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Queensland Reds players Quade Cooper (l) and Peter Hynes (r) jubilate during the Reds win over the Bulls during the Super 14 match between the Queensland Reds and the Bulls of South Africa at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Saturday, April 17, 2010. AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Arms held aloft, players embracing and the crowd still roaring long after the final siren. You would have thought the Super 14 title had been secured, but on a spiritual level, this was far more important than that.
After several seasons of pedestrian dreck, the Australian rugby public was finally served up a performance as good as any in the history of daring, running, Australian-style rugby. Fans, not just at Suncorp Stadium, but right around the country, were on their feet applauding the Reds and their resurrection of the true Australian style of rugby union football.
Certainly Australian teams have beaten good teams recently, but it is more than a decade, perhaps longer, since an Australian team took on a true southern hemisphere giant at the peak of its game, and beat it in true Australian fashion, with a forward pack playing above itself and a backline simply backing itself.
Ewen McKenzie may have been channelling 1963 Wallaby coach Bill McLaughlin when he took over the Reds this year. In 1963, with a young team of Wallaby hopefuls struggling in South Africa, McLaughlin held a famous team meeting in bleak hamlet of Potchefstroom and declared to his team, “Australian teams have always been known for running the ball, and that’s what we’re going to do from now on.”
The largely unknown 1963 Wallabies went on to post two, almost 3, Test wins on South African soil, and become one of the best-remembered Wallaby teams of all time.
Legends were made on that tour – names like Catchpole, Thornett, Hawthorne, Heming, Crittle, Davis, Boyce and Guerassimoff are still remembered with reverence. Tonights Reds performance was as significant for Australian rugby as the 1963 Wallabies second Test win.
So don’t be surprised when this year the Wallabies are full of Reds, because they have revived the true spirit of Australian rugby, playing the way that we have always played, playing the bedrock style upon which our very rugby heritage was built.
Other teams have flirted with field position, and win-at-all-costs styles, but the greatest of Australian victories have always come in the Australian style, with aggressive forwards laying a foundation for adventurous, talented, running backs.
For the team of Reds young guns to take on and beat the Bulls means that all of a sudden there is a logjam for Wallaby jerseys. And a field of young players full of belief in themselves, who have proven that they can take on and beat the best in the business, are clamouring for spots.
Of course, names like Cooper and Genia pick themselves, but expect also to see players like Rod Davies, Scott Higginbotham, Saia Faingaa and Will Chambers to appear in the train-on squad. Davies particularly must be challenging for a spot in the 22.
A playercam on Rod Davies would make for compelling viewing. He seemed to be all over this game, doing everything at full pace or with full commitment. He is strong in contact and a tremendous finisher – exactly the sort of player that Robbie Deans saw in Peter Hynes when he plucked him out of the Reds to the Wallabies in 2008. Davies is easily as effective as Drew Mitchell – the shame of this season is that the Reds and the Waratahs have already played, and the Tahs jumped the Reds before they got into their stride.
When the Reds took the Faingaa brothers off the Brumbies hands, I remember describing them over breakfast to a rugby mate one day as “a couple of lemons”. More fool me – the eggs I was eating that day have ended up all over my face. These two lemons have made pitchers of lemonade time and again this year for the Reds, neither more so than hooker Saia last night against the Bulls. Saia Faingaa was everywhere in a helter-skelter first 20 minutes, and then continued his run right through the game until he was replaced by Hardman with 10 minutes left on the clock.
He tirelessly trucked the ball into the brick wall of the Bulls defence, made his tackles with fierce intent, marshalled a competitive scrum, and, in a lineout facing the best in the world in Victor Matfield, never missed a lineout throw. If there’s a better hooker in Australia right now, it’s Tatafu Polota-Nau, but an aimless Stephen Moore playing in a lacklustre Brumbies outfit must be cringing at the thought of the tap on the shoulder from the Test selectors.
In 2008, I was lucky enough to see Scott Higginbotham score a 40 metre try against some of the fastest players in world Sevens, so his pace was never in doubt tonight when he chased 60 metres to beat two Bulls to a Genia kick and score a crucial try. The difference between the 2008 Higginbotham and the 2010 version, is that this year’s edition has a new physicality (he is benching 170kg in the gym) and a rare commitment (witness his try-scoring chase).
He was unlucky not to score earlier in the match when a dubious knock-on call pulled him up completely in the clear, but he still made his presence felt at breakdown and defence time. He missed Zane Kirchner at the beginning of the movement which led to the Bulls try, but that was just about his only error, and Test selectors looking for fast physical options in the Test backrow, must surely weigh up Higginbotham favourably against the likes of the smaller and less-disciplined Richard Brown.
Will Chambers is no longer the apprentice, showing everything that the Storm saw in him when they picked him in their rugby league NRL premiership winning team in 2009. His out-of-the-back-of-the-hand pass in contact to Anthony Faingaa for Davies’ try was pure rugby league and would have done Darren Lockyer proud. But that wasn’t all – Chambers came to play. His defence was solid, he ran hard, and added the golden touch above to cap it off, whilst continually talking and exhorting his mates on to greater effort.
Although these guys were standouts, on last nights form you wouldn’t be surprised to see any of the Reds appear in the Wallaby train-on squad, even if only as a reward for their self-belief. Laurie Weeks, Ben Daley, Rob Simmons, Van Humphries and Leroy Houston all took on the Bulls with malicious delight, taking the ball forward and tackling until their legs and shoulders gave out – except they didn’t.
The only non-Aussie in the pack, Daniel Braid, must also have the NZ selectors muttering coarse oaths at the thought of him not being available for the All Blacks as he is technically an overseas player. His current form in a NZ team would surely see him in the All Black squad.
This was no second-rate Bulls side. The Reds were returning from the notoriously difficult South African leg of their Super 14, enduring the west-to-east travel leg which saps the legs and the desire. If anything, it was expected that the Bulls would come home stronger after their New Zealand leg and a week on the Gold Coast.
But the Reds continually forced the pace of the game, and maintained possession through 98 phases to the Bulls 60 or so, forcing the Bulls to tackle, tackle, tackle. In the end fatigue set in and the Reds committed defence simply shut the Bulls out of the game. They couldn’t get their rolling maul going, and their scrum was beaten in a points victory to the home side.
In fact, had Cooper not missed 2 penalties and 2 conversions, and one of three near-tries been scored, the Reds could have won by 20. Davies was wafted off his feet when a Morne Steyn ankle tap oh-so-lightly brushed his heel; Higginbotham was unlucky with a knock on call when he also would have scored; and Quade Cooper actually made it over the line, scored and celebrated, but was called back for a knock forward.
Everyone knows if your aunty had a beard, she’d be your uncle, but the point is that the Reds pressured their way to a win over the past masters at pressure rugby. The Super 14 graveyards are littered with the carcases of those teams which the Bulls simply drowned over 80 minutes of rugby, driven under and submerged by pressure mounted on pressure.
But tonight was the Reds night, and a memorable one for Australian rugby. When you look back at pivotal matches in our rugby history, this one will stand out. A legitimate vistory by an adventurous side over a great provincial team.
And where now we talk about Reds and Test greats of the likes of Little, Horan, McLean, Moon, Gould, Herbert and Grigg, don’t be surprised if in a few years we’re adding Davies, Chambers, Faingaa and Higginbotham to that list.
Oh and Cooper, Genia and coach McKenzie? Well, that’s easy. They’re just brilliant.