- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
A variety of factors are generally considered necessary for a rugby team to have a winning edge.
My list would include player quality, player depth, fitness, defence, precision of execution, the ability create and take chances, x-factor, adherence to an inspirational game-plan, quality of the coach and coaching staff, off-field support, team spirit and mental preparedness.
Some are talked about more often and with greater enthusiasm than others, but does that make them more important?
Most newsworthy are discussions of player abilities, and their ‘star power’, quite often referred to these days as x-factor. So, Quade Cooper has it. So does Kurtley Beale, Israel Folau, Sonny Bill Williams, Willie le Roux, and obviously may more. So, what is it? And why is it so important?
X-factor will have many definitions, but it’s probably more the ability of a player to do something in an attacking play that the defence cannot predict, and so cannot have a ready response waiting to counter that attack. The attack also has to be successful or at least look to have had a very good chance of being successful, to qualify the player as genuine x-factor.
Success itself will have many definitions, but at the very least it points to some genuine gain for the attacking side in terms of territory gained, defence broken or misaligned, up to the obvious scoring of a try.
But is the most newsworthy factor the most important? The Western Force despatched the Waratahs without any x-factor help. They would have come second on a measurement of player quality as well, while they look like they have the remainder of factors. Obviously anything can happen on the day for a game that is won and lost at the margins, but there always seems to be a common denominator for teams that have under performed.
Team spirit and mental preparedness are very nebulous concepts and very difficult if not impossible to measure. But if they are not in place, then defence, precision of execution, and the ability of a team to create chances and then take them, all tend to under perform.
Michael Cheika made an interesting first-up selection for the Waratahs in their Super Rugby opener against the Force, picking Dave Dennis at lock and captain. He was the 2014 captain up until a season-ending injury, which saw Michael Hooper take over, so a resumption of captaincy in that case is very common and perhaps almost mandatory.
Dennis had proved himself the perfect off-field team man post-injury in 2014, and his involvement in that way appeared to be an example of team spirit showing through.
After Hooper took over as captain, the Waratahs continued to improve, and Hooper continued to grow in his role as a leader by example. Dennis had been playing number six and was replaced by Stephen Hoiles, who looked by the end of the season to have recaptured the form that had earned him a Wallaby jersey some seasons prior. The Waratahs didn’t suffer for the loss of Dennis, so player depth played its part in a positive way.
So, for the first match of 2015, Cheika had a number of choices that would all potentially impact team spirit. To not choose Dennis as captain may have caused problems, given the popularity and commitment of Dennis as a team man, and his long history at the Waratahs. Most coaches would have selected Dennis as captain, I believe, if form and fitness matched up.
But there is always a question of form and the relative abilities of players for the positions for which they may be selected. Dennis apparently wants to play lock instead of number six now, a decision which may stem from his assessment of his chances for a Wallaby berth for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Competition for the Wallaby backrow spots is fierce, while the lock positions appear to be more open.
So Cheika’s second choice was whether to accede to Dennis’ request to play lock, which meant displacing Jacques Potgieter to number six This would have meant, of course, that the winning formula for the Waratahs in 2014 would have been altered.
Obviously Kane Douglas had gone, but Potgieter had been dynamic at lock in 2014. For the purposes of giving Dennis every opportunity to succeed, and with potential negative ramifications for team spirit if he did not give Dennis his chance, Cheika chose Dennis at lock and Potgieter at number six.
Dennis was replaced soon after missing an important tackle under the posts that saw Chris Allcock score for the Force, putting the Force in position to win the match. It looked like a knee problem, so an injury replacement. While Dennis was on the field, the Waratah scrum looked a bit weak on Benn Robinson’s side, and the scrums collapsed constantly with many resets. After Dennis was replaced, Potgieter was back at lock and the Waratah scrum immediately started to dominate.
The Dennis experiment at lock seemed to have affected the Waratah scrum, but it probably affected their breakdown play and defensive alignments a little as well. Team spirit, as I said, is a nebulous concept, but when things are not going well on the field, and the cause was self-inflicted to an extent, it often seems to be the case that team spirit suffers.
When that happens, other elements of team performance fall away as well. We saw a lot of uncharacteristic dropped ball from Adam Ashley-Cooper and Beale. The attack was disjointed, and only Folau really looked dangerous.
After Dennis departed, the Waratahs regrouped and started to look more like the team from 2014, but it was too late. The Force had a roll-on and would not let go. More mistakes from the Waratahs, particularly via a lack of patience, and a few easy tries to the Force sealed their win.
Team spirit was high for the Force. A winning team is a happy one. Team spirit grows as the on-field performance progresses. The Waratahs, in hindsight, appeared beaten before they started. The x-factor and the other elements for success don’t gel without the essential team spirit.
That other nebulous element, mental preparedness, is a common one across all sports. Cheika has previously been hailed as a coach that has done well if not best in that area. Less than optimal mental preparedness will impact upon team spirit, and so lead to a downward spiral. The Waratahs appeared to have that problem, and its cause could well have been the selection of Dennis at lock.
The selection of Dennis as captain is harder to pin as a decision that could have had a negative impact on team spirit, but I have noticed that when the captain of a team going well is replaced through season-ending injury, and the team subsequently continues to grow and perform better and, for the Waratahs, then goes on to take the title, there is a rhythm and flow to the side that is new. The team has moved on.
Cheika was between a rock and a hard place, but his decision to choose Dennis as lock and captain was a likely cause of the poor Waratah performance.
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.