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The first seven rounds of Super Rugby have been excellent, on the whole, and it’s been the young playmakers that have so far lit up the Australian conference. Except, perhaps, for round eight just completed.
I didn’t get to see much of the Brumbies’ re-jigged backline the previous round, with Matt Toomua at flyhalf, Matt Giteau at inside centre, and Christian Lealiifano at fullback, and it was good to see the ever-loudening calls for Toomua’s selection finally heeded.
But the thing about this concept of three playmakers is that it leaves a pretty small margin for error.
If it clicks, then the New Zealand method of first- and second-fives could look so, like, yesterday. But if it doesn’t click, well, you get what the Brumbies served up on Saturday night in Canberra against the similarly-struggling Hurricanes.
The first thing that struck me about the Brumbies’ creative triangle was that they had lined up in the same formation as in Invercragill, with Toomua at flyhalf, Giteau at inside centre, and Lealiifano at fullback again. This wasn’t a great surprise; they’d apparently been training that way all week.
So then why not just name the team that way? If you’ve played in a new formation the week before, and trained that same way all week, what’s to gain by running Giteau out in 10, Lealiifano in 12, and Toomua in 15?
I’m digressing on a trivial matter, I suppose, but it’s not as if anyone was greatly surprised to see them line up the way they did. Numbers on jerseys still mean something in rugby, so why not respect that?
The second thing I noticed was that Toomua still employs that low, wide, raking style of punt kick that has so often in the past left him prone to charge downs.
And barely had I finished noticing this, than Toomua had not one but two kicks charged down in the same phase, with the second leading to the Hurricanes’ only try for the match.
That low, wide, raking punt kick looks fine, and is great for distance, as Mark Gerrard reminds us every week for the Melbourne Rebels. But there’s one significant advantage Gerrard has over Toomua with this method: Gerrard doesn’t have to kick from the front line with quickly-arriving defenders.
Those charged-down kicks, as it turned out, were a fair indication of what sort of night Toomua would have.
On the plus side, Toomua’s presence at 10 immediately frees up Giteau, and he in turn looked so much more relaxed and effective with more time. What’s more, Giteau was getting the ball on the front foot in space, with Toomua having to handle the smorgasbord of variable passing quality that comes from Josh Valentine these days.
I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Giteau’s best games this year have been at 12 with Toomua inside at 10 – and never mind what numbers they might be wearing.
Unfortunately for Toomua, the game never panned out into that classic type for a flyhalf.
Butchered Brumbies opportunities, some slick Hurricanes work at the breakdown, and the Hurricanes constant infringements in their own 22 (I counted at least six – how many do you need for a yellow card these days?), meant that the game never reached amazing heights.
By midway through the second half, Toomua was relegated to steering the forwards’ pick-and-drive like a rugby league halfback, only to step aside while Lealiifano and Giteau unleashed the backs. Considering the depth and breadth of experience of the Brumbies’ caretaker coach, perhaps that was actually part of the game plan.
A co-operative newborn and the quickly clearing traffic from the Brumbies’ smallest crowd in ten years meant that I was able to see more of the Force-Waratahs game than I had anticipated.
And while the game was effectively dead when I switched it on just before halftime, it was quickly obvious that the Force’s gamble to play James O’Connor at fullback had not gone well.
With Willie Ripia finally making his debut at flyhalf for the Force, O’Connor was shuffled to the back, but the Waratahs’ dominance of this encounter meant that O’Connor never really an opportunity to inject himself.
Funnily enough, Tahs’ flyhalf Kurtley Beale didn’t have to do a lot either, for Saturday night was most definitely the Luke Burgess show, and his best game of the year.
The Force clearly missed O’Connor, too, because their attack was a shadow of what it has been in previous weeks.
Whether this can be put down solely to Ripia’s presence is debateable, but it was obvious that the Force’s new combinations had little idea of what to do with ball in hand.
I’ve long thought Gene Fairbanks to be a vastly underrated player, and it’s great to see him playing in Australia again, but it’s hard seeing him hold onto the Force number 12 next week. I haven’t found myself agreeing with the great David Lord much in recent weeks, but in this case, I do: O’Connor has to play 12 for the rest of the comp.
By daybreak Sunday, the Queensland Reds found themselves in territory not seen since John Connolly was last considered an effective coach, leading the Super Rugby competition after a very impressive win over the unbeaten Stormers in Cape Town.
But as with his state counterparts, Quade Cooper found that the game wasn’t going to be one for his ingenuity. To his credit, he nonetheless made sure he had his kicking boots on, with his kicking in general play allowing the Reds to stay out of Peter Grant’s kicking range. His forwards more than accepted the defensive gauntlet that the Stormers were always going to throw down.
This win could go be marked as a significant point in the season should the Reds become genuine title contenders, and two wins from two attempts in South Africa is a record they can be very proud of.
Even if their playmaker did have to leave the cue in the rack for the weekend.