Barnes return creates Wallabies dilemma
Radar-boot Mike Harris is up for a stern fight to keep his Wallabies fullback jersey ahead of returning stalwart Berrick Barnes.
Barnes is set to be named among an experienced trio, including flanker David Pocock and hooker Stephen Moore, to return from injury in Australia’s four-Test tour of Europe.
Coach Robbie Deans will Thursday morning announce a 30-man squad for the end-of-season tour where the Wallabies will kick off proceedings against France on November 10 before playing England, Italy and Wales.
Barnes, a veteran of 45 Tests, hasn’t played since puncturing his lung in the September 30 loss to South Africa in Pretoria but would be expected to slot straight back into Deans’ inexperienced backline.
New Zealand product Harris exceeded expectations in his two starts at fullback in the utility back’s absence and has been a star with the boot.
The 24-year-old has kicked a combined 12 goals from 13 attempts under huge pressure in the 25-19 win over Argentina in Rosario and 18-18 draw with the All Blacks at a packed Suncorp Stadium.
With the Wallabies crossing for just 12 tries from 11 Tests this year and relying more and more on goalkicking, Harris made a strong case for retention ahead of big-stage clashes at Stade de France and Twickenham.
While Barnes has long been a Deans favourite, the coach was also highly impressed by Harris’s positional play at fullback considering he’d had just one previous start at No.15 for Queensland last year.
“Having had minimal games at fullback in my career I feel I’m getting more comfortable there with every chance I get to put the 15 jersey on,” Harris told AAP.
“It would be a dream come true to start and kick goals at those stadiums – it doesn’t get much bigger than that.
“Berrick is coming back from a severe punctured lung so hopefully he’ll be ready to tour with us and that will create a selection dilemma for Robbie.”
Deans’ biggest dilemma is whether to take blindside flanker Scott Higginbotham following his two-Test ban for kneeing and headbutting All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw.
Higginbotham would miss the two toughest matches on tour against Les Bleus and England, and be a mere passenger until the November 24 clash with Italy in Florence.
World-class finisher Digby Ioane is expected to recover from a knee problem to tour in what would be a major relief considering Australia’s wafer-thin wing stocks following the loss of seven Test flyers to injury.
While Pocock was skipper for the first five Tests this year, Nathan Sharpe will keep the captaincy duties as the No.7 returns from knee surgery.
With Moore back from a hamstring injury, Deans must choose between Reds teammates James Hanson and Saia Faingaa for the third hooker spot.
© AAP 2013Possible Wallabies squad: Forwards – Benn Robinson, James Slipper, Sekope Kepu, Ben Alexander, Paddy Ryan, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Stephen Moore, James Hanson, Nathan Sharpe (capt), Sitaleki Timani, Kane Douglas, Rob Simmons, Dave Dennis, David Pocock, Michael Hooper, Liam Gill, Wycliff Palu, Radike Samo or Scott Higginbotham.
Backs – Nick Phipps, Brett Sheehan, Kurtley Beale, Berrick Barnes, Pat McCabe, Anthony Faingaa, Ben Tapuai, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Digby Ioane, Nick Cummins, Drew Mitchell, Mike Harris.
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October 25th 2012 @ 4:31am
Swear said | October 25th 2012 @ 4:31am | Report comment
Deans, if you are reading this – leave Harris where he is. He has shown consistency and good on field decision making. Barnes, with his incessant need to kick the ball and usually poorly, kills the Wallabies ability to build pressure. In fact, and I don’t know why you haven’t already done this Robbie, put a blanket ban on any attacking kicking for at least the first 35 minutes of the match.Only kick your penalties and defensive 22′s (making sure they bloody go out) but keep the ball in hand for the rest. Encourage as many of the 15 out there to touch the ball as often as possible. Believe me, it will do their confidence a lot of good. The first 35 mins are crucial and every possession given back through a kick, costs physically and mentally. This part of the game should be used to match it with the opposition by making them defend as much a possible. You should know this already Robbie – make it your game plan!
Keep Barnes aside for now, and when he understands the value of possession give him the last 10 minutes. He and others are overrated and need to show a better understanding of the game.
October 26th 2012 @ 2:23am
Dan said | October 26th 2012 @ 2:23am | Report comment
no Robby please dont do it to us!!!!
all the hard fought possession he has just kicked down the throat of the opposition backs is utterly incomprehensible.
Barnes and Cooper have been the problem if anyone cant see that they are blind.
Build on what you achieved last week dont go back to the silly shxt that has been plaguing Aus rugby for the last 18 months.
leave them until Barnes makes better decisions under pressure (Ill turn over possession and um ill kick it down isreal daggs throat not like he can run and carve up because that makes good rugby sense ayfkm!!!!!) and Cooper gets some hair on his nuts as he is about as mature as a 15 year old.
October 25th 2012 @ 4:58am
the ardent b'stard said | October 25th 2012 @ 4:58am | Report comment
“barnes return creates wallaby dilemma”……….no it doesnt!
October 25th 2012 @ 6:18am
Red Kev said | October 25th 2012 @ 6:18am | Report comment
All we need to do is smack Barnes upside the head with a newspaper and the decision will be made – he’ll get another “footballer’s migrane” and can go lie down and listen to his Shania Twain albums and not bother Australian rugby fans anymore.
October 25th 2012 @ 6:28am
bluerose said | October 25th 2012 @ 6:28am | Report comment
thats an insult to Shania Twain………let him listen to Justin and Minaj
October 25th 2012 @ 7:01pm
biltongbek said | October 25th 2012 @ 7:01pm | Report comment
agree, she’s rather hot.
October 25th 2012 @ 6:28am
Justin2 said | October 25th 2012 @ 6:28am | Report comment
Not required, thanks for your guts Berrick.
October 25th 2012 @ 6:38am
Jutsie said | October 25th 2012 @ 6:38am | Report comment
Its not really a dillema cos harris is doing a much better job and should be under no threat.
October 25th 2012 @ 8:19am
formeropenside said | October 25th 2012 @ 8:19am | Report comment
Why isn’t McCabe at 12 under threat from the returning Barnes?
October 25th 2012 @ 8:23am
Frank O'Keeffe said | October 25th 2012 @ 8:23am | Report comment
My thoughts exactly…! For all the criticisms Barnes gets (mostly unfair), he’s a more creative centre than McCabe!
McCabe is Deans’ boy though. He won’t drop him.
October 25th 2012 @ 8:37am
Red Kev said | October 25th 2012 @ 8:37am | Report comment
I don’t think kicking the ball away every time you touch it is ‘creative’. I’ve been a big fan of Barnes for a long time, but in 2012 he has disgusted me, he wouldn’t even make a 30-man squad if I were a selector.
McCabe is part of Deans’ leadership group, until the new coach comes in McCabe is here to stay, the best we can hope for is that Deans sees the virtue of putting Tapuai at 12 and moving McCabe out to 13 … I wouldn’t hold my breath for that though.
October 25th 2012 @ 10:18am
Drop kick said | October 25th 2012 @ 10:18am | Report comment
Motm twice in wales series, kicked us to victory against wales, SA and Argentina, brilliant defence, excellent team player. You are disgusted easily.
October 25th 2012 @ 12:30pm
Justin2 said | October 25th 2012 @ 12:30pm | Report comment
Some exaggeration in performance there and he wasnt playing 12 in most of those matches.
October 25th 2012 @ 12:43pm
Drop kick said | October 25th 2012 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
Didn’t say anything about him playing 12. He was motm (twice) against wales, he did score the points that won the games against wales, SA and Argentina and he is a great defender and undeniably a team player. Where is the exaggeration?
October 25th 2012 @ 2:37pm
sittingbison said | October 25th 2012 @ 2:37pm | Report comment
we were completely useless against Wales, we should have lost all three and thats after losing to Scotland, the only reason we didnt was POCOCK and Wales losing their nerve.
Barnes has been a liability all season, constantly losing possession with kicking – no surprise after what he did all season at Tahs.
With all those concussions he has lost the ability to take it into contact. He should retire.
October 25th 2012 @ 4:42pm
Mike said | October 25th 2012 @ 4:42pm | Report comment
“we were completely useless against Wales”
A fine example of a completely useless comment. Easy to write of course, and even easier to chuck in the bin where it belongs.
October 26th 2012 @ 4:02am
Jiggles said | October 26th 2012 @ 4:02am | Report comment
Pocock was amazing in the second and third test. He put out so many fired in defense it saved us the series.
How his performance went unnoticed is stagering.
October 26th 2012 @ 9:23am
Mike said | October 26th 2012 @ 9:23am | Report comment
I thought Pocock played well in all four of the June tests. Things just didn’t work quite as well for him vs Scotland and 1st test vs Wales. But he is a class player.
October 25th 2012 @ 6:45pm
soapit said | October 25th 2012 @ 6:45pm | Report comment
whoever was goal kicker on the winning team would have got motm on those days as no one did anything remotely outstanding in those games.
and what were his percentages against arg and SA? much lower than what harris has been doing for the last 12 months.
October 26th 2012 @ 10:15pm
Drop kick said | October 26th 2012 @ 10:15pm | Report comment
Barnes kicked around 80% in the RC, higher than Harris. also a higher percentage in Super Rugby.
have a look at:
http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/infographic-how-the-wallabies-came-second-in-trc/
October 27th 2012 @ 7:15am
soapit said | October 27th 2012 @ 7:15am | Report comment
yeah i noticed that further down here, however he only had something like 6 shots n supe rrugby.
also i did a check with harris and thought he came out higher (but still not by much)
still food for thought and makes me ree valuate barnes kicking rate.
October 26th 2012 @ 6:20am
Justin2 said | October 26th 2012 @ 6:20am | Report comment
Well the backs barely made a break all series, Barnes is not a great defender, misses quite a few these days and has no sting. Coupled with constantly kicking it away he isn’t worth taking.
October 25th 2012 @ 8:22am
rob said | October 25th 2012 @ 8:22am | Report comment
12 goals from 13, how do you leave that sort of firepower off the field? I would venture to say Harris’ boot converted the team effort to win the Argentina test and without his boot would have lost to the ABs last Saturday, ask Hansen, haven’t had that sort of conversion rate since….?
Off the bench at best, not a starter, agree Swear, he should play AFL
October 25th 2012 @ 8:34am
Albo said | October 25th 2012 @ 8:34am | Report comment
All this anti-Barnes sentiment is well off the mark.
I liked what I saw of Barnes at Fullback. Barnes goal kicking has been our saving grace in those Welsh tests just as much as Harris’ kicks were on the weekend. He is a solid defender and has a more complete game IMHO than Harris.
I very much doubt we’re going to see Barnes shift into 10 or 12 with the relative hyperbole that Deans has been speaking about the current combinations. He’s just a mighty useful player to have on tour particularly against NH teams (including midweek matches), and you know he’s going to bust his arse.
October 25th 2012 @ 7:12pm
Mantis said | October 25th 2012 @ 7:12pm | Report comment
Barnes should be nowhere near the 10 or 12. His useless kicking is a disgrace.
October 25th 2012 @ 8:53am
Mike said | October 25th 2012 @ 8:53am | Report comment
I agree with Frank that some of the criticism Barnes gets on the Roar is unfair. Particularly with regard to kicking – the main difference with our kicking in the match last Saturday is that we CHASED the kicks, aggressively and often. Our worst was that horrid box kick in second half and I think that may have been Phipps.
Same for the All Blacks – they actually kick in play quite a lot, but they almost always chase the kicks hard and that makes the difference.
But that said, why drop Harris to make way for Barnes? Harris didn’t do anything wrong at fullback that I could see, and his kicking has been exemplary – I think its 12 from 13 in the last two test matches, and he can slot them from a fair way out. Just having him there puts pressure on the other side, from the whistle.
For 12, I don’t know. I am not happy with either McCabe or Barnes as a long-term prospect there, but of course the issue is what do we do with who we have now? Between the two of them, Barnes has the ball distribution skills and McCabe has the aggression. I think I’d go with McCabe. We held NZ scoreless and almost won (as did they!) by contesting every inch of the breakdown and also defending aggressively. Against a lesser team than the All Blacks it would have opened up opportunities for tries.
Perhaps a best of all worlds might be to put Taps at 12, AAC at 13, McCabe on the wing and Barnes on the bench – he can cover 10, 12 or 15.
October 25th 2012 @ 7:14pm
Mantis said | October 25th 2012 @ 7:14pm | Report comment
All the criticism for Barnes comes from his kicking. 99% of his kicks are useless and aimless. It is not unfair criticism at all. You surely can’t deny that Barnes puts in kicks that pretty much just confuse people, including it seems his teammates.
October 25th 2012 @ 7:38pm
Mike said | October 25th 2012 @ 7:38pm | Report comment
Anyone who thinks that the Wallabies haven’t had a problem with chasing kicks (by anyone, not just Barnes) needs to rethink their view of rugby. We have been particularly poor at chasing kicks, whereas this has been a very strong point in the All Blacks game. They kick the ball in play and they chase their kicks. Last Saturday we did too, not every time, but much more so than we have done in the past.
I appreciate that it is equally as wrong to blame only the chasers, as it is to blame only the kicker. Tactical kicking at the standard set by the ABs is a team game, and it has to be dealt with as a team issue.
I am quite happy to criticise Barnes, provided it arises from rational and careful analysis. I don’t mean to pick on you personally as your views are no different to many others, but you did ask the question!
October 25th 2012 @ 10:54pm
Mantis said | October 25th 2012 @ 10:54pm | Report comment
When a kick is made, there either has to be communication from the kicker that it is happening so the chasers know to chase, or there has to be a signal from a wider player for the player to kick (which only really happens for attacking kicks). Therefore we dont have chasers most of the time because they dont know a kick is coming, which either means Barnes doesnt communicate (which is hard to believe because you cant play as an international 5/8 and not be a good communicator), or the more likely option that Barnes kicks the ball out of panic and desperation. That is why he gets criticized, and it is deserved.
October 26th 2012 @ 9:02am
Mike said | October 26th 2012 @ 9:02am | Report comment
Mantis, its interesting that in your analyis you manage to avoid placing any responsbility whatsoever on the chasers to chase!
Its not just Barnes’ kicks that the Wallabies haven’t been chasing, and trying to blame only Barnes for the kicking is easy, sure, but it doesn’t fit with what is actually happening out there. We had a similar problem at RWC (how that can be blamed on Barnes is beyond me), our chase then improved somewhat during the series against Wales (I won’t count the Scotland match – the players would have had difficulty seeing or hearing anything for much of that game). We regressed during RC, and then improved markedly during the last Bledisloe test (although still with some glaring failures).
There is no reason to think that the players did not have warning of most of Barnes’ kicks. Players should be watching the 10 anyway and be ready for the possibility that he may kick, and they should be ready to chase. The Wallabies too often have been marked by no attempt to chase at all, even when a high kick gives plenty of time to get there.
Poor kicks in play is not something that can just be blamed on the kicker – it is a team problem and has to be dealt with that way.
October 26th 2012 @ 11:28am
Mantis said | October 26th 2012 @ 11:28am | Report comment
It is partly the responsibility of the chasers yes, but if the kicker (lets just say his name), Barnes, puts in a rubbish grubber or drop punt that the opposition team either runs onto and hits our line at pace with support, or fields standing still and links with support, that is putting the team under unnecessary pressure. Add to that that the team doesnt even seem to know the kick is coming the majority of the time (my original point), then that is disaster, which is what seems to happen the majority of the time Barnes kicks the ball.
With regard to your point that players should be ready to chase the kick by watching the 10, youre right, they should. But the kicker also has to help the chasers by putting in a good kick for them to chase. Barnes high kicks are almost always too deep to allow us to put any pressure on the opposition. His drop punts pretty well always find the wings or fullback on the full, and his grubber through the line are last minute brain snaps which no one is ready for.
‘Poor kicks in play is not something that can just be blamed on the kicker’ – This does not really apply to Barnes, he has to take the majority of the blame, and thats being kind.
October 26th 2012 @ 7:10pm
Mike said | October 26th 2012 @ 7:10pm | Report comment
We will have to agree to disagree Mantis. In effect you are placing the blame entirely on Barnes for something which is by no means entirely his fault. The kicks I am talking about were not chased AT ALL, so it is irrelevant how deep they were.
October 25th 2012 @ 7:29pm
soapit said | October 25th 2012 @ 7:29pm | Report comment
probably one reason noone chases barnes kicks is because they are waiting for him to pass it out for them to take advantage of an overlap to just to have a run with it and take on the defence.
they should know by now thats never gonna happen.
October 25th 2012 @ 7:32pm
Mike said | October 25th 2012 @ 7:32pm | Report comment
i agree Soapit. Every time Barnes kicks, he ignores an overlap …
October 26th 2012 @ 9:51am
soapit said | October 26th 2012 @ 9:51am | Report comment
we seem to be slowly becoming of one mind recently mike
October 26th 2012 @ 10:01am
Mike said | October 26th 2012 @ 10:01am | Report comment
Its because your implanted memories are converging. We at Nexus 6 are very good like that – so good you probably never realised what you are. “More human than human” is our motto.
October 26th 2012 @ 5:19pm
soapit said | October 26th 2012 @ 5:19pm | Report comment
no, i did always know i was better than everyone else.
October 25th 2012 @ 9:07am
patonga said | October 25th 2012 @ 9:07am | Report comment
No dilemma just leave him at home….. All Barnes ever does is kick the ball…. Maybe if he was left out he could work on game plans with Waratahs new coach… Oh thats right Waratahs game plan,, ???? what was i thinking… Just Kick the Ball Berrick,,,