There is a lot of speculation regarding whether the way the Waratahs play is driven by the coach, admin, captain or happens unplanned by the players on the field. A recent Josh Rakic interview of Kurtley Beale is revealing.
The full article on the RugbyHeaven site shows the general premise of the article is Kurtley wanting more ball.
Beale is a professional player who is paied a lot more if he is playing for the Wallabies and not just the Waratahs, it is also a World Cup year which brings a huge personal motivation as well.
The quotes from Beale that were quite telling for me were:
“We’re just going to try hard for the win – it doesn’t matter how we get it.”
Beale is a natural attacker whose first instinct is to score points. This is a telling comment that there is a team decision directing the team on how to play.
When Beale is saying ‘it doesn’t matter how we get it’ then you realise the win ugly mantra is in full force at the club.
“While we do say we want to kick and turn the pressure onto the opposition, there are only limited opportunities out there on the field and once those opportunities come up we must take them.”
Again this quote suggests that the starting mentality of the team is to kick and wait for errors and then capitalise. This is negative, succesful teams make the play, waiting for errors from the best teams in the comp will be suicidal.
“The Force’s strategy was to kick to me and wait for me to get frustrated of kicking the ball back so I would run the ball back at David Pocock, Matt Hodgson and Ben McCalman all waiting for me, I had to pick and choose. I couldn’t be silly about it. And making the right choices is something I think we’re doing but it’s our execution that’s the issue.”
The problem with this comment is that it accepts that based on the opposition tactic that they only had one option in response to kick it back.
Beale correctly points out that a lot of the go forward men are missing through injury in Polota-Nau, Palu, Horne and Mitchell but they are still carrying Wallabies and an All Black in Cross, Anesi, Turner and Beale in the outside backs and in Burgess and Barnes in the halves.
If the team genuinely believe they can be a force in the competition then they need to be able to impose their game plan on the opposition and not allow themselves to be dictated to.
A major part of the problem for mine is a lack of trust although the article suggests it is a lack of communication:
“There were times when opportunities were there but the communication wasn’t there for the ball-players.”
This implies that kicks are coming when there is a chance to have a run because the call for the ball is not happening and is backed up by this quote:
“Tommy Carter and Ryan Cross in the centres, the three of us have to be more vocal towards each other. We need to get real serious with ourselves and demand the ball when we see opportunities. That’s my focus.”
If this is a major part of the problem and we have a player committing to be the solution then that is to be applauded.
Not mentioned in this article is the narrowness and bunching up of the forwards. Under pressure they tighten up under direction from Burgess and take the ball up from standing starts just off the halfback.
In the Force match they eventually even cut the half out and took to rumbling almost exclusively through forwards picking up from the base of the ruck to punch forward.
Although making ground it meant the team did not stretch the defence at all and also did not give the backs confidence to go wide without any support from the forwards.
Contrast with the Reds and other leading teams who occaisionally use the tight forward runner but also use their forwards to hit up wide, either by having forwards running in the centres or using a long flat pass to allow the forwards to run onto the ball wider of the breakdown.
This puts doubt into the defensive line and if quick ball is acheived creates the holes that wider, quicker runners can go at.
The Waratahs played compelling rugby in their first two matches but have since narrowed and simplified their forward play and appear to have lost the confidence to take the ball wide and hence are kicking aimlessly. One final quote from Beale which is also very true:
“It’s our execution that’s the issue. We’re spraying our kicks everywhere and it doesn’t look good.”
Purposeful kicks, well executed and well chased are always going to be a part of rugby, yet frustration for this Waratah fan comes in when someone takes it into their head to run, a couple of good phases which make metres are put together and then an aimless kick comes in. Or they go into their forward punch up shell; little drives come through and the inside backs start joining in rucks and driving mauls then the balance of the attacking structure is flawed.
This week the Waratahs are having a Fan Forum to take feedback from the fans. I’ll be interested to know how many Waratahs fans turn up and keen to know how constructive they will be in their criticisms, complaints and suggestions. This little black duck is in Singapore but will be keen to know what happens at the meeting.
Tactically have I missed anything? I guess I haven’t talked about the pace of the Tahs pack and their ability to play wider.
Will you be attending the Fan Forum? Do Beale’s comments fill you with confidence or concern? Is it impossible for the ‘Tahs to play like they did in the first two games of the season without getting missing cattle back? Or can they adjust their style of play and regain the hearts of their fans?
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