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With Ben Mowen announcing that he will be leaving for France at the end of this year there was always going to be discussion on the worth of certain backrowers available for Wallaby selection.
As a rugby fan I can’t help but come to the aid of players given a raw deal in the realm of public perception. I have done as much at the end of last week in regards to some comments made about Dave Dennis, a current Wallaby player and the current Waratahs captain.
Comments like “if only Dennis would shift offs too” or that “IMO Cheika’s one bad selection mistake was keeping Dennis and letting L Timani go to the rebels”, come to mind as examples of a public perception that I firmly believe is unwarranted.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t call myself a massive Dave Dennis fan but some of the comments were just too negative for me to just let them through to the ‘keeper. These kinds of comments are half-trackers and they need to be despatched over the mid-wicket fence.
I’ve never before felt the need to state that I think Dave Dennis is a quality player because I always felt that was a matter of fact.
The guy is simply imperious at line-out time, he has a very good consistent work rate, and he is a class act on and off the field. I think these simple facts can’t be disputed.
I mean what’s not to like? I suppose he may not be the biggest player but that gives him his advantage at line-out time.
He may not dominate all contacts but his relatively light frame helps him to get around the park off the ball.
He might not be the most rugged looking player but being clean cut is not an indicator of rugby worth.
He may have been a little injury prone at one stage but that is not his fault. He may be from NSW but let us leave state bias behind!
The fact is, there is a lot to like about the ‘Waratahs Players Player of 2012′, despite having not had a lot of time in the Gold last year.
The thing for me is that he did not deserve to lose his starting Wallaby shirt at the end of 2012, to make room for another coming back from suspension, in the first place. Dennis’ 20 tackles, 11 runs (from memory all of which were the all important and usually unheralded pick and drive type) along with 10 line-out wins, in the first two matches on the 2012 Spring Tour, did not deserve dropping at the time.
His consistently good stats like these over the past couple of years do not deserve some of the comments stating that he is not an 80min player.
Many also seem to have forgotten that as a replacement Dennis set up Kurtley Beale after a long run in the final moments against Wales to win us the Test match.
Some have compared Dennis’ performance for the Wallabies in 2012 with Scott Fardy in 2013. So let’s do that.
Scott Fardy for comparison, who started in all four Tests of the last Spring tour, overall only made two more runs and only six more tackles (and six fewer line-outs), from twice as many starts. Let me reiterate. Not much more return yet from twice as many matches.
Indeed I firmly believe that Fardy’s Spring Tour performances were okay but also over-rated. I suggest he was very inconsistent as a matter of fact.
Against Wales for instance Fardy made just four tackles (he made a healthy eight runs) and against England he made just five tackles.
In that game against England he also only made just two runs. Against Scotland he made just one run and against Ireland he again made just two runs. In both of these matches he made nine and eight tackles respectively.
For me this is just too inconsistent and at its best is not a great contribution at all.
Why then the great reviews? Perception. Simple as that. Fardy has a beard. He stands out. Dennis does not.
The fact that Fardy runs much wider than Dennis, who usually makes tight runs, gives the perception that Fardy is the superior attacking player. If you ask me a player that does the hard yards should earn at least as much plaudits.
But its all about quality not quantity I here? That argument has some merit.
Nevertheless, Fardy’s stats are hardly the numbers of a supposed far superior player to one Dave Dennis.
I am not saying Fardy on his day is not a good player. To be fair to Fardy, he does do some good work at the breakdown.
But in my opinion he is not so much better than the other flankers running around including the likes of Dennis, Schatz etc.
Besides, I believe you need your backrowers to be more than just a presence at the breakdown.
A no.6 needs to be doing so much more. He should be consistently getting into double figures for tackles made and he should never ever be making just one or two carries per game (unless perhaps he is so good at the other thing that we turn a blind eye… which he isn’t).
Fardy of course sometimes does contribute a lot more than some of the games I’ve mentioned but he is far too often going nowhere near a good defensive or a ball carrying contribution. Dennis on the other hand brings this consistently to the table, week in and week out.
It also helps if your blindside flanker is a world class line-out option if indeed your no. 8 isn’t. With Mowen leaving these shores Fardy will need to improve as a line-out option. As the Waratahs leading line-out man, Dennis already ticks this box.
Therefore, considering we don’t know which Higginbotham will turn up this year, at the moment I would say Dennis is the best option. In saying that I do not believe Dennis should be an automatic selection either.
There is a lot of rugby to be played this year after all.
But to say Dennis is utterly useless, as some have suggested last week is preposterous.
It was the same vindictive vitriol that led to the completely insane public sentiment that the most capped no.6 in Wallaby history, the highest try scoring Wallaby forward of all time, a winner of the Super Rugby Player of the Year Award, a winner of the Wallaby of the Year Award and a winner of the European Player of The Year award was despite all this, ‘actually useless’.
Please!
None of that meant as much as a poor public perception. All to replace him with the hairier, wider running, less involved but more charismatic, chip kicking sensation that was Scott Higginbotham. Who has in turn paid us back by being disappointing as a Wallaby no.6 up to this point.
In fairness there were finally some great signs last year from Mr Higginbotham and I look forward to seeing him return from injury.
In terms of Mr Dennis and before him Mr Elsom, according to too many fans anyone with a bit of a lack of charisma and perhaps some bad luck with injuries should simply leave Australian rugby.
Throw in the likes of the very direct and effective Pat McCabe or Rob Horne etc etc.
These guys also suffer from forceful suggestions from many a keyboard warrior to vacate our shores.
They also have a clean-cut uncharismatic image and a penchant for doing the unheralded hard yards at the expense of more crowd pleasing activities.
Forget that these unheralded activities create opportunities for the crowd pleasers. Let us just hate them.
I’m sorry. They all deserve better.
This leads me to say I have a dream.
I hope for a day when we all show a bit more respect for our elite athletes and don’t make comments stating they should simply leave Australia.
I hope for a day when rugby fans begin to base opinion on value added evidence rather than just how much charisma a player has, how often they doing something that only a fickle fan would notice, or whether they have rugged looks or not.
I hope anyone that has a bad run of luck with injury is afforded a degree of sympathy and compassion, not judgement and ridicule.
I hope for a day when we consider prestigious awards to carry more weight than what some journalists write to sell papers/gain views simply by perpetuating the very misconceptions they help to create.
I hope for a day when malicious keyboard warriors begin to give balanced arguments and opinions.
It’s good to dream!
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.