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The Reds’ 45-19 loss to the Rebels was clearly disappointing for the Reds faithful, but I still enjoyed watching an entertaining losing game of footy like only a Reds and Wallabies fan can. And there were definitely a few take homes from the performance which I reckon are worth talking about, so here goes.
1. In 2018 if you are loose, you lose
The Reds were handed a manure sandwich in the nith minute by none other than their new Captain Courageous, Scott Higginbotham, who dropped his shoulder into Matt Phillip’s head and was red carded for his trouble.
It was a stupid act by a player who should know better, but coach Brad Thorn needs to make sure right now that this isn’t a systemic issue. In times gone by players may have gotten away with that sort of thing, but with World Rugby taking a very dim view of head contact it won’t wash in 2018.
As Thorn’s old Captain Richie McCaw said in his book, don’t whinge when rugby changes, just adapt, so Thorn needs to ensure that his coaching is adapted to the new reality.
2. The best defence to ever leak 45 points
Thorn has rightly placed emphasis on improving the Reds’ defence this season and despite leaking seven tries, it was actually pretty good in the context of playing a man down for 61 minutes and two men down for 10.
The Red’s tackle completions were 78 per cent, by comparison the Rebels were at 58 per cent, so for a depleted team the Reds did very well at defending.
The Rebels scored a lot of their tries off lineouts of scrum penalties against a depleted reds scrum, and most of the tries not because of poor tackling, rather good exploitation of overlaps and mismatches by the Rebels. So I still have some comfort in the Reds’ defence going forward.
3. Attacking enterprise
For a depleted team the Reds showed a lot of enterprise in attack, scoring one of their tries with 14 players on the park and another with 13.
The last try in particular, by Chris Feauai-Sautia was a long range ensemble effort that shows that this young team has a lot of potential.
Samu Kerevi’s cross field kick, which didn’t come off by which was a good effort, as well as Aiden Toua’s effort to set up a kick chase at the death, showed that these Reds aren’t scared to take chances and they have the raw material to turn those chances into tries.
4. Spend more time on catch, pass and kick
While the Reds may have the raw material in attack, it is not enough if those players core skills let them down when it counts. Handling and kicking errors persist like they did in the trial game against the Fiji Warriors last week, and perhaps suggest that for the next few weeks Thorn needs to recalibrate training schedules away from defence and fitness, and towards skills.
5. Run straight from 10 and run the attack from 15
Jono Lance seems to me to be a bit rusty after some time off with injury, as he isn’t a player normally associated with the kicking and passing errors that we have seen. Hopefully emphasis on skills will get him back up to speed.
However, his running game shows unrealised potential. Lance isn’t a speedster but he is solid and evasive, so can typically break a couple of tackles to make good ground. Unfortunately against the Rebels he just wasn’t getting the support he needed to turn it into more.
I would suggest support play to take advantage of Lance’s running game should be a big emphasis at Reds training going forward, as well as perhaps Lance himself practicing getting the ball to the toe for a speculative kick chase when there are no other options.
At 15 Aiden Toua showed himself to be an enterprising playmaker, with a natural ability to find space, make long and accurate passes and kick in attack, evidenced by his close involvement in the second and third tries of the match.
He has only been back at the Reds for a couple of weeks, but as the combinations develop I wonder whether he could be encouraged to step up and play an even greater role in calling the shots in attack, much like Hunt did last year and like Beale does for the Tahs?
Having a hole running 10 to create space, backed up by a second-wide running playmaker works well for them, so I would like to see Lance and Toua try to combine in that way to spark the Reds attack.
Until next week and the Brumbies, we are Red!
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.