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Larkham gives Wallabies a World Cup-winning angle

1st April, 2015
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Stephen Larkham was a natural on the field - but can he coach? (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
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1st April, 2015
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I had the opportunity to watch Stephen Larkham give rugby tragics one more for the road on the weekend, as he steered a Salty Blue Leopards XV to victory over the previously undefeated Silver Foxes, in a charity match for the Black Dog Institute.

As Larkham cruised about at flyhalf with an enigmatic half-smile on his face, it was impossible not to think of Euclid, the father of modern geometry.

The angles, the lines, the parabola of the passes – whenever Larkham had the ball, the field seemed to morph into the ’80s sci-fi movie Tron, with a neon grid and several back holes through which he would slide to another dimension.

As a defender, the difficulty with Larkham is the line he takes at the defence. It is so exactly halfway between passing and running that it is impossible to pick which he is going to do. At all times both of those options are clearly in play, because the angle is so precisely correct.

One degree shallower and you know he is passing. One degree straighter and you know he is hitting the line. But at that exact midpoint, it is impossible to make a decision, so you don’t, and it all happens around you while you’re thinking about it.

Oh shit – he’s gone.

If the angle is the foundation of the Larkham deception, then one of the main pillars must be astonishing peripheral vision. As he hits the defensive line on that impossible-to-pick angle, at a pace somewhere between an amble and a canter, his gaze is always on the defence, but also on his passing options. He’s like a chameleon, with two eyes looking different ways.

In the defensive line, one can feel the pressure coming on. He can see the gap. He’s looking at it! He’s getting closer. Always that inexorable pressure as the time and space shuts down… And then bang, the break comes, or the pass is sent on its way, and dammit, we’re chasing.

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This is the Larkham method – always the ball in two hands, always pressuring the defence, and always the gaze looking for holes and gaps. And of course, this is all backed up by a flat 90-degree pass which starts tucked in close to the hip and uses strength in the wrists and a sharp half-turn of the core, to propel the ball in a startlingly flat parabola to the chest of the recipient, often an unfeasibly long way away.

There is a final nail in the coffin: once the defence figures out that there is nothing for it but to charge up flat out and shut down everything they can lay their shoulders and hands on, here comes the kick, delicately arcing over the tacklers’ heads to nestle in the arms of an unmarked wing, who dots down gently as the autumn leaves blow across the in-goal.

It is easy to see how even the All Blacks lost their mojo chasing the Larkham sirocco about the place. Tears of frustration would be understandable.

Steve Larkham is clearly a genius. But no-one needed to journey out to the hills behind Canberra last weekend to find that out.

What will be most interesting is if he can translate this devastating and intuitive geometry into a plan that his young Wallabies can execute.

The opinions of his former peers who were playing in the match – Wallaby internationals from the ’90s and 2000s and good judges all – were emphatic.

Several felt that the man they call ‘Bernie’ was still easily capable of playing Super Rugby and said so in as many words. Of course, that is never ever going to happen, but the fact that he so clearly has the knack, and apparently regularly runs at training with the Brumbies, must give the players an enormous belief in his thinking and technique, especially when he can not only talk about it but demonstrate it flawlessly in real time.

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Which led to the other topic of conversation on the night – Larkham’s impact on the Wallabies. Several former Test players again were enthusiastic about the prospect, with one in particular making the point that it showed a lot of character from Michael Cheika to pick someone who has the potential to overshadow him, and what a contrast this was to former coaches who appeared to regularly pick non-threatening assistants.

Whatever one might think of Cheika himself, the idea of a super-physical Cheika-styled forward pack hammering away at opposing packs, before releasing the ball to Larkham-styled playmakers pressuring opposing backlines, is tantalising. And with the core of the Brumbies’ backline also in the Wallabies – Matt Toomua, Christian Lealiifano, Tevita Kuridrani – the transition should be seamless.

I mentioned Euclid earlier. In 250BC, daunted by the complexity of his geometry homework, a young Ptolemy I is said to have asked Euclid if there was a shorter way to learn the subject. The master replied “For travelling over the country, there are royal roads and roads for common citizens, but in geometry there is only one road for all.”

Fortunately for the Wallabies, in Steve Larkham they may have found their royal road to attacking World Cup rugby.

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