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The best Rugby World Cup commentator has been abruptly released from his contract a year early. Here’s just a sample of his work in the last few days.
First, a look at our analyst’s wise words after Australia’s epic match against Wales:
“The period in the second half when we had two guys in the sin bin, defended our line with 13 men, holding up Wales three times over the line, I think that just really showed how much we want this World Cup and lengths we’ll go to to get it.”
Absolutely true. Myself, I think the defensive effort in the second half was an all-time Wallabies World Cup performance. We’ll remember that like we remember the unlikely effort against South Africa last year – when we tackled and tackled our way to victory.
This time an added exciting feature was the way the Wallabies continued to attack on the few chances they did have. There wasn’t a try on offer for us, but we deserved at least one, especially right after that 15 minutes on defence. If Israel Folau didn’t slip we might have scored and then when the penalty was awarded the Wallabies looked in shape to get across the line.
“… I truly believe we can win this World Cup.”
Okay, analyst-man, don’t jinx the Wallabies. No matter how good you are, that’s asking for trouble. There’s still three games that need to be won, in a row, before we can declare anything like that.
“We’ve got a big game against Scotland and previously we’ve not prepared as well as we could have. I’m sure Cheika and the boys are going to be preparing really well. I think we will win this game against Scotland and go through.”
This is where it gets really interesting, with the benefit of being a colour analyst that previously played the game. Admitting that the Wallabies might not have taken Scotland as seriously as they should in the past may have led to poorer preparation.
Is he referring to the Wallabies’ embarrassing loss to Scotland on the Spring Tour a few years back? It does certainly ring true of up and down Wallabies performances; inconsistency could be related to selective preparation focus.
“Adam Ashley-Cooper had his best game of the tournament. He was everywhere.”
Ashley-Cooper moved around the field as the available players dictated. He was the Mr Fixit that Mr Pyne couldn’t be in the education portfolio. Ashley-Cooper made a number of telling tackles and generally reminded everyone why it’s important to have players like him in your squad – experienced heads that are able to do everything on a rugby field.
When Ashley-Cooper made a tackle and forced a drop ball from a five-metre scrum it was a big play in a dire situation. At one point Ashley-Cooper was defending at 12, Kurtley Beale at 13 and Folau on the wing. Crazy.
“And Benny McCalman, even though he only played 30 minutes I thought he was great… one of the things that stood up was when he made that try-saving tackle against George North.”
McCalman was definitely one of the best players off the bench for the Wallabies. His hold up of North was fantastic. His general physicality was a great boost off the bench.
Another brilliant last ditch Wallabies effort was Bernard Foley taking out Alex Cuthbert, who was running at great speed, just four metres from the line. Not many fullbacks bring him down quickly enough for someone else to hold him up in that situation.
I know Fox Sports has a 24-hour rugby channel for the World Cup, but that’s basically not needed while James O’Connor, analyst, has Twitter and Kicca to post videos on whenever he sees something he likes.
Honestly, you can stop reading my stuff on here and just watch his analysis on video. I won’t even mind.
Another great win to the @Wallabies setting up a nice path into the finals.. #RWC2015 #AUS http://t.co/9QKI66dyjA
— James O'Connor (@JamesOConnor832) October 12, 2015
On Tuesday the Queensland Reds released O’Connor from his contract a year early, and just one year after coming here from Toulon. I just hope this won’t impact his great analysis.
The Reds said they agreed to release him in light of a “number of personal matters”.
O’Connor said this: “I came to the Reds with the intention of playing my best football in my home state and looking for a fresh start but I’ve struggled with some personal matters.”
He also said he wanted a “fresh start”.
Other things that have happened include Bret Harris writing in June that a French source predicted O’Connor would return to Toulon after this season and that he may have even told owner Mourad Boudjellal he would do so when he came to Queensland.
Another thing is O’Connor coming to Australia to play for the Reds in a desperate bid to make the World Cup squad. He didn’t make the cut after an average season for a rubbish side in Super Rugby.
If O’Connor does depart our shores – and the day after Harris’ article Wayne Smith had a piece saying the ARU wanted to make him stay – after just one year we’d have hardly got to know him this time around. He could sign with another Australian team, but that didn’t work out last time he was a free agent, having burned too many bridges.
For such a bright start the rugby career of O’Connor has fizzled.
He debuted for the Wallabies at just 18 years of age, and at age 25 doesn’t look close to representing his country again.
This is the second time in just two years O’Connor has been released from a contract, after the Wallabies terminated his deal in 2013.
At that time, after a string of airport and Hungry Jacks-related incidents, I said O’Connor needed to hit the reset button on his still-young career. I thought going overseas for a while would be his best option to work on his personal issues and keep playing rugby at a high level before he considered coming back to Australia if his ambition was still to play for the Wallabies.
His stint overseas turned out to be two quite short stints with two clubs – 15 games at London Irish and 12 in Toulon – instead of a settled, stable reboot for his career.
Intent on making it to his second World Cup, after almost sleeping through his first, O’Connor came back to the Reds as a high-profile singing this year, but injuries and playing in a poor team in a position reliant on other people’s skill put paid to his hopes of a ticket to England.
It’s always a bit hard to judge the truthfulness of a player being released for “personal matters”. O’Connor is clearly a skilled rugby player and he has certainly had issues to work on in the past. This is a cycle we’ve seen before now.
How fresh is the new start going to be? Would O’Connor just remove himself from playing rugby to deal with them? It’s probably more likely he’ll head overseas again.
While his rugby videos are amusing and even contain a few flakes of truth, I hope his courting public interaction isn’t slowing him from dealing with his personal issues.
Enjoy the World Cup mate. Find a place you can play rugby, learn who you are and work on whatever it is you need to work on.
At 25 O’Connor will be just 29 when the next World Cup rolls around. As crazy as it is to think about, with his career drifting so badly at this point, O’Connor could put himself in a position to get in a plane to Tokyo in 2019.
This is take two for the serious O’Connor rebuild. I for one hope he takes as long as he needs this time to get it right.
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.