Beale and Pocock in line for major award

Hey Frank, I was having a look around that Green and Gold Rugby site and they had an article on Wallaby defensive statistics and this discussion came to mind. According to that site, Beale had a tackle completion rate of 74% - he misses one in every 4 tackles he attempts, I reckon his tackling is not only an issue, but in fact a huge problem. That's poor. For reference, Quade Cooper had a 60% completion rate but most other players are in the 80s and 90s.

Dwyer barely even pays attention to the matches he analyses. Great coach, poor pundit.

Did you even watch that video? Yes, Dagg goes between two in the defensive line - who both try and tackle him, he puts a step on Spies and hands off/steps Burger before beating the tackles of Aplon and Kirchner. If you apply your logic only Fourie had the duty of tackling Beale but he still beat those other guys. And that pass by Beale was forward - O'Connor is in front of Beale when he catches the pass, and it's not one of those 'hand back momentum" passes either, cause Beale is crabbing across the pitch with no forward momentum. You're not doing yourself any favours with that sort of monocular stigmatism, there Frank.

I didn't know Byrne played last night. Missed that game. He missed the previous week's game with injury. He also missed other Tests too.

Goes between two? Only one had the duty of tackling him, and he failed. Said another way, every person who ever made a line break in the history of rugby union has 'beaten two defenders.' Beale's pass was not forward. And his attempted tackle on Jane wasn't poor at all. You're seeing things.

Byrne played last night.

No, the video analysis is brilliant, as are the blogs posted by Bob Dwyer. Love that coach.

Kearney was poor in this year's Six Nations. Byrne has been injured for a while. You lose Danny Boi!

McCaw, brilliant player or just a big bully meanie cheat? You decide! Hey, there's potential for an article there gb.

He's only saying that because of stuff I've said about the green and gold website, aren't you Frank?

And I can't take G&GR seriously after that ludicrously one eyed "All Blacks at the Breakdown" video.

Personally, I think it's a two horse race between Rob Kearney and Lee Byrne.

"he didn’t step FOUR Springbok defenders" Er, yes he did. Goes between two in the defending line, then beats the tackle of the winger and steps the fullback.

It was a good try other than the HUGE FORWARD PASS to O'Connor. Dagg's was better, IMO. Here's the Chch highlights, the try is at about 30 seconds. HIs problem is his footwork - in both this try and the Jane one, he actually gets into a good position to make a tackle, but he comes in too upright and doesn't anticipate the attacking players position properly, so he gets brushed off or ends up grasping at thin air. He gets stepped by Habana on the kick chase in that video you linked to (at :59 for the same reason) he gets there, but not in a position to actually make a tackle.

Yeah I prefer that to this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx4fc9oRerw Great try, but he didn't step FOUR Springbok defenders like Beale did.

Yes jolly good Jerry, we'll agree to disagree. "By the way, what did you reckon was the try of the year that you alluded to earlier?" The try where Kurtley Beale stepped four Springboks (ala Dagg), got the pass off to Elsom, supported Elsom, and then passed the ball to O'Connor for O'Connor's try. It won an award at the John Eales medal for try of the year. Here it is on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0q8CYbFApA I promise greenandgoldrugby is the greatest website ever known to man. As for Jane stepping inside of him at Hong Kong. Most wingers in the world would score that. I don't remember the one you're talking about involving Mils.

Ah well, agree to disagree. But I don't think it's ridiculous to talk about Beale getting stepped inside (or indeed, being a poor tackler) when it happens consistently. No fullback is gonna stop all those tries, but some of his efforts (eg his weakass effort on Jane in HK or his grab at Mils on the outside in Christchurch) are just awful. By the way, what did you reckon was the try of the year that you alluded to earlier?

Beale has set-up more tries than he's scored. Drew Mitchell scored nine tries this year. Many of them came about because of Beale. It's the same with O'Connor. Beale = wingers scoring tries. People who talk about Beale getting stepped inside of by wingers are being ridiculous. Most wingers score in those situations. When it's just the winger versus the fullback, and the fullback is running across in cover, the winger should be able to beat the fullback on either side. I can't count how many times I've seen a winger step inside the fullback, because you know, at the speed wingers run, THEY SHOULD be able to easily do that. It's a sad thing in rugby: a player gets a reputation for being a bad defender (which Beale was) and suddenly he's judged by ridiculous standards, because people look extra close at that area of the game. If Quade Cooper improves in that area he'll still get chewed-out. Nah Beale has been better than Mils this year.

"He set-up the try of the year" Beale set up Israel Dagg stepping 4 Boks in Wellington? That's pretty impressive. Beale has had great moments in many games, but I don't think he's been consistently great even in those last 8 matches. He outplayed Mils in HK for sure, but he's still struggling with some basics of fullback play - he seems incapable of not being stepped in the corner on cover defence for instance (see Pietersen in SA, Jane in HK. Mils has all the basics down and is producing some great touches too - he's scored the same amount of tries as Beale has, by the way.

He had what? Two/three average Tests before he found his feet? If it's just Test match rugby we're going on, then he's had around eight great games this year where he's been one of the best Wallaby players. If it's just Test matches this award is based on, then Beale played as well as anybody had in his last eight Tests. That said, I'm expecting Pocock to get this award. He's been excellent all year, while Beale took two/three Tests to get going. Pocock stands out like Chris Judd stands out in AFL too. McCaw might get it. Despite his cheating, he was very impressive in Sydney this year. He was also good in the loose in Hong Kong. He really is one of the greatest カンニング players of all time.