The NRC wrap Round 6: If the sun shines, they will come

Say it with me now, record National Rugby Championship crowds. That’s what I’m talking about, and it’s wonderful news for the competition.

A new match attendance record pushed the round’s total into record territory, too, as the return of a certain Queensland flyhalf gave the fledgling competition the shot in the arm it needed.

After it felt like the first month of the competition was played exclusively in rain, three Sunday afternoon games have brought the fans out in droves.

Clear skies in Brisbane and Sydney played a role in the record numbers being achieved, and while it’s a slightly premature conclusion to draw, you’d still like to think the competition planners for 2015 are pencilling ‘plenty of afternoon games’ into their notebooks.

The major point of discussion coming out of the weekend is the return of Quade Cooper.

The sight on the live stream of the crowd flocking onto the Ballymore turf on fulltime was wonderful even from my office, and I can only imagine what it was like at the ground itself. It was a great initiative from the Queensland Rugby Union, and they are to be congratulated for the way they really pumped the City-Country derby over the last week.

The number reported was “over 5000” at Ballymore, and there’s every chance that number will grow when the counting finally stops. If I get the final number – and I know the Reds’ marketing and communications people read this – I’ll very happily provide the update.

Overall, 11,375 people got to the four games in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Perth over the course of Round 6, which as I mentioned, is a new record for the competition. Let’s hope they come back next week, and even better, bring some mates with them.

Melbourne Rising 34 defeated Canberra Vikings 13
AAMI Park in Melbourne
Crowd: 1977

The way Melbourne started this game, racking up a point-a-minute well into the second quarter of the game, I had some grave concerns for the Canberra team. But then as has been the case in more than a few games this competition, as the possession started levelling out, the Vikings were able to get on the board.

When Jesse Mogg converted Robbie Coleman’s try for the Vikings in the 32nd minute, the score was out to 26-8 to the home side, and even though the margin was back under three converted tries, you never felt like the Rising were going to drop this game.

The scary thing was they were doing this to another top-four team.

Even missing a couple of key backrowers Melbourne got the job done with a reasonable degree of comfort, though they weren’t as clinical at the breakdown as they have been.

Canberra desperately missed Christian Lealiifano, and their attack was as lacking at times as their midfield defence.

If there’s a blot in the Rising copybook, it’s that they perhaps got a little too eager to push on in the second half, and quickly ran up a string of infringements, which also led to them playing a man down for 20 straight minutes.

A bye this week will allow some recalibration in what had been a ruthless part of their game.

Worthy mentions: Nic Stirzaker and Cadeyrn Neville were both very good, only to let themselves down with stints on the naughty chair.

Paul Alo-Emile was again rock solid in the scrum. Replacement flanker, and Australian Under 20s rep, Rowan Perry was really impressive for Canberra when he came on.

North Harbour 34 drew with Greater Sydney Rams 34
Brookvale Oval in Sydney
Crowd: 2953

Never mind the ‘game of two halves’ cliché, this was a game of three halves in the sunshine on the northern beaches.

The Rays got out to a big first half lead, 24-0, courtesy of a double to openside flanker Kotoni Ale and a barnstorming angled burst from inside centre Brian Sefanaia.

The Rams, as has been the case in several games now, took their sweet time to get into the game, and when they did finally start mounting some possession they were able to hit back on halftime with a well-executed break and try for fullback Ben Batger.

The next half an hour after the break was all the Rams, with a simple try to flyhalf Jai Ayoub, and an offload for ‘the Penrith Flash’, as the Rams have labelled right winger Jarome Mackenzie.

Suddenly the scores were level, and things started getting a bit niggly, which is unsurprising given recent club finals history and players from the two teams coming from the same clubs.

The Rays retook the lead with 10 minutes to go, only for the Rams to hit back a few minutes later, and then the both teams became a little self-destructive.

The Rays gave up consecutive penalty advantages in their own 22, and Ben Volavola potted a penalty goal to give the Rams the first lead for the match.

Then from the restart, the Rams gave up possession and then a really stupid ruck penalty in front of their own posts. Hamish Angus calmly slotted the penalty after the siren, and the NRC had its second draw in as many weeks.

Worthies: Hard to go past Kotoni Ale for the Rays, who was strong all game after snaring an early double, while Jai Ayoub played pretty well for the Rams, after being a late promotion ahead of Volavola.

Brisbane City 29 defeated Queensland Country 13
Ballymore Oval in Brisbane
Crowd: 5000+

Scott Allen’s gone into wonderful detail from the coalface today already, which is very nice of him, and saves me from delving too deeply for the round wrap.

Suffice to say, though Country jumped out of the blocks early in the grudge match, you always felt it was just a matter of time before City pegged them back and ran them down.

After singing the praises of their set piece last week, I honestly didn’t think it was all on Greg Holmes’ shoulders. But sure enough, just as Holmes’ shoulder rules him out for the rest of the NRC, the Country scrum was obliterated by the City pack.

As mentioned at the top, the actual game itself – which featured the obligatory intra-Reds squad stink – will be largely forgotten, as everyone clambers over the return of Quade Cooper. In a solid but unspectacular 20 minutes, Cooper looked pretty good in his return from shoulder surgery, but any suggestion he be rushed straight back into the Wallabies squad is more than a touch premature.

In fact, it’s an interesting quandary for the decision-makers. There’s no question the Ballymore crowd was as healthy as it was because of Cooper’s presence, and so the ARU have a big decision on their hands: is he of more benefit to the game in a high-intensity but dead rubber Bledisloe, or by using his drawing potential around the country in the NRC over the next month?

Cooper playing out the NRC might just be the first decent piece of competition marketing.

First port of call should be Parramatta, where Cooper’s Brisbane City side are down to face Greater Sydney this Friday night. After two underwhelming home crowds to date, you can bet the Rams are sweating on Cooper’s inclusion to boost ticket sales.

Worthies: Nick Frisby, again, led the City side around really well, and Jake Schatz will fly to Argentina to meet the Wallabies with a fair degree of confidence.

Beau Robinson was tireless for Country, and unsurprisingly, was never far away when the two sides had differences of opinions.

Perth Spirit 63 defeated Sydney Stars 21
HBF Arena in Joondalup, Perth
Crowd: 1445

Perth were the big movers for the round, with their nine-tries-to-three thumping of the Stars moving them from eighth on the NRC table to fourth, and bumping the Canberra Vikings out of the top four.

With the Super Rugby contingent back on deck, Perth played like the well-drilled side we all expected them to be, rather than the development squad they’ve chosen to turn out in away games.

Junior Rasolea bagged a double, and scrumhalf Ian Prior kicked six from nine conversions, as well as crossing the stripe himself.

The Stars got out to an early 13-0 lead but then collapsed into their own black hole, as the spirited Western Australians exploded into life like a… well, that’s probably enough of the bad puns; you get the picture.

It was a welcome return to form for the Spirit, but can they sustain it and qualify for the semi-finals? Well, I’ve done a bit of number crunching on that, across all teams in fact, which I’ll share in coming NRC articles.

Worthies: Hard for me to judge from the east coast, but I’m open for suggestions from anyone who braved the second-half downpour.

NSW Country Eagles had the bye

NRC ladder after Round 5
Melbourne Rising 30
Brisbane City 16
NSW Country Eagles 15
Perth Spirit 11
Canberra Vikings 11
Greater Sydney Rams 11
North Harbour Rays 10
Queensland Country 6
Sydney Stars 2

Full and official table can be viewed here.