Luke Burgess (second left) congratulates Wycliff Palu during the match between the Queensland Reds and the New South Wales Waratahs at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010. The Waratahs defeated the Reds 30-28. (AAP Image/Patrick Hamilton)
As I walked out of Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night, with Queensland Reds supporters drifting past me with their faces frozen masks of disappointment, their hearts broken with the last minute Waratahs try, I tried to work out whether the Reds are a good side or whether the NSW Waratahs are a weaker side than they were last year.
Next week’s Super Rugby round with the Reds playing the Crusaders at Suncorp Stadium and the Waratahs playing the Stormers at Cape Town will give us more clues as to an answer to this question.
On reflection, and this is subject to revision, of course, I think that Ewen McKenzie has stiffened up and improved the Reds and that Chris Hickey (again, I stress this is on the evidence of one away game) hasn’t done much with the strong squad he has with the Waratahs to improve on their performances last season.
In the Weekend Australian there was a detailed article by the paper’s rugby editor, the feisty and passionate (for Australia and Queensland) Wayne Smith about the do-or-die aspect of that night’s Super 14 match.
Smith pointed out that the Reds had won all the early Reds-Waratahs contests until a McKenzie-coached Waratahs stopped the rot in 2004. The Reds haven’t won their must-win match of the season since that defeat.
Suncorp Stadium is one of the great rugby (league and union) venues. It’s within walking distance of the CBD. The stands are almost vertical walls and you get a tremendous view of play from wherever you are. The surface, too, on Saturday night was perfect for interesting and exciting rugby to be played.
There was, as the television commentators like to say, an electric atmosphere around the ground as the faithful Reds fans, many of them resplendent in the team’s brazen colours. The jersey and scarf shop was doing a roaring trade.
A group of fans bustled past me. I heard one of the woman say: ‘Where’s Wally’s statue?’ This was a reminder that even Reds supporters have an allegiance to the game they play in maroon-coloured jerseys.
In the press box I had a long chat with Wayne Smith. He told me that the club rugby was strong. Rugby was strong in its traditional schools, with Brisbane Boys High School providing up to five players in the Australian Schoolboys side. But somehow this hasn’t translated into a strong showings by the Reds in the Super Rugby tournament of the last decade.
It was important for the Reds to be more competitive this year, he said, that they have been recently. If they were down the bottom of the table again, the crowd numbers would fall even further than they have in recent years.
Smith felt that something quintessentially Queensland was lost when John Connolly, the inaugural and initially successful Super Rugby coach, was not re-appointed after a couple of disappointing seasons. He went through the list of coaches, starting with Mark McBain through to Phil Mooney, who just weren’t up to the challenge.
He thought that the appointment of McKenzie could provide the stability and know-how lacking in previous regimes.
McKenzie, himself, in an article in the match program The Red Express, made it clear that ‘we will enter every match with the intention of winning.’ But he pointed out in the history of Super 14 only one team has gone through a season undefeated. But ‘we will not be running out there to finish second.’
The Reds, before a largish and boisterous crowd, started off strongly. There were massive roars when Berrick Barnes was monstered the first time he touched the ball. The roars turned to boos when he tried to kick for goal, and early on when he missed a long-range drop goal attempt.
Among the things that stood out as the entertaining game progressed were Will Genia’s enormous pass off the ground that put Quade Cooper outside his man time and time again.
Cooper is not my favourite player. He plays too much like a headless chicken at first five-eighths for my liking. I’d play him where Robbie Deans did mainly at inside centre. However, he made breaks, took the ball to the line and every so often produced magical flick passes that opened up play for his support runners.
One of his clever kick-offs, along the ground and barely 10m, was snaffled by the Reds and yet another onslaught on the Waratahs tryline was launched.
He also kicked goals with an unaccustomed accuracy and with a strange method that had him holding his right arm stiffly behind his back and then swinging it through as he put boot to ball.
The method worked, and the Reds backed up the kicking game with three tries, several of them sparked by devastating running from Genia.
Fireworks exploded when the tries were scored. The Zorba the Greek theme music (to the delight of this writer) got the spectators in a clappy-happy frame of mind. The crowd was animated in the expectation that against all the expert commentary and their own inner-most thoughts that a mighty victory was in the offing.
With 12 minutes remaining, the Waratahs scored. But they needed to score again and convert the try to win.
Daniel Halangahu kicked out on the full. The crowd exploded in ironic applause. But then from the scrum, the Waratahs pack won another tight head and the attacks on the Reds tryline continued.
I wrote in my notebook: ‘The Reds scrum is terrible and could lose them the game … But the Waratahs need the backs to do some decent running …’
The ground announcer, behaving like the 16th Reds player, sensed that it was time for the crowd to really get behind the home side.
The ‘We Are The Reds!’ song blared out around the ground. ‘We Are The Reds!’ the ground announcer chanted. The chant was taken up by the crowd. ‘We Are The Reds!’ resounded around the ground as the Waratahs moved the ball ever so close towards the Reds tryline.
The match clock showed 78 minutes had been played.
‘We Are The Reds!’ the crowd shouted as the Waratahs moved the ball from one runner to another. Then there was a spilled ball. An enormous roar filled the stadium. ‘We Are The Reds!’ the crowd shouted. Around me in the boxes grown men were hugging each like teenage kids.
But then, what’s this? The South African referee, Craig Joubert, for a second time, has ruled a penalty against the Reds.
The Waratahs have time for one more series of plays. An initial charge towards the line is stopped. ‘We Are The Reds!’
But it is obvious that that the Reds are out on their feet and short of tacklers if the ball is moved a couple of players wide.
Now Wycliff Palu has the ball. He’s careening towards the tryline like a runaway truck. He goes over the line under several Reds tacklers. Try! A scuffle breaks out. Clearly something has been said by the jubilant Waratahs players that hasn’t been appreciated by the Reds defenders.
While the scuffling is going on, time is ticking away. When the try was scored the match clock showed 89 minutes 20 seconds. Strictly speaking, only 40 seconds are allowed for kicks to be taken.
In theory, at least, there is time for one last play – a short kick-off, perhaps, a penalty won against the defending side and Cooper kicking for goal.
But it is not to be. While the scuffling is going on, Halangahu wanders around without setting up the ball. When he finally sets it up, the full-time whistle blasts. And then he kicks the winning conversion.
I look around to the patrons in the nearby boxes. Their faces, men and woman, are frozen grim and grey, as if they’ve been carved in marble.
Then outside, as a silent, stricken crowd filed away from the heartbreak and as I was wondering if such a dramatic loss might be enough for the faithful Reds to keep the faith, I saw a lanky, hirsute youth race away and yell to nobody in particular but to everybody probably: ‘That’s it. From now on I’m supporting the f….. Brumbies!’
titus
Guest
It's strange. Maybe I've missed something but in the IRB lawbook, law 15 deals with the tackle. A tackler is defined thus, "Opposition players who hold the ball carrier and bring that player to the ground, and who also go to the ground, are known as tacklers". There is absolutely no mention of players who tackle a ball carrier to the ground but they themselves are on their feet. It seems then that these players who tackle but stay on their feet are not technically 'tacklers". Extending that logic, players who perform a tackle whilst remaining on their feet are not required to release the tackled player. Presumably, as long as a ruck hasn't yet formed, the player on their feet can go for the ball with his hands without the now required "daylight" between himself and the ball carrier. Is this an oversight in the rulebook? Or can someone lead me to the correct law that deals with "tacklers" on their feet?
Mike G
Guest
Getting back to your original comment Smithy, I would like to see how the Tahs go without Mumm in the side. I'm still not convinced he's the best 6 we have, really feel Mowen offers more...Having said that, I've not seen enough of Roodt/Jowitt & Douglas to comment on whether they'd be better to partner Caldwell than Mumm
formeropenside
Guest
If there is a tackler on his feet, and tackled player on the ground, and no one else, then I dont think there is a ruck. The tackler having to release the ball in that situation is stupid, I think. Perhaps the answer is for the tackler to release and step over the tackled player, moving the offside line forward and past the tackled player. What a mess they made of the game when the took proper rucking out, and made mauling risky with use it or lose it. That just killed forward play.
eric
Guest
Jameswm, Halangahu debuted in 2006 and played 24 Super games in 06-08, before you noticed him last year. He couldn't have been doing much "huge defending" or you would have noticed him, surely! A far as I know, hands in a ruck is still illegal. A player should give up trying to pick up the ball once a ruck is formed. How this is applied of course is up to the refs.
Jameswm
Guest
Campbell was not soft. A but lacking in athleticism would be my comment, but tough and smart.
smithy09
Guest
You might be right. On Treloar he played Heineken cup last season and did very well as Captain of the Rays in the ARC when they won the comp but that was a few years ago now and the ARC is buried in a box somewhere. Campbell started alot of games for the Brumbies and did play for the Wallabies once or twice so he can't have been that soft. Both these guys are better than then back ups running around in S14 at the moment, bit older however which the rebels may see as a problem. Who knows, maybe some of them will come back for the challenge of playing what is the best domestic comp in the world... wishful thinking i know given and Euros and the yen make it very difficult... time will tell.
formeropenside
Guest
Smithy - why would any of those guys come back? MMM wanted to play for Qld this season but the ARU would not let him; if he was to return, it would be to the Reds. Treloar might return to Oz, but with the Tahs locking worries, if he was up to scratch he would never have been let go (he was cut by the Reds, and Tahs did not pick him up). Ed O'D is Ireland qualified now by having played for Ireland A, and is unlikely to return. Heenan might come back I suppose, but is (like MMM) probably happier earning lots of Yen rather than risk injury in the tougher Super comp. I dont know anything about Al Campbell. Wasn't he really soft? There is not enough money in Oz rugby to draw back all these players tossed around as returning from o/s. In short, if there was they would still be here and a lot of the borderline players making up Super squads would be out of a job. A 5th team wont help that, it will just dilute talent even further.
smithy09
Guest
My tip... NSW 0-2 in Sth Africa. Losing Mumm will hurt them, not because Ben Mowen isn't up to it but you have a bashed up Caldwell with a hammy that is no 100%, Kane Douglas who obviously has some talent but is young and the supposed saviour of the NSW second row Roodt who obviously hasn't been that impressive because they started an academy player in Douglas in front of him on Saturday night. Lets hope Caldwell holds up cause he is tough. Hopefully with this new Rebels Franchise the depth in trouble positions like second row will be bolstered. The are the likes of Al Campbell, Hugh McMeniman, Cameron Treloar, Ed Odonoghue and even Daniel Heenan who can play second row from the back row if needs be and who all have played super Rugby and the like of Campbell and McMeniman and Heenan the Wallabies. That is where the depth will come from.
Rickety Knees
Roar Guru
Agree - that was a dumb play - his exurberance got the better of him
Mike G
Guest
I too watched the game again last night, and agree with a few of your calls here Justin...Except I would say that Cooper was the better attacking 10, with Barnes the better Defending 10 (i thought he tackled his guts out). I know we're all keen to see the game return to it's attacking best, but let's not forget that D is just as important...The Tahs made some crucial tackles & I think this holds them in good stead further down the track. Going on from this, I saw a lot more potential to improve with the Tahs than I did the Reds, & the Tahs have the SA trip at a good time, so the team can gel off the field...I serisouly don't doubt for a second the Reds were the better side for 70 min's, but even they will tell you that's not good enough. Anyway, I hope for the Reds sake they can play at that level for the whole season, but history tells us they only get up like that for the Tahs match, so it's up to Link to break that cycle...Good luck to them I say!
Jameswm
Guest
Former openside - I don't think you do have to release it when you're on your feet. One of those penalties against Higginbotham at the end - he was on his feet, off his feet, on his feet - getting knocked off them but never released the ball. He was virtually lying over it in fact. I thought it was a pretty easy call.
formeropenside
Guest
I think the new ruck interpretation has gone too far in requiring even a player *on his feet* to release the ball carrier and then go for the ball again. That is appropriate if you are off your feet - or doing the McCaw slide - but when you make a solid tackle and stay standing, and there is no opposition to support the tackled player (so no ruck), then you should be able to go for the ball directly. Agreed however that as currently interpreted a penalty was proper, its just that the interpretation needs to be scaled back a little where the tackler retains his feet.
Jameswm
Guest
eric at club level Halangahu is a huge defender. I don't recall any different at S15 level and don't remember any or many tackles he had to make last Sat. You don't have to be big to be a good defender. As for him "always" struggling at the next level - he only really started last year and later in the season played very well. I don't know where that one came from. And I'm shaking my head at reading Qld fans saying they should be pleased despite the loss - that is, pleased after losing to NSW? Did I read that right? How long are you going to accept going OK, winning a few, and not being embarrassed? Another year? 2 years? You were at home against an opponent below their best. As for NSW's chances - it'd be premature to write them off after one game, a game which resulted in them getting their act together eventually and winning a derby away from home. I'll reserve judgement for another month at least. If they can come away from SA with one win from two, then at 2 and 1, all away from home, it's been a prety good start to the season.
san jorge
Guest
Too right Bay, if that had cost us the game.....
Glen
Guest
84% said... The schools raid the clubs (usually at the Qld Clubs State Championships), then forbid the boys from playing club in the following years. On top of this unless you are on the 1st 15 squad in the Brisbane schools the players only get nine or ten weeks training for six matches Wrong on both counts... the boys at GPS schools are encouraged to play for their school only... no boy is "banned" from playing club rugby or league. They only go to school there, they are not under any sort of contract and to to enforce such a rule would actually be illegal I think. I was on the Rugby committee of a leading GPS school for 6 years and it used to frustrate us enormously, but there was, and could never be a ban. My own son played for the college on Saturday and played for Jeeps on Sunday. Training for 9 weeks???? In your dreams mate... even the 3rd's did more than 12 weeks. What were all those afternoon training sessions every second day for two terms that I had to endure waiting on the sideline for the session to finish. Finally, the coaching is better at club level?? How on earth do you quantify or qualify that? The vast majority of club teams, are coached by dads and uncles living their rugby days all over again. BTW State high actually had 8 players in the Aussie schoolboys team not 5.
Lindommer
Guest
There is no such thing as a "double movement" in rugby, nor has there ever been. Was there a lot of league played at your school, Lee?
Lindommer
Guest
And the minute starts when the kicking tee arrives. There's no limit in the Laws how long it should take to present the tee to the kicker, other than the general law about wasting time. A very good argument could be mounted to stop the clock when the ref puts his arm up to signal a try and restart the clock at the ensuing kickoff.
Justin
Guest
Just watched the replay. My thoughts are that QLD were outplayed in the set piece but were the better side almost everywhere else. \ NSW scrum was terrific but having Waugh at 8 on their ball is just stupidity. At one stage the ball spewed quickly out between his legs, costing NSW yards and momentum and another time the Reds actually messed up the scrum and Waugh isnt big enough to handle people all over him. Palu is excellent off the back, is big, strong, makes yards and has superior skills. Its a no brainer! NSW won some crucial LOs late, with a couple of weak throws from Fainga. He is a rubbish thrower and not much better round the park although he was more involved than I have seen in the past. QLD backrow was the better on the night. The QLD backs were so much better and looked more dangerous than NSW. NSW looked devoid of ideas. Some have blamed Burgess slow service where he stands over the ball. He did do that but it was generally when he was hitting a forward one off the ruck. For mine it didnt disrupt the backline much at all. I actually thought he passed pretty well (minor miracle). Both sets of centres were useless. Ioane needs to come into 13 to give some punch. Then Morahan or Chambers can come in and replace either Turinui or Fainga, probably the former Cooper clearly outpointed Barnes. He has vision, footwork and flair. Barnes just seems to either have a run himself (to little effect) or shovel the ball to the next man. No use of angles or dummy runners. Very boing and easy to pick off. Cooper was everywhere, counter-attacking, orchestrating half breaks, full breaks, deft chips and good punting. Easily the more dangerous player although he will be pissed off about the miss on CP at the end. There is plenty to like about QLD, the have some steel but need to get that scrum right quickly. They play attractive football. The wins will come if they stick at it. I am really not sure what the coaching staff at NSW are doing. I see little change from last year and there is still huge doubts about the backs outside the back 3 who looked quite good and will get better with more combination.
Bay35Pablo
Roar Guru
Sidey needs to learn to set up conversions better. Almost leapt through the TV to slap him to not getting closer to the posts.
Bay35Pablo
Roar Guru
WNM, I said it before myself, but I agree with you on Anesi. I like the cut of his jib.