment
Sand H
I would love to know the timing of his appointment. He was critical of NRL before and now is very much less critical…Hint Hint
February 7th 2012 @ 4:04pm
NF said | February 7th 2012 @ 4:04pm | Report comment
Jaceman you love you conspiracy theories don’t you in regards to rugby league I don’t see you targeting other codes about there roles in the media for example AFL. It’s no secret of you bias against RL
February 8th 2012 @ 5:01pm
Jaceman said | February 8th 2012 @ 5:01pm | Report comment
Try this AFL one – McGuire and Collingwood rushed out the change of coach to Buckley the night before the AFL announced the Hunt signing and the Nine AFL show that wek barely mentioned the Hunt story even though it was the big footy story of the year…
Now for an apology
February 9th 2012 @ 11:37am
Jaceman said | February 9th 2012 @ 11:37am | Report comment
Try this one
The best worst refereeing performance I have ever seen was Andre watson in the 2003 RU RWC final where he singlehandedly kept Australia in the game. There was a big TV audience on a Sunday night with a lot of first time RU watchers in non Rugby states so a close game was an imperative. Andre delivered in a Harriganesque performance which went into extra time. He retired shortly afterwards…