Wallaby selectors have another chance to recognise Zack Holmes
Columnist By David Lord, 29 May 2012 David Lord is a Roar Expert
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- Brumbies, Rugby Union, Super Rugby, wallabies, Zack Holmes
Zack Holmes. Photo via http://brumbies.com.au/
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With Kurtley Beale facing shoulder surgery and officially out of the June Tests against Scotland and Wales, Wallaby coach Robbie Deans has a second chance to select Brumbies fly-half Zack Holmes.
While selectors showed commendable vision in naming the likes of Cadeyrn Neville, Hugh Pyle, and Dan Palmer in the 39-man train-on squad for the four Tests, they ignored Holmes, who has only played two run-on games, but outplayed incumbent Quade Cooper in the second.
For the knockers, and the selectors, who stay negative on Holmes’ two run-on games, let me remind them of Jimmy Lisle.
He was a phenomenal schoolboy athlete at Grafton High, joined the “Dirty Reds” at Drummoyne rugby club, and won Wallaby selection in 1961, setting up a crack pivot combination with Australia’s greatest rugby half-back Ken Catchpole.
Lisle toured South Africa and immediately switched codes in 1962, joining South Sydney with Wallaby team-mate Mike Cleary.
After just one game of club league Lisle was selected for NSW and Australia, still the fastest rise to Kangaroo status in the code’s history.
The reason was simple: Jimmy Lisle had talent and selectors didn’t need to have Lisle prove it to them over a long period. It was so obvious from the start, why waste time in recognising it?
The Jimmy Lisle story applies to Zack Holmes.
Talent doesn’t need umpteen games, it’s there or it isn’t. Like ball sense, you either have it or you don’t. You can’t learn talent, or ball sense.
You are born with it, or never have it.
Holmes has both.
With Beale, James O’Connor, Christian Lealiifano, and Ben Lucas out of the poisoned chalice 10 jersey frame injured, Cooper is first choice selection over Berrick Barnes.
But Cooper is still underdone after only 120 minutes back following knee surgery required from the Rugby World Cup seven long months ago.
Barnes is a victim of the colourless Waratah backline, most of which is not his fault. As a result he’s playing ordinary rugby.
Step up to the plate Zack Holmes, at the very least against Scotland on June 5.
For starters, Cooper can’t play two internationals against Scotland and Wales in four days. He will willingly play, but that’s courting disaster, a form of rugby Russian roulette.
And playing Barnes at 10 is just papering over the cracks. He’s better suited outside the pivotal area.
So selectors, you step up to the plate and add Holmes to the squad that will remain at 39 with Beale’s unavailability.
Given the chance, I’m backing Zack Holmes to be a rousing success.
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May 29th 2012 @ 7:14am
LeftArmSpinner said | May 29th 2012 @ 7:14am | Report comment
David, I expect that you will get your wish but only because he is the last man standing. Who else would you select who is a flyhalf/fullback? Harvey, Seymour, Hilgendorf or Halangahu? Is there anyone else?
May 29th 2012 @ 7:45am
Red Kev said | May 29th 2012 @ 7:45am | Report comment
Agree. Holmes is not particularly deserving, he is simply the “least bad” of a poor bunch of uninjured options.
May 29th 2012 @ 4:43pm
sittingbison said | May 29th 2012 @ 4:43pm | Report comment
sounds like he is on M@$terChef Kev %) “the least unimpressive” dish hehe
May 29th 2012 @ 7:16am
Pillock said | May 29th 2012 @ 7:16am | Report comment
Good on you David, your Operation Neville was successful now onto Operation Holmes.
It’s a good policy to take on young talented players showing good form. Also a good No 10 is a rare gem and has too be developed.
May 29th 2012 @ 7:35am
LeftArmSpinner said | May 29th 2012 @ 7:35am | Report comment
He was done no favours by having to take the deciding kick at goal hike so badly affected by cramp, so I understand.
But, I was impressed with how well he slotted into 10 and how he got the backlit going. Hope is clearly slippery quick too. I like that in a 10. The force mst be kicking themselves, particularly as their own 10′s stocks are so low and so poor by comparison. Is hangers really the solution?
May 29th 2012 @ 7:47am
kingplaymaker said | May 29th 2012 @ 7:47am | Report comment
‘The reason was simple: Jimmy Lisle had talent and selectors didn’t need to have Lisle prove it to them over a long period. It was so obvious from the start, why waste time in recognising it?’
This is an interesting point and leads to the whole question of how players are developed. A normal or good player may need to play Super rugby before moving to the Wallabies, but does an outstanding talent actually need it? Do they find it actually as possible to move from say schoolboy rugby to international rugby as to Super rugby?
Remember the Super XV is already by the standards of northern hemisphere club competitions very high because the talent is crammed into so much smaller a number of franchises: Danny Cipriani said every match was like a test. Many of the better teams are basically all international quality while many of the players in different teams are internationals. Let’s say a 9 who played a season would have come up against all kinds of international 9s.
Let’s say a player like Chris Sautia or Jordan Rapana is put in against Scotland: they would face a backline atttack far weaker than most Super teams and individual opposition far worse.
But that’s not the point. Even against good teams a Sautia could just be able to cope. He could make breaks at Super level instantly and international level easily. He could follow opponents and make tackles as well at international level as at Super level. At the lower levels of the game and age group teams seriously talented players often skip whole levels because they are too talented to need to prove themselves at every stage and it is obvious they belong to a higher realm: why not the same at the top and when a player is truly brilliant have him skip Super rugby and move straight into the international team? This is in fact what happened with James O’Connor, who just skipped Super rugby at 18 and went straight into the Wallabies.
Why doesn’t Robbie Deans do the same with Chris Sautia, Jordan Rapana and UJ Seuteni if he thinks they’re good enough? Deans will know exactly how much talent these players have, and if it at an exceptional level he should just ferry them straight past the unnecessary stage of Super rugby and into the Wallabies where he can work on them. If JOC could do it at 18 why can’t Sautia, Rapana and Seuteni?
Many object to this idea from a feeling that no individual should be too great and everyone must put in spade work before being allowed the biggest prize. But this feeling should never get in the way of the interests of the national team, not least because the Wallabies haven’t got the talent to get away with it and so have to fast-track players to maximise the limited talent pool as much as possible. So go ahead Mr Deans and choose the superstar young guns if you think they’re good enough.
May 29th 2012 @ 8:11am
David Lord said | May 29th 2012 @ 8:11am | Report comment
KPM, Jim Lenehan is another example. He was in the St Ignatius first XV for three years, as well as the GPS hurdles and shot put champion, another super schoolboy sportsman like Jimmy Lisle. He left St Ignatius in 1956, and was on the 1957-58 Wallaby tour of Great Britain, Ireland, and France, after a few games in Wagga. Lenehan was a Wallaby before he played for NSW. His talent was obvious, playing 24 Tests and 21 games for NSW.
May 29th 2012 @ 8:30am
Max Power said | May 29th 2012 @ 8:30am | Report comment
The reason why O’Connor could at 18 was because he had already played half a season of Super 14 and proved himself far more than Sautia, Rapana and Seuteni. More importantly he had New Zealand and South Africa pursuing him because he was eligible for both. I think with O’Connor it was more about keeping them away than anything. KPM Sautia made a break off a well executed set play. I’m guessing any winger in the Queensland squad would/could have done exactly what he did and had the same result. He may be ridiculously talented but he still needs to prove himself in Super rugby. There are far too many examples of super talented junior players who go on to achieve nothing in senior football.
On Holmes, I know I’ve said this a couple of times before but he does not pass the ball. Someone gave put up the stat a couple of weeks ago that McCabe only touched the ball 3 times in Holmes’ first game. That is unacceptable for a fly-half pass the ball to his inside centre 3 times in a whole game but it doesn’t surprise me. Having played 12 against Norths last year with Holmes at 10 I can promise you his first instinct is to go himself. If Norths went wide it was with AJ Gilbert playing as the ball distributor at first receiver.
May 29th 2012 @ 9:00am
Markus said | May 29th 2012 @ 9:00am | Report comment
You seem to know more about Holmes than most, do you think it is a case of ‘does not pass’ as opposed to ‘can not’? He put in at least one good wide ball on the weekend, where the outside backs then made big metres down Shipperley’s wing.
Sadly his first instinct on the weekend seemed to be like everyone else’s – to kick. Going himself on occasion would have been preferable.
May 29th 2012 @ 9:10am
Max Power said | May 29th 2012 @ 9:10am | Report comment
I would definitely think that it is a case of “doesn’t” rather than “can’t”. I doubt White and Larkham would have put him at 10 if he couldn’t pass a ball. He was only converted from a winger to fly-half last season by Norths so I think it’s probably going to take him a while to get the vision and mind-set to set-up and supply the ball to the players outside him.
May 29th 2012 @ 9:15am
kingplaymaker said | May 29th 2012 @ 9:15am | Report comment
MP that wasn’t the only reason with JOC: they would never have player him for the Wallabies unless he was Super talented. As Sautia is by all accounts even more talented, the best schoolboy ever, then there is even more reason to put him in, especially as the Lions are turning up next year and so this is the last chance to being anyone new in.
May 29th 2012 @ 9:31am
Ben S said | May 29th 2012 @ 9:31am | Report comment
Sautia is the best schoolboy ever?
May 29th 2012 @ 10:26am
Justin2 said | May 29th 2012 @ 10:26am | Report comment
KPM wouldnt know he has only seen what we have seen and is taking the words of the commentators when he came on the field the other week.
As I suggested with big powerful guys like he seems to be, they tend to dominate junior age groups. That is no recipe for success at senior level though when suddenyl many are just as strong or stronger. Suddenly you arent busting through tackles at will and you dont look quite so good. Thats why I have been wanting someone to tell me he has raw pace and some other characteristics that will suggest he will become a star at senior level.
May 29th 2012 @ 11:39am
Thurl said | May 29th 2012 @ 11:39am | Report comment
JOC was a disaster in his first couple of years of International rugby
May 29th 2012 @ 3:48pm
Kuruki said | May 29th 2012 @ 3:48pm | Report comment
BOOM hit the target…. JOC was rushed into the Wallabies after impressing at Super level. I remember his first outing against the All Blacks, he looked every bit a schoolboy playing against men. Take Quade Cooper for example, can do almost anything he wants at Super level, but is yet to translate those skills into a real test match with any consistency. When i look over the squad i see plenty of new guys who will need time to find their feet, why on earth would you want to put another player into that situation in the most crucial position. It’s very common for someone to burst onto the scene making huge waves in a few cameo’s and then slowly come back to reality when the grind of a Super season starts to take the toll on body and mind. Let the guy prove himself first before the huge pressure of Test Rugby is dumped onto his shoulders.
May 29th 2012 @ 3:52pm
Justin2 said | May 29th 2012 @ 3:52pm | Report comment
Thats what happens when you play a kid out of position v the ABs. Now who was the genius who thought that one up?
May 29th 2012 @ 11:49pm
IronAwe said | May 29th 2012 @ 11:49pm | Report comment
Yeah, IIRC he only played badly against NZ. Other countries I thought he did quite well. I think this was more a case of feeling under pressure from having his family in the stands and also the mighty AB’s in front of him. I dont think it was because he was ‘rushed’ in.
May 29th 2012 @ 8:31am
rl said | May 29th 2012 @ 8:31am | Report comment
Tell you what, I saw a bunch of hippies chucking a deflated soccer ball around the other day and one of them looked pretty handy – lets hand him a Wallaby jersey too since we are just giving them away… (FFS!)
May 29th 2012 @ 9:32am
lorry said | May 29th 2012 @ 9:32am | Report comment
RL,
The hippies dissapeared by the mid-70s, didn’t they?!
May 29th 2012 @ 11:33am
rl said | May 29th 2012 @ 11:33am | Report comment
I’m pretty sure David is smoking something today, that’s for sure!
May 29th 2012 @ 10:55am
Sage said | May 29th 2012 @ 10:55am | Report comment
Was he the best Hippie ever ?
May 29th 2012 @ 8:32am
kingplaymaker said | May 29th 2012 @ 8:32am | Report comment
David presumably with a young player such as Sautia, where someone like Tim Horam says he’s the most talented schoolboy player he’s ever seen, Robbie Deans must know precisely how much talent he has. So as JOC at 18 basically didn’t need Super rugby then I’m suprised Sautia does: maybe Deans is choosing an intentionally conservative squad to keep his rampant critics quiet, so at least they can’t accuse him too strongly of selecting the wrong players.
May 29th 2012 @ 10:21am
Tumble Hill said | May 29th 2012 @ 10:21am | Report comment
KPM – I KNow you are a fan of Deans, which is fine by me. But do you really think Deans has full control over who he can pick? Some might say he has become a puppet of Aus rugby?
On a side note – Ben Atiga played 4 years of 1st 15 rugby and was in the NZ Schools team for 3 straight years but only ever played 1 test for the AB’s.
May 29th 2012 @ 3:58pm
Kuruki said | May 29th 2012 @ 3:58pm | Report comment
Julian Savea was the player of the tournament when NZ won the junior World cup. Island boys develop faster then the rest, they weigh in at 100 kilo at high school with bodies of fully grown professionals, they look so good due to the fact they are way bigger and way stronger then everybody else. Julian Savea took 2 full seasons of Super Rugby to get to the level he is at now, and he was the best Junior player in the World. There is noway you can take schoolboy form and compare it to international level it’s not even on the same planet. Even the great Jonah Lomu failed in his first attempt and he is one in a million.
May 29th 2012 @ 4:18pm
Justin2 said | May 29th 2012 @ 4:18pm | Report comment
Kuruki – I said a similar thing regarding players who develop physically early. They tend to dominate jnr age groups but they need to have more string to their bows when they start playing S15 and beyond to succeed.
May 29th 2012 @ 4:47pm
sittingbison said | May 29th 2012 @ 4:47pm | Report comment
Johnno will love the description of those big 100kg bodies Kuruki, and KPM will love the reference to Island boys %)
May 29th 2012 @ 8:33am
Tumble Hill said | May 29th 2012 @ 8:33am | Report comment
Luke Mcalister is a good example of how it dosnt work….
May 29th 2012 @ 8:40am
David Lord said | May 29th 2012 @ 8:40am | Report comment
TH, you will always find some players don’t match up. But the point is you will never ever know until you give a talented player a crack at the elite level. Zack Holmes deserves that crack.
May 29th 2012 @ 9:25am
rl said | May 29th 2012 @ 9:25am | Report comment
No David, he doesn’t ‘deserve’ that crack. (By virtue of being last-man-standing, he might just get it. That is entirely different to ‘deserving’)
May 29th 2012 @ 9:30am
Tumble Hill said | May 29th 2012 @ 9:30am | Report comment
May 29th 2012 @ 9:53am
Tumble Hill said | May 29th 2012 @ 9:53am | Report comment
DL – I guess its easier said then done. The selectors must be to worried about getting it wrong!
May 29th 2012 @ 10:28am
Justin2 said | May 29th 2012 @ 10:28am | Report comment
Yes and I deserve a crack at Sarah Murdoch because she smiled at me one day…
May 29th 2012 @ 11:44am
Max Power said | May 29th 2012 @ 11:44am | Report comment
Now that’s something News of the World would cover
May 29th 2012 @ 3:20pm
Max said | May 29th 2012 @ 3:20pm | Report comment
haha delicious chat
May 29th 2012 @ 10:51am
apelu said | May 29th 2012 @ 10:51am | Report comment
Joe Rocokoko is an example of how it can work. What this means is that we cannot generalised.
May 29th 2012 @ 10:57am
Jerry said | May 29th 2012 @ 10:57am | Report comment
McAlister was developing fine till he went to the NH.
May 29th 2012 @ 8:41am
PeterK said | May 29th 2012 @ 8:41am | Report comment
I agree truly talented players can and should be picked early.
Holmes IS NOT in that category.
He does not have a long pass.
He does NOT get the backline going.
Maybe if he played for a SA or Eng team playing 10 man rugby he would be ok.
Sure he may get picked because he is the last man standing , doesnt mean he should be retained when JoC comes back.
May 29th 2012 @ 8:47am
Joshy said | May 29th 2012 @ 8:47am | Report comment
Why would the Wallabies want to recognize a player who doesn’t have the ability to kick a winning goal on the 80th minute?
Why are you praising an average player?
May 30th 2012 @ 5:08am
Bakkies said | May 30th 2012 @ 5:08am | Report comment
what are you on about? Since when has that been a marker of whether a player is average or not? Giteau missed last minute kicks and he ended up playing 92 tests
May 29th 2012 @ 8:50am
LeftArmSpinner said | May 29th 2012 @ 8:50am | Report comment
David, that is exactly the point. Holmes doesn’t deserve a chance. He has done very little so far, by that I mean, by the average super rugby standard, he has been competent rather than brilliant. Competent is a given. Brilliance gets rewarded with early wallabies honours.
I accept and agree that he took his chance with both hands and that is impressive. But it is not brilliant, just competent.
Now, the reality is hat they will need or now have the opportunity to blood another player. He is the obvious choice. He is the only choice, except for possibly Seymour. He’s in a similar category to Holmes at the moment. I suspect that Holmes is more naturally gifted. Seymour is playing in a dysfunctional team and environment and so his performances are colored by that while Holmes is viewed through the very positive primsm that is the Brumbies this year, win or lose!
May 29th 2012 @ 11:58am
Thurl said | May 29th 2012 @ 11:58am | Report comment
Mike Harris is a classic example. First game for the Reds was a blinder and suddenly he’s in the Wallabys. What’s he done since and why aren’t people promoting him as the starting fly half???