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After four and a bit months of pretty solid slog through the National Rugby Championship and some radio producing into Christmas, it’s been nice over the last few days to finally have some down time to think back over the rugby year.
After a year of consistent inconsistency, I wanted to try and narrow down the one weekend this year that I enjoyed the most.
The task I’d set myself was to think of a single weekend on which I’d properly had my rugby fill by Sunday afternoon. A weekend where I was completely satisfied; couldn’t possibly ask for anything more.
It meant that I could pretty much rule a line through Super Rugby straight away.
Though the Brumbies, Waratahs, and even Rebels all had their moments in 2016, they were never on the same weekend. There’s no doubt it was a disappointing year for the Australian Super Rugby sides, and even though the Brumbies sneaked into the finals, it’s fair to say their best rugby came much earlier in the season.
I did quite enjoy watching the New Zealand sides this season but, then again, who didn’t? And at this point I’ll just re-iterate the headline and the task at hand.
The two semi-finals were both excellent games, to be fair, and that was probably the best weekend of Super Rugby for the season. Those two games produced a final between two thoroughly deserving combatants, and I know I watched the Hurricanes and Lions in the decider comfortable with either side winning. The Hurricanes were wonderful in victory, but the Lions lost none of their 2016 reputation in second.
I had the absolute pleasure of sitting ringside for two test matches this year, but Wallabies’ thumpings at the hands of England and New Zealand meant that those results are best consigned to a memory purge as quick as possible. The sooner they’re forgotten about, the better.
Both games were difficult from a broadcasting point of view, too. None of the England players were keen on talking on radio post-match until Chris Robshaw felt sorry for me after he completed his lap of honour. And then, like the injured James Haskell pre-match, he was wonderful to talk to.
Then, after the All Blacks wrapped up Bledisloe 1, I was forced into the unprecedented situation where their players were off limits to ABC Grandstand – despite being broadcast rights holders – until after TV was completely done. And after the Wallabies had suddenly lost their tongues – Israel Folau walked away from me mid-question – it made for an interesting post-match wrap.
So this means I’m pushing into late August still without an obvious weekend to choose.
The Wallabies’ rugby championship form was very hot and cold – very cold initially but warming up as the competition went on – but thankfully improved markedly by the end, and the same goes for the spring tour. The win over Wales was excellent and the wins over Scotland and France were just good enough.
Despite the loss, the Ireland match was probably the test I enjoyed the most in 2016, and I do wonder if this match might be the start of a new rivalry between two rebuilding sides trying to climb world rankings ladder. As far as tour highlights go, they finished with that game, too.
Probably because I was so heavily invested in the coverage, I have to turn toward the National Rugby Championship to find a standout weekend.
The 2016 NRC season was the best of the three seasons played to date, and this became apparent within the first few games played. The pace of the game was up and, importantly, so was the skill level across the board; the decision to go back to eight teams and from four NSW-based teams to three was quickly justified; and the quality of players throughout the competition was noticeably higher.
That genuine conversations were being had about not just one but possibly three or four Wallabies spring tour ‘bolters’ from the NRC is confirmation of this.
And it was great, too, that heading into the last round before the finals series three quarters of the competition was still in contention for the playoffs.
Therefore the best weekend of Australian rugby in 2016 was … the NRC semi-finals weekend in mid-October.
NSW Country’s 50-24 win over Melbourne in Newcastle followed by Perth’s 42-24 win over the Sydney Rays at Pittwater the next day were two days of cracking rugby, and they were games in which both eventual losers looked likely to win at different points in their games.
What the two games delivered was four teams and 92 players playing with natural attacking intent. There were ten tries on the Saturday and nine more on the Sunday, but neither game featured porous defence or tries being run in for fun. Tries were scored because the team worked hard to create the opportunity and were then good enough to convert that opportunity into points.
As we’ve seen throughout the NRC this season and seasons past, the basic pillars of the game – set pieces, scrum, defence – all remain paramount, and all four teams could play the way they did during the semis because they did the basics right.
It was wonderful to watch in person – even more so given all bar one other game of the competition I’d covered from my office.
But it was wonderful to watch because the players enjoy the style of the game and the coaches enjoy letting the players play this way. If you missed the competition this year, then you missed some genuinely top-shelf, entertaining Australian rugby.