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I called for Will Genia’s benching a week before it happened, but circumstances and the Wallabies’ team situation have left me wondering if the Nic White experiment has worked.
In the Wallabies loss to South Africa White seemed to ignore the flow of rugby for the entire first half and kicked on nearly every possession.
It’s one thing to kick the ball away in your own half – you don’t want to be caught in unwanted situations – but it’s another thing to be the cause of your own team’s possession deficit.
The commentary pointed out what I noticed during the first half kick-a-thons; the Springboks knew when all the kicks were coming and had so many back to defend them.
Much of this even occurred once South Africa were up by plenty and the Wallabies needed to be constructing point-scoring chances.
Many of those kicks were White hacking it deep without considering the rugby game as a whole.
If South Africa are heavily anticipating a kick (which they were), it’s wise to do something different just a couple of times.
Even if only to give yourself room to put a kick into touch or pressure an isolated man receiving it.
Not allowing the pack to run it occasionally turned them into defending passengers for most of the first half and by then it was too late.
I’m not talking about running from well inside your own 22 too regularly. We clearly don’t have the skill or fitness to pull that off, based on earlier games in this competition (although South Africa were skilled enough to do it).
However, when you are 30 and 40m from your line there has to be a hint of a chance you’ll run the ball otherwise the opposition just pressure the kick and run it back with reinforcements.
The shame is that Nic White is a great halfback. This Super Rugby season he was, in my opinion, the most important attacking player in the Brumbies team.
He has a flat pass and the ability to snipe around the ruck.
White’s kicking was suited to the wet conditions in Perth, but now I have to guess based on what we saw on a dry track in Perth that wasn’t adjusting to conditions at all.
It was clear when Genia came on in the second half that he’s been rejuvenated just a little and he naturally has a better instinct in choosing the best ball runner.
He was clearing the ball and asking runners to move onto the ball around the ruck as he ducked around the first defender.
Simple moves done at speed.
Genia wasn’t back to his best yet, but it was night and day compared to White’s first half offering.
(Fourie du Preez was superb in this area at Cape Town, and reminded us just how much more improvement will be needed from Genia for Australians to have any claim to the best halfback in the world again.)
I didn’t expect White to be a ‘better’ halfback than Genia at his best when I called for his inclusion.
My hope was he would provide a viable ‘A2’ option for when the ‘A1’ option isn’t in form or has been worn down.
Sadly it seems that White has been told, or felt like the need to, curtail some of the best elements of his game and become a one dimensional plan ‘B’.
If he was allowed or mentally free to play his natural game instead the Wallabies depth would have been greatly improved since the Genia benching.
As it stands now, Genia is almost certainly going to be in the frame for a start against Argentina in Rosario, where McKenzie is going to have the side set up to save face again.
When I wrote that Genia needed to ride the pine for a time I was hoping the Wallabies would get a good look at White and gain confidence in him as a viable alternative for a weary or out of form Genia, and shoot a rocket up the incumbent.
It appears the second part has happened to a degree, but I’m unsure of the experiment has been able to conclusively address the first part.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.