Yesterday we looked at the Rebels’ first year in Super Rugby as a team. Today, we’ll look at some outstanding individual performances:
Ged Robinson was a revelation at hooker, working hard in attack and defence, as well as doing a sound job at set pieces. He would be in my New Zealand World Cup squad.
Gareth Delve thoroughly deserved to be recalled to Wales World Cup squad. Tireless on the field and a leader to whom the rest of the team listened. His season was marred only by conceding a lot of penalties in later matches.
Jarrod Saffy will go close to World Cup selection for Australia.
A non-stop worker, he just needs a little more guidance about how to contest breakdowns.
Nick Phipps is close to the second-best halfback in Australia. A good, tough defender, his long pass is better than Burgess’, and he clears the ball more reliably. He needs to work on his attack.
Mark Gerrard oozed class, especially at fullback. Good defender, great kicker, good step and fend in attack. May be the answer to Australia’s outside-centre problem given he spent much of the season there (unlike Ashley-Cooper).
Greg Somerville showed he was still capable of getting parity with – or superiority over – any loosehead prop. Not so successful when switched from tighthead to loosehead. His value was shown by how many minutes he played. His retirement will be a big loss.
Hugh Pyle was a surprise but played as well as any second-rower in the middle part of the season. On the fringe of the World Cup squad.
Of the other players:
Richard Kingi showed the value of the sevens program in developing players’ ability to beat an opponent one-on-one and to know how and when to link with teammates. He deservedly played at wing and fullback even though lacking some positional skills.
Stirling Mortlock is still a great defender but his contribution in attack was much more limited. Alas, age (and a string of serious injuries) looks as though it is wearying him. May not play much next year if Cipriani stays. (O’Connor to inside centre, Gerrard at outside centre, Beale at fullback, Kingi and Vuna on the wings.)
Luke Rooney was a disappointment.
I never saw him play league but expected much more of someone who played Origin and for Australia. It wasn’t that he was bad but I expected something more than average: speed perhaps, a step, a good fend, a big boot, exceptional defence, but there were none of those.
Now to wait and see what happens next year.
gatesy
Roar Guru
I enjoyed your articles, David. Rod MacQueen may have brought preconceived ideas to the mix, based on his last involvement some years before. The game has changed and advanced in the way teams go about their defensive patterns. Rod was coaching in the new era of professionalism, and I prefer to accept your hypothesis that his extra-curricular duties in promoting the club and the ethos may have been the reason that he was not as fully focussed as he migt have been. He clearly had a succession plan, though, and Damian Hill is a good choice. You would expect him to do well, next year, with fewer distractions. History will ultimately show that they got off to a reasonable start, in the circumstances. Next year will be interesting because I don't think that the community in Melbourne will be quite as forgiving the next time around. Sincerely hope the Army gets bigger and better, because it has been interesting watching them from the sidelines, and I hope you are wrong about Stirlo - I'd love to see him get one more chance with the Wallabies. The only one of my early season predictions that went awry was Luke Rooney - he seemed all at sea .. hopefully he now gets some club rugby under his belt, and gets some good mentoring in the off season. It may be that he has not yet found his best position, but lack of a kicking game does seem to limit him. Beale and O'Connor will bring a whole new dynamic to the backline, so that might be the catalyst for change .. all in all, lots to look forward to, and I'm definitly itching to experience the AAMI Park atmosphere, next season.
David Morgan
Guest
Hard for me to tell how the coaching staff went. After 3 wins from 7 matches they looked like stars; after 9 consecutive losses when seemingly obvious defensive problems weren't resolved they looked like they weren't effective. Was that because they didn't have the skill, because they hadn't designated roles adequately (it's not clear looking at the club's website who was responsible for defence) or because they couldn't communicate to the players what they wanted of them? From what I read and saw Rod Macqueen was hands off -- but that was his style in the past (think the World Cup and Lions tour). And his workload in establishing the team in business, political and community circles in Melbourne was substantial -- I know of a number of dinners he (often with Stirling Mortlock) attended to "sell" the team. Does that mean the rest of the team wasn't up to the "on the field" coaching tasks? Their past record would suggest that wasn't the problem as only Nathan Grey was new to this level of coaching. Maybe making a new team gel really is a hard task, whoever the coaches are. The records of the other new teams would support that theory.
David Morgan
Guest
Kingplaymaker makes a fair point. The fault was mine: I sent the editors two versions of the article (memo to self: don't press send until checking that it's the latest edit) and the first one unintentionally omitted the following additional comments: Julian Huxley looked supremely confident in the last trial match. His positional play and kicking at fullback was very good; he made the tackles he needed to. But something happened during the season: don’t know if it was because he was moved to the centres and five-eighth but he ended looking a player bereft of confidence. Michael Lipman, like his fellow backrowers, played well, although he’s not an out-and-out fetcher style of number seven. Whether that was the reason, the backrow wasn’t as effective as a unit as the team needed: it’s not just their job to slow the opponents’ ball down and win turnovers but the team suffered when that didn’t happen. Finally, Danny Cipriani. He is a very talented footballer, with a superb, and highly varied kicking game. The try he scored against Natal is one of the great individual tries. Unlike many other five-eighths, he always takes the ball on the move, putting the defence in two minds. And his running lines are intriguing: like Giteau he heads across the field. Unlike Giteau, he rarely crowds his outside backs when he does this -- because he is simultaneously running towards the opponents. His defence is not strong but it got worse as he was moved to different positions to "hide" him. If he can grow up to become a team player he has a great future. Will be interesting to see if he is more committed with more young, talented players outside him. I'm hoping that Beale's and O'Connor's desire to play well will drive Cipriani to try harder.
AussieKiwi
Guest
Yes Cipriani was the only x factor player the Rebels had this season (despite his defence or lack thereof). He really has the capacity to change games. He reminds me of Cooper and they both remind me of Campese - they can win you the match nine times out of ten, and on the tenth they will probably lose it for you with some crazy rash play. Always exciting and the fans love them. Let's hope Cipriani thrives with his new star studded backline.
Melb Rebel
Guest
how would you rate the coaching staff?
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
This article unfortunately ignores the fact that Danny Cipriani won all the matches and that the team imploded without him, and were subsequently reduced to quivering rubble until his return. His performances were of a significantly higher class than anyone else in the team. An objective article would have recognised this and been able to acknowledge his abilities and performance in spite of his off the field antics, which are a separate issue. This article has comfused the two and therefore comes under the category of prejudice, not objectivity.