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What are the five big issues heading into the final week of Super Rugby before the month-long break for mid-year Tests.
1. The All Blacks are helping NSW to win State of Origin 1 with perfectly-timed contestable kicks
AAP reported on Tuesday that Steve Hansen and Laurie Daley have a mutual friend, through whom they have become coaching mates. So last year, before the All Blacks played the Springboks in a crucial Rugby Championship match, Daley and his assistant coach Matt Parish went across to Auckland to watch the World Champions prepare.
One of the tactics Daley picked up was the All Blacks’ use of the high and contested kick. Perfectionists and innovators, the All Blacks coaches have estimated that the most effective contested kick travels 28m and has a hang time of 4.4 seconds. This is exactly the type of kick that Aaron Smith has perfected and the All Black wingers and fullback chased and caught throughout their unbeaten 2013 season.
So tonight, look for NSW to make Billy Slater stand 4.4 seconds, with NSW players racing through to knock him over or catch the ball themselves on the sixth tackle.
Speaking as someone who enjoys the State of Origin, especially its intensity, I have never been able to understand why league players only contest high kicks when they launched near the try line.
The mid-field bomb, originally introduced by the great Johnny Peard, could make a devastating return to rugby league, thanks to some help from the All Blacks.
2. James Horwill is unfairly punished by SANZAR for speaking the truth
On Monday, James Horwill pleaded guilty, was fined $2500 and ordered to apologise to SANZAR and the match officials for comments he made at an on-field post match interview following the Reds-Rebels match at Suncorp Stadium.
In his findings, Mr Hampton QC ruled the following:
I deem this to be a not particularly serious case of misconduct in the circumstances and accept that a fine of $2500 would be an appropriate sanction… As put to me, I accept that the intervention of by the Televsion Match Official, with the consequences that followed was very raw and fresh in the player’s mind and led him to vent the frustration in the way he did…
Mr Horwill should have known full well the need for respect to be shown to all match officials at all time and it was for that reason SANZAR took this misconduct complaint.
What was the offensive comment that Horwill made? He complained the Reds were “robbed by a stupid refereeing decision.”
How can this be disrespectful when SANZAR’s Mr Hampton QC himself, not immediately after the game but after due consideration, actually came to the same conclusion as Horwill, without being quite as blunt about the matter.
For it was Mr Hampton QC who ruled that the TMO was wrong to allege eye-gouging by Reds forward Ed O’Donoghue. The TMO, using this incorrect allegation, virtually forced referee Steve Walsh to change his decision of awarding a penalty to the Reds, which they turned into an attacking lineout near the Rebels’ 22.
Instead the TMO virtually forced Walsh to give O’Donoghue a red card and the Rebels a penalty, which they converted into the winning points of the match.
It is hard to see from all this how Horwill’s comment about “stupid refereeing”, not biased refereeing – which would have been out of court – is somehow “misconduct”.
The hypocrisy of SANZAR is worthy of note in this matter. Horwill called the TMOs decision for what it was. He was fined $2,500. But when South Africans – from the top officials, players and commentators – alleged bias against Bryce Lawrence, SANZAR did not fine or discipline any one of them, all of whom were clearly exhibiting misconduct on a massive scale.
3. John Connolly supports Stephen Moore as Wallaby captain
The Sydney Morning Herald ran an interesting story from Chris Dutton with extensive quotes from former Wallaby coach John Connolly supporting Stephen Moore for the Wallaby captaincy.
Though he ended up opting for Stirling Mortlock, Connolly told Dutton Moore was one of those he considered in 2006 for the captaincy, although Moore was only 22 at the time (Michael Hooper’s age).
In my view, Mortlock, a great player, was among the least impressive of Wallaby captains. But now, according to Connolly, “Moore is clearly the best option.”
Readers of The Roar will know that Moore has been my captaincy pick, too. I have argued, as Connolly does, that the only other viable candidate, Michael Hooper, is too young right now for the job.
There is also the consideration that if David Pocock comes back to his best next year that he, rather than Hooper, will be the Wallabies number 7.
4. Jonny Wilkinson lavishes over-the-top praise on Matt Giteau
The European Cup final was a tough, dour match played on a muddy field, even though it was played under the closed roof of Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.
Ever since it was opened for the 1999 Rugby World Cup tournament, the Millennium Stadium has been a disgrace. As usual, the turf disintegrated as the two packs smashed into each other at scrum time. The props could not hold their feet and scrums went down so frequently the referee, Alain Rolland, in his last big match, had to read them the riot act.
There was one really brilliant passage, when Jonny Wilkinson switched play from one side of the field to the other with a long, flat pass to Matt Giteau. Giteau put in a deft kick, Drew Mitchell ran through and jumped high to grab the ball before passing it to a racing Giteau. Try time! And the match – Toulon beat Saracens 23-6.
After the game, Wilkinson said Giteau was “exceptional” and “I don’t quite know how a team ever let him go in Australia to come over here”.
Giteau, Mitchell and Wilkinson all played splendidly. But in the back of my mind, I remembered the Wilkinson who missed 5 out of 11 tackles in the quarter final of the England versus France game in the 2011 Rugby World Cup tournament. And the Wilkinson who kicked only one penalty in that match, too.
I also had memories of Giteau playing for the Wallabies and missing easy penalties to win Tests. And Rod Kafer running film of a cross-field running Giteau, pointing out how he wouldn’t square his shoulders to the defence and was, therefore, a liability to his outside runners.
Yes, Giteau was exceptional against Saracens. But Saracens looked to be a pretty ordinary side compared with the Sharks, the Waratahs or the Crusaders.
Furthermore, the pitch at the Millennium slowed everyone down to a pace that allowed veterans to show their skills. On a faster pitch and with teams playing the Super Rugby high-tempo game, not one of Giteau, Mitchell or Wilkinson would perform at an “exceptional” level.
5. The northern hemisphere unions still working against the best interests of rugby and the players
What else is news? The northern hemisphere unions are refusing to shift the international Test window from June to July. The effect of this move, which is being pushed hard by the New Zealand Rugby Union’s Stew Tew (taking up the leadership mantle that was filled by John O’Neill), would be to create a global season for rugby.
The global season would allow a much better distribution of the matches played by the top players. It is supported by the International Players’ Association. It is also supported – but with no muscle – by the RFU, England’s rugby union.
The problem lies with three Six Nations representatives on the ‘working group’ looking at the proposal. My guess is that somewhere in all of this is Scotland and probably Wales and Ireland. If this is true then England and France need to take the stick to them and tell them that unless they play ball on the global season, they will be forced out of elite Tests.
This global season idea has been talked about for about 15 years. I remember chatting in 1999 to Nigel Wray, the first owner of Saracens, in his wonderful office near Selfridges on London’s Oxford Street, about his vision of the game. He told me he wanted families to come and enjoy rugby on Saturday afternoons in the same months as rugby was being played in the southern hemisphere.
He seems to have convinced the RFU. But the know-nothings of the other Six Nations unions need a rocket under them to get some movement on the issue.
Tew is hinting that if these recalcitrant unions don’t do the right thing by rugby and for their players that the major southern hemisphere powers might just opt out of playing them, at home or away, after the 2019 schedule is completed.
The SANZAR unions make very little money from any northern hemisphere country when they make their Down Under tours. On the other hand, these northern hemisphere countries making a huge profit from the All Blacks, Wallabies and Springboks playing Tests in Europe during their annual end-of-year tour.
During the 2011 Rugby World Cup tournament, Tew raised some UK hackles with the suggestion that the All Blacks might boycott the Rugby World Cup 2015 tournament in England if its date were moved back to allow for some rest for the SANZAR teams after their annual The Rugby Championship matches.
Now the IPA’s boss, Kiwi Rob Nichol, has raised the possibility of a Rugby World Cup 2015 strike again in connection with the global season:
“Strike is an emotional word. It’s never something you want to consider. The players try to operate professionally, and with unity, but if we continue to come up with initiatives and requests that the players support and they continue to get knocked back, eventually frustrations will rise,” Nichol said.
“We would like to think we don’t have to do that, but maybe the message the Six Nations are sending is, unless you’ve got a lot of money or serious leverage over us, we’re not changing.”
Imagine the amount of money the New Zealand Rugby Union would make if the striking All Blacks played a three-Test series against the team that won the Rugby World Cup tournament they had boycotted?