SPIRO: Beale and Folau brilliant, Mogg subbed

This was one of the best rounds of the 2013 Super Rugby tournament.

We had the first four matches going past the stipulated 80 minutes as sides either tried to hold on to a close lead and their opponents banged away for to achieve a win, or in the case of the Force and Reds, try to break a tie deadlock.

For supporters of all eight sides who partook in the weekend’s matches, the Blues – Stormers, the Rebels – Chiefs, the Highlanders – Sharks, and the Brumbies – Crusaders, it was gut-wrenching drama with the anarchical nature of rugby, a game that does not lend itself to neat structures like rugby league, there was always the dread or the thrill of the unexpected.

Without denigrating either game, rugby and league, both of them terrific spectacles at their best, I have always believed that league has the neatness and often the predictability of rhyming couplets while rugby has the untidiness and sometimes grandeur of blank verse.

The interesting aspect of the round from an Australian perspective, and with the supporter’s one-eyed approach on the looming British and Irish Lions tour in mind, was that the bottom three Australian sides (the Rebels, Force and particularly the Wartatahs) all played well while the top two teams (the Reds and the Brumbies) were off their games.

The Rebels scored five tries against the top New Zealand side, the Chiefs. Unfortunately, they conceded six tries themselves. But in other years their play would have gained them more wins than the two they’ve won so far.

Their defence, despite the fact that the guru himself John Muggleton is laying down the tactics, is the problem.

The iron law of rugby is that if you concede more tries than you score you are going to lose most of your matches. Up to this weekend, the Rebels had scored 16 tries and conceded 33. The score is now 39 conceded and 21 conceded.

Kurtley Beale made his dramatic entrance at the 48th minute with the scoreline reading Chiefs 31 – Rebels 14. The Chiefs had just scored.

Beale kicked off – and out on the full. But then within minutes he linked up with James O’Connor to set up a try and then on a curving run, like the sharp blade of scythe, he raced away for a brilliant solo try.

Those few minutes had one message: the brilliant Beale is back!

The Reds recorded their second draw this season with the 11 – 11 result against the Force at Perth. For a team aspiring to win the Australian Conference and then put itself into contention for winning the tournament, this draw really represented a loss.

For the Force, the draw was a sort of victory.

Early last season, the Reds management decided for reasons that reflect no credit on them not to renew the coaching contract of their tactical guru who also handled the coaching of the goal-kickers, Philip Fowler.

One of the first things that Michael Foley, whose tactical nous or lack of nous was revealed dramatically with the Waratahs, did was to hire Fowler to do with the Force what he did very well at the Reds.

It was interesting to me, knowing this back story to hear the match commentators at the Force – Reds match saying that it was almost as if the Force players knew what the Reds were going to do on most occasions.

Well, the probability is that this was actually what was happening. Fowler knows the Reds structures, systems, patterns and game plans very well. He should. He had a hand in shaping most of them.

It was also interesting to me that the one player the Force could not read and therefore shut down was Digby Ioane. Ioane is a law unto himself.

He has a devastating left-foot cut. He is quick off the mark, an attribute in rugby that is better than long range speed.

He is bulky and runs with his shoulders leading his hips.

This style does not allow tacklers an easy go at his waist. Tacklers know when they have to bring Ioane to ground that if they are successful they are going to feel the impact of the tackle more than the runner.

Ioane is not disciplined off the field. He is going to France at the end of the year on a huge, and probably justified, salary.

He can’t kick. But he can run and he looks for work with the ball. He is a first choice, in my book, for one of the contested wing positions in the Wallabies.

The Reds will have to do more with the ball when they have it. They have got out of a few games, especially at their fortress at Suncorp, by fierce contesting of the rucks and mauls and slowing down opposition attacks to get turnovers and win penalties. But against a side that protects its ball at the rucks and shows some attacking intention, this Reds game is fraught.

The Reds need to use players like Liam Gill, who again played splendidly (as did Michael Hooper for the Waratahs and George Smith for the Brumbies), more as a runner than as a digger.

Gill, like Hooper, has terrific speed and can break tackles.

It is like using a Rolls-Royce to take rubbish to the tip to use Gill as the go-to player to win turnovers and penalties with his brave digging for the ball.

Like the Reds, the Brumbies need to re-jig their game to bring more attack with the ball in hand into it. The Crusaders are a very smart side, with one of rugby’s greatest players ever as their playmaker.

Continual kicking the ball away inside their own half is not going to worry a side with the discipline and the skills, on attack and defence, of the Crusaders.

The point is that the Crusaders play a similar field position game to the Brumbies, but generally better and generally with less fervent devotion to the game plan when opportunities present themselves for break-out attacks.

The Crusaders kicking game, too, is backed or supported by a terrific pack which at Canberra on Sunday was just too strong, too mobile, too smart and too ruthless for the Brumbies.

The Crusaders pick-and-go tactics exposed the Brumbies front five. There were a couple of losses by both sides in the lineouts. And until the brilliant youngster Scott Sio came on, the Crusaders scrum was too powerful for the Brumbies scrum.

The point about the kicking game that the Brumbies have adopted is that it will work if your forwards are on top. This is why the Bulls, with their monster and ruthless pack and devastating lineout are leading the South African Conference.

But if your forwards are not on top and you kick the ball away all the time, you are actually setting up a victory for the opposing side, if it is game enough to take it.

At one point, the Crusaders led 30 – 13, with the Brumbies score including a lucky intercept try by Matt Toumua right at the beginning of the game.

Admittedly the Brumbies stormed back and Ben Mowen raced in for a brilliant individual try. But it was far too late for the Brumbies to be starting to play aggressive, ball-in-hand rugby from inside their own half instead of continually kicking the ball away.

Bob Dwyer’s dictum is very true in this context. He said he had no respect for teams that tried to play running rugby when the game had been lost already by kicking the ball away. It was interesting, too, that the Brumbies resurgence with the ball in hand coincided with the arrival of Pat McCabe into the mid-field.

He made sharp, strong runs and off-loads that forced the Crusaders to struggle a bit more on defence than they had earlier in the match.

This brings us to the Waratahs. They absolutely creamed the Kings with some of the most brilliant ensemble play we’ve seen from a Waratahs side for years.

Yes, it has to be admitted that the Kings (31), after the Rebels (33), had leaked the most tries in the tournament up to this weekend.

And also for reasons that are not clear to me, the Kings decided not to contest the Waratahs rucks and mauls.

This allowed the Waratahs to play what amounted to touch rugby with wave after wave of attack from uncontested rucks until, and often it was quick quick, the Kings line was broken.

Next weekend, at Allianz Stadium, the Waratahs play the side that is the most miserly in conceding tries in the tournament, the Stormers.

If Israel Folau and company can monster the Stormers defence in any way remotely like they did to the Kings then the ‘impossible dream’ of a finals place is not beyond being achieved.

It is a big ‘if,’ of course.

The match, too, will cast the spotlight once again on Folau as a Wallaby candidate.

I can’t see him replacing Beale at fullback, if he keeps his head together and continues to play well. But he has moved ahead of Jesse Mogg as a wing possibility or a reserve probability.

Mogg had a poor game under pressure from the Crusaders and was finally subbed, which is an indignity for a player rather like an author having his book remaindered.

As for Jake White’s suggestion that Folau should declare that he will stay in rugby next season, I think this is a reasonable request. Playing for the Wallabies adds to the market value of a player.

There is also the consideration that if Folau does intend to go back to the Canterbury Bulldogs (as the strong rumours suggest) any investment by rugby in him is a wasted investment. It would be better to invest another young player who will contribute, say, in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

There comes a time in the career of an athlete like Folau who has moved between three codes already in his career that he makes a commitment to one of them.

Sonny Bill Williams is, a one-off, in my opinion as he makes it clear, or has made it clear, that he will only accept short term contracts in league and in union.

This is written about Folau with the profound hope that this commitment will be to rugby where Robbie Deans claimed he can become ‘a legend’ in the game if he makes it his career.

He has the chance of playing against the British and Irish Lions, in a Rugby World Cup tournament and in the Olympic Sevens.

Why wouldn’t this be the sort of gold (along with a big salary) a great athlete like Folau should be obsessed about winning?