Reading the comments on The Roar and on Twitter over the past few days I get the impression that people think Will Genia is in terrible form.
They say you’re only as good as your last match so I thought I’d take a detailed look at Genia’s performance against the Cheetahs last Friday to rate his performance in that match.
Passing
Let’s start with passing – the most important element of a halfback’s game. In the match against the Cheetahs Genia made 65 passes, 64 of which were caught by the player he passed to (98 per cent).
Of his passes I rated 59, or 91 per cent, as excellent – that is, the pass arrived at the player at the right height and in front of them so there was no need for the player to slow their momentum to catch the ball.
I rated four passes as average – two were a little high, one was at the player so he had to check slightly to catch it, and one was slightly in front of the player, although there is an argument that if the receiver had run directly forward it would have been a perfect pass.
That left only two poor passes in the entire match.
The first was the pass from the scrum at 9:14 to Quade Cooper which led to the intercept try for the Cheetahs.
The pass was above Cooper’s head and the time he took to pull it down allowed the support players to get a little too flat, reducing the time and space that would have helped Cooper throw the pass backwards and avoid the intercept.
Genia was not responsible for the try – it was Cooper who threw the final pass – but he contributed with his original poor pass.
The second came at 59:56 when Genia cleaned up one of the Cheetah’s chip kicks and, under pressure, threw a long ball to Cooper.
The pass bounced but went straight on to Cooper. Many will say there’s nothing wrong with a bounce pass if it finds the mark eventually, but that’s not how I see it.
Overall, Genia’s passing game was outstanding in this match, particularly when you consider the speed the Reds were playing at.
Speed of delivery from ruck
The Reds’ game plan was based on playing as fast as they possibly could. Richard Graham and several players have talked about a plan to take quick taps, move the ball away from the ruck as quickly as possible and maintain a fast tempo.
They certainly did that and it was one of the fastest matches I can remember seeing for some time – faster than the match between the Reds and the British and Irish Lions last year.
Genia went to 49 rucks in the match and his delivery from 45 of those was fast (less than one second), two were normal (less than three seconds) and two were slow but still less than five seconds.
The two slow rucks were at 0:15 when Genia waited for Cooper to get set to make the clearing kick from the kickoff at the start of the match, and at 30:57 when he took four seconds as he looked right, found no forwards available and changed his position to pass left instead.
That’s it. There was not a single ruck in the match where Genia stood over the ball at a ruck and slowed the play down, and the referee didn’t call ‘use it’ at a single ruck.
With 92 per cent of all deliveries less than one second, his speed around the field to get to rucks and then deliver the pass was exceptional in this match.
Kicking
Genia kicked the ball six times and I rated five of those poor (83 percent), so in my opinion he had a poor kicking match.
His first kick was charged down by Willie le Roux and led to the Cheetahs’ first try. You don’t want kicks charged down at any time but it’s hard to get the ball over a player coming from an offside position like le Roux did.
His second kick at 22:09 was long but straight to a Cheetahs player.
His third kick at 29:53 came immediately after the Reds got the ball from a turnover. Genia had four players well positioned to counter attack about 45 metres out from the Cheetahs try line and a fifth on that side of the field who could have joined in.
Instead, he kicked the ball and it was caught by the Cheetahs inside their 22.
Yes, if the ball had bounced Chris Feauai-Sautia may have got there and been in position to score, but I think running the ball had a higher chance of success.
His fourth kick at 36:16 directly from a restart was his one good kick of the match. His fifth kick at 54:45, again from a restart, was long but it needed to go out and didn’t.
His final kick of the match at 55:44 was probably his worst.
Again, it came immediately after a turnover and while there was no obvious opportunity that demanded the Reds run the ball, Genia kicked the ball across-field where the Cheetahs caught it with the nearest chaser 25 metres away.
There was no pressure created and it just gave easy ball to the Cheetahs.
Running the ball
The statistics tell us that Genia didn’t run the ball once. There were in fact five occasions where Genia ran some distance from the ruck with ball in hand.
On each of those occasions the Cheetahs ruck defence was good and had him covered so he ran across the face of the defence, attracted a defender and passed to a runner in space.
Given the speed that the Reds were playing at it was superb defensive organisation from the Cheetahs to deny Genia any real opportunity in 48 of the 49 rucks he went to in the match.
The first four occasions where Genia did run are shown in the following images.
The video at the end of this article shows shows the times Genia did run and the one opportunity which he didn’t take. I’ve frozen the footage as Genia picks the ball up in each example.
It is his fifth run and the opportunity that arose on the phase after it that I want to examine in more detail.
Looking at the following frame as Genia picks up the ball, it may appear from what we could see on television that this was a clear-cut opportunity for Genia to run.
It came immediately after a line break by Rob Simmons and there is certainly a hole beside the ruck.
What we can’t see on a tight shot like this is that Elgar Watts is just out of frame and running in to fill that hole. Of course, Genia can see this and knows that the opportunity out wider with Cooper and Dom Shipperley is much better.
He runs the ball at Watts to commit him and then passes to Cooper who passes on to Shipperley who makes good ground down the left touchline. Genia made exactly the right decision not to try and run himself on this occasion.
When Shipperley is tackled, the Cheetahs defence is disorganised from a ruck for the only time in the match.
Cooper has called for the ball but as Genia picks it up there is a hole in front of him and as he goes to pass that hole becomes more obvious.
Would we normally expect Genia to take that hole? Yes, and if I was coaching a player in that instance I’d say I would have liked to see them run the ball there.
However, I don’t think anyone can say that hole would definitely have stayed open had Genia decided to run, and I wouldn’t say it’s a clear error.
If I were coaching Genia and reviewing this match with him, I’d say, “You played very well – your passing and speed of delivery were outstanding – the one area I want you to work on is your decision-making around kicking, which will help you improve your execution.”
Does that mean Genia is in great form? No, but based on any objective view of his last match he’s in pretty good form with a couple of tweaks required.
Tane Mahuta
Guest
Yip, Gill was a better tackler. Hooper outplayed him though. Because Hooper got more turnovers. Turned the ball over less. Ran more metres. Had more runs. Passed more. Gave away less penalties. Youre in denial and clearly are being biased towards Gill. And seriously, there were a lot of Tahs that outplayed their opposites, a lot. Folau, AAC, Palu, Hoiles, Phipps and Hooper to name a few.
DB
Guest
forgot to add that the rest of the analysis is good - have to say though that the GAGR podcast is not the same without you and Mr Timms on anymore. Back to Genia - you are correct in your discussion but I wonder whether you think that his fundamentals are still good. I notice that on some lineouts he has a massive backswing after catching where better positioning would lessen that need and speed things up. Also off some rucks he does tend to step and clear as opposed to clearing off the base. I know its not always possible but sometimes where it is it just seems his fundamentals need work. but that is a subjective assessment made without stats.
Nick
Guest
Thanks for the reply Scott, I really appreciate your insight. Fair call about comparisons to other half backs statistics, I guess the same can argument can be made regarding Genia in previous games and circumstances as well. But i think that brings up a new argument that perhaps due to the subjectiveness of some of these stats, it makes it hard to use them to gain a clear insight into Will's game with out context. Thanks for clearing up re: the "skip" and providing insight into why this seems to be common place with some Sth Hem half backs; I can see in some circumstances that it is useful for a deep lying runner. However it is my perception that some times Will has been over reliant on this "skip" when a straight clearance or a "scoot" would be a more appropriate option - but I can appreciate that this may be a" beauty in the eye of the beholder" point. It seems that the popular perception of Will playing poorly may have more to do with the speed of his decision making, rather than the accuracy of his execution; i.e. not so much should he run, pass, or kick and how he executes - but how he chooses to execute those options, and how long he takes to decide on the how on the 57 times you mentioned. To be fair I can see this is being very nit picky on his game, but when at your best you are one of the worlds best players you tend to be held to a pretty lofty standard.
Hoy
Roar Guru
I don't think they are as good at the start of this year as they were at the start of last year. Last year Quirk was running wide and hard. This year, none of that, and apart from some desperate last man defense against the Tah's, he has been invisible... I know that doesn't mean he is doing nothing, but last year, he was standout, and in some people's minds, pushing for the extended Wallaby Squad. This year, you would have to say he is off where he was last year in terms of influence. Schatz is one of many 8s we have that just seem undersized. I know he will possibly fill out, but you are right, he is a 6.5, same as Mowen, same as McCalman (though he is playing very well this year), same as Brown, same as Browning, same as... The list goes on. We seem to struggle to produce genuine 8s in this country.
Hopperdoggy
Guest
I thought you were the pot? But then I'm 99% unsure 1% of the time.
Redbull
Guest
I don't see the Reds back row struggling with form. Quirk is playing out of his skin Shatz is doing the hard graft and Gill is latching onto as many tackles as he can. The problem to me seems to be they are playing with a 6 (Schatz), a 6.5 (Quirk) and a 7 (Gill). Schatz is a fantastic grafter but no line bender.
Redbull
Guest
Nah BB. It was thrown perfectly to the only available space where the players calling for it could have fielded it.
bryan
Guest
Scott, excellence analysis as always.I have a theory to "Genia's form is down after watching a number of highlight videos. I suspect most people's issues with Genia revolve around his kicking, which has always been horrible, and his running. It is clear that teams have decided he is one of the major attacking threats in the game, and shutting him down is a priority. He is closely guarded by oppositions, and i see deliberate changes on how the opposition plays because of him. He stands out amongst fly halves as probably being the fastest, with the best step. 1 - His propensity for attacking the short side. No longer do teams have 1-2 players down the short side, they now have 3-4 against Genia. Always. all the time. 2 - The outside defenders are not rushing up as much on the forwards when he does his "Gregan shuffle". It is obvious that most of his breaks on the highlight videos feature the Gregan shuffle and straighten between the Ruck Guard and first defender. The ruck guard is jumping forward a lot more, and the first defender is not charging to meet a forward as much. They are specifically reducing that gap he has always targeted. The defence is saying that Genia's running is more damaging than any forward hitting that gap. With these 2 combined results, there should be greater gaps down the wing. I don't have the stats, but I do feel like Cooper is throwing a lot more long balls to the winger, especially for the wallabies. I think this might be a result of teams thwarting Genia in the middle. There also should be better holes for the forwards to bash into, but I do think Genia has been missing at both Super rugby and international a truly damaging strong forward runner since Samo's form dropped off, and Pocock's injuries. The one area I think Genia has dropped away is support Play. Again I don't have anything to point to, but it does feel like Genia is not supporting the runners as much as he used to. He used to be the first person you passed to when you hit a gap, but now it feels like he is not the first person there. His kicking is clearly being attacked since the All blacks games last year, especially Box kicks. I'd like to see him start to dummy a box kick or something to break it up.
LukeR
Guest
On box kicks: I took a good look at some of Genia's box kicks in a match against the ABs. My Dad was ragging on Genia big time about it and I wanted to see what was really going on. For me, the issue was lack of forward protection. When Aaron Smith boxed kicked - legal or not - a couple of big forwards detached themselves very slightly from the ruck, meaning whoever wanted to charge him down had to go through them. It meant that telegraphed or no, the Aussie forwards essentially had no path to a charge down. They were instead relying on referees to police the tactic of the fringe of ruck blockers, not sure what other name you'd give them. When Genia kicked this protection was not there and he wasn't fast enough to get the kick away without being charged down. So I'd boil it down to this: If Genia's going to box kick, he always needs another option, because if the ball is slow, and it's obvious the box kick is coming, with insufficient forwards to protect him a charge down is likely.
And you beleive him. The ball went in behind three players and the bounce favoured the Reds. The pass may have been called for, but it is misdirected and poorly executed.
Redbull
Guest
BB. That pass from Cooper to Hanson wasn't wild. He referred to it in his sideline interview, saying 'we'll the boys were calling for it so what can I do?' An incredible pass which I believe was quite deliberate in loft and bounce.
You're actually blaming le Roux for the tackle that he ran across field from left wing to almost save the try on the right wing?" And then you blame him for Hanson picking up a loose wild pass by Cooper that bounced past 3 Reds players and le Roux is betwixt and between either the ball bounces out or not? Le Roux's momentum is going to the line and Hanson has a ball bounce into his hands, he steps left and le Roux at full stretch doesn't get to him?
:D
RobC
Guest
Agree re Genia. He passed well. I think its better for reds for more focus on others to gain ground, and spread the attacking threat from more fronts. As Scott mentioned, a common defensive pattern vs Reds is focused on shutting down the halves starting with 9
Scott Allen
Expert
Nothing wrong with being a stickler - you're correct. That's one of the two slow rucks I recorded that he was involved in for the match and is the one where he waits to pass to Cooper to make the clearing kick.
Bill
Guest
Hi Scott, IMHO your article is a fair reflection on Genia and it surprises me he continues to get the level of criticsm he does. IMHO he is easily our best no 9 and is certainly our most consistent half. I think he needs to get rid of the box kick, he seems to be getting worse and simply focus on clearing the ball wide or looking for gaps close to the ruck. At the moment he does appear to be playing under some sort of pressure, don't know what but he doesn't look as though he is enjoying himself at present.
Boomeranga
Guest
I think Will's performance over a couple of years mean 9 should again be a position that's open to form. He hasn't done enough to be automatic anymore but he should be judged on the same form and what suits the game plan basis as the other blokes. It shits me a little that we both lock blokes in, but also that we lock blokes out once they have had a go and not measured up.
Baldy
Roar Rookie
Scott - hate to be a stickler mate but you are wrong - Genia does get told to use it in the very first ruck of the match at around the 10-14 second mark.
Daz
Guest
For Aussie rugby's sake I hope you're right and I'm wrong Scott. If he was a horse I'd say he's gone sour and needs a spell. He can still play well but with his mind on the job he would only be better. But I guess look at Ma Nonu, who I suspect is bored with SR but always turns it on for the ABs.
Fair go
Guest
His kicking is no good and has become a problem. A try in this last game and various equally bad versions on the past year. His running, which was brilliant, is poor. And I might add that he does not do much on defence as people like burgess do. Its a worry. The guy has been brilliant at times past.