Super Rugby Australians player ratings: Round 5

Here are my player ratings from Round 5 of Super Rugby. Submit your own, keeping the figures for mediocre scores aside for reasons of brevity AND so that the focus is on the best and worst performers.

Scores should be between anyone over 7 and anyone below 4, i.e. for very good and poor performances. Half scores are allowed i.e. 7.5, 3.5 and so on.

Please submit your own scores for a whole team. The minimum is one team, there is no obligation to score all the games. I average the scores per team by the number submitted. I will compile every ones submitted teams scores and produce Wallaby form teams later in the week. There will be one team of the round and three accumulative teams.

Force – Rebels
The Rebels had all the early running. The Force always play a narrow game, the Rebels matched them there and then found the Force wanting out wide.

The Rebels were the better team by a fair margin until injuries to Timani blunted their forward drive and Debreczeni disrupted their back play. The Force, with their never say die attitude, came back strongly.

It was a good arm wrestle with my man of the match McMahon being the difference with his strong driving attack and defence.

Force
T. Faulkner 7.5/10
S. Wykes 7.5/10
C. Alcock 7.5/10
L. Burton 7.5/10

Rebels

P. Leafa 7.5/10
S. McMahon 8/10
S. Higginbotham 7.5/10
M. Inman 7.5/10
D. Shipperley 7.5/10
M. Harris 7.5/10

Highlanders – Waratahs
The Waratahs got off to a great start. They executed cleanly and took all their chances. This was assisted by the Highlanders not contesting the breakdown.

The turnaround came with the yellow carding of Kepu, Highlanders confidence rose and they attacked harder. After half time they contested the rucks very physically.

However the winged feet of the Highlanders was the difference between the teams for me. It was an exception to the rule in that the backs won this game for the Highlanders.

The Tahs missed too many tackles and since the Highlanders were much quicker once they made a break they could not be caught. Beale and Horne were the worst culprits in missing tackles. With the exception of Beale everyone in the Highlanders backline was quicker than their counterpart. This is a concern at the Wallaby level the lack of genuine pace in the backline.

A highlight for me was Folau taking a mark jumping over the head of a Highlanders player. While others like Dagg, Smith and Jane are very good under the high ball this sort of jump places Folau higher than them all (pun intended).

Waratahs
W. Skelton 7.5/10
M. Hooper 7.5/10
N. Phipps 7.5/10
P. Betham 7.5/10
I. Folau 7.5/10
K. Beale 3.5/10
R. Horne 3.5/10.

Reds – Brumbies
The Reds were much improved from their first encounter against the Brumbies and improved from their last outing against the Waratahs. They are showing steady improvement from below Super Rugby standard to a bottom team in super rugby.

Brumbies were very clinical and disciplined. Their forwards dominated the match, with the Reds outclassed with the surprising exception of the maul. The Reds defended the maul well. It was a masterclass of forwards play. The forwards scored the first 4 tries.

The Brumbies disappointed once again with their backs play. Once again there was no shape and relied on individual brilliance. The backlines of both teams was very similar in their approach.

They shovelled the ball side to side waiting for an individual to do something. There was little angle running, or loop arounds, or deceptions in backline play. In fact it looked like watching two South African teams of old when they had a period of kicking the ball back and forth.

The referee was dreadful in the scrums and once it was seen that the Brumbies had dominance they received all the calls. When it collapsed if it was not clear who did it the Reds were penalised, and when it was clear the Brumbies did it the scrum was reset. Other than that the ref was even handed and did a reasonable job.

Reds
S. Talakai 3/10
C. Kuridrani 7.5/10
C. Feauai-Sautia 7.5/10

Brumbies
S. Sio 8/10
S. Moore 8/10
B. Alexander 8/10
R. Arnold 7.5/10
I. Vaea 8/10
H. Speight 7.5/10
T. Kuridrani 7.5/10