The irresistible case for George Smith

Some loose forwards are moulded from an interstellar material, combining a dense crystalline asteroidal nanocomposite and Kryptonite.

Each morning, George Smith slices sun-ripened bananas over these powder puffs, gives them a light dusting of cinnamon, and eats them for breakfast.

Over recent weeks on The Roar, numerous commentators have invested gigabytes to the discussion of the international 60 Test club, and their potential value to the 2015 Wallabies campaigns.

Only one of these stalwarts is vital to the success of the World Cup-bound Wallabies.

In David Pocock, Michael Hooper, Liam Gill and Matt Hodgson, the Wallabies are blessed with quality opensides worthy of the gold jersey, who would gladly bleed Vegemite for the cause on UK pitches come the Rugby World Cup. But, with the exception of Pocock, none bring the requisite combination of collision-point blunt force, breakdown acumen, and momentum-changing defensive expertise to give the Wallabies their best shot at winning the William Web Ellis trophy as the incomparable George Smith. And, Pocock included, none possess anywhere near the same rugby IQ.

I hear the chorus of derision beginning already…

Too old and too slow
Disregard Smith’s corporeal age – he is in rare form. Right now. This minute.

Watching Smith run around for Lyon in the recent Top 14, he was as dominant as ever. He has bulked, as all players post-30 do, but paradoxically looks lean and is clearly in great shape. Apparently Smith was the first in the Lyon gym each day, cycling kilometres before training sessions even began. Famously a poor trainer, with a Brumbies record for pitiful beep test results (and incongruously, as we all know, an endless game-day motor), his current conditioning looks better than ever. And his performances have been outstanding.

Iconic French rugby tome Midi Olympique named Smith its first choice openside flanker for the Top 14 in 2015. This, despite playing in a well-beaten (now relegated) Lyon side and most often, in the No. 8 jersey.

Some critics have suggested Smith’s move across the back row has been the result of his inevitable decline in pace and breakdown effectiveness. Not so, says Smith’s Lyon coach Tim Lane:

“George is physically as good as he has ever been…

“At the breakdown he wins two, three, four penalties a game and his turnover rate is also as good as ever…

“He played the majority of the time at No. 8 for us just because of his skill level with the ball at the back of the scrum…

“If [the Wallabies management] were to look at him [for the Rugby World Cup] he wouldn’t let them down, he would kill it.”

Effusive.

Unlike some of the other defining backrowers of his generation, Smith’s latest accolade (lost in a surfeit of provincial and international career achievements), illustrates once again that no one can accuse him of ever hiding behind, or benefiting from, a dominant forward pack. If anything, Smith is the most practiced and gifted international rugby player in imposing his overwhelming influence among collective groups of well-beaten forwards.

This is a handy characteristic for a Wallabies side playing grinding, tournament rugby, in northern conditions (and probably to ‘northern’ refereeing interpretations), against largely northern opposition (who Smith knows better than any other player in the Wallabies set up).

He’s playing in a second-rate competition and can’t cut it against top players and teams
Even if we are to accept the assertion that Top 14 represents second-rate rugby and that comparable loose forwards don’t exemplify quality juxtaposition, Smith is still outplaying what is in front of him.

As recently as two seasons ago – unconcerned about tarnishing his sparkling legacy – Smith re-entered the cauldron of Super Rugby after playing several seasons in a far less competitive Japanese league, and quickly put to bed the myth of his purported declining rugby capacity.

Replacing an injured Pocock at the Brumbies, Smith out-thought and out-played his Australian contemporaries to be the form openside flanker of the conference and the competition. Smith was the inspirational forward leader, providing the example in execution and commitment. In several key games, Smith almost single-handedly dragged the Brumbies to victory

Were it not for a late-season injury, most pundits had George Smith pencilled in as first-choice 7 from the start of British and Irish Lions series. Smith has a way of defying nay-sayers.

Not recent enough to be relevant
Smith’s stunning return to competitive international rugby, via the Barbarians’ recent series, was eye-watering. In a well-beaten, rag-tag BaaBaas side, Smith was almost the lone beacon of resistance to a marauding England at Twickenham.

With all and sundry losing their heads around him, Smith produced dominant tackles, stole possession, put teammates through gaps, secured losing rucks and generally displayed staunch leadership in a team where little was apparent.

The more relevant contribution – from a Wallabies perspective – was the Barbarians’ first outing against the current Six Nations champions in Ireland. Robbie Deans’ first substitution deployed Smith at the 50-minute mark and he absolutely dominated proceedings. With his first hard-shouldered tackle, Smith sent an Irish front rower back to the bleachers and in his patented gravity-defying manner, repelled the ensuing multi-man clean out; somehow emerging with the pill – the first of several massive, momentum-changing defensive hits behind the Irish gainline.

In his supreme cameo, Smith tormented the English first and second five, snaffled more seed, punched holes through the middle of the pitch, linked with the backline, and did all the rest of the unseen heavy breakdown and collision work that he does so well. It was a spectacular display of such ferocity, intensity and power as to make this long-suffering Wallaby supporter lament all of those matches in the last couple of years lost by so little in the closing moments. No signs of any slow-down here.

Smith’s Barbarian coach Deans summarised it best, “His impact was significant, and as they say, class is timeless.”

Hooper is faster, a better wide runner and attacker
Yep. He is.

This worthy conversation becomes inconsequential without the ability to win the collisions and actually gain possession. Set piece, gainline, breakdown: these are the areas where the Cup will be won and lost. They are also the areas where every opponent in the world knows the Wallabies are vulnerable.

In the last couple of seasons, too often the Wallabies have been toothless in defence. They have lacked the ability to dominate big, hard-running teams either in the initial collision or on the ground. How many times have we seen the Wallabies fail to lay the offensive platform to unleash the backline, run out of options in attack, hand over possession via a rushed kick some 15 yards behind the ruck, and then surrender countless consecutive phases in a fast-moving rolling backwards-pedal from each lost gainline exchange? With no other options, this negative momentum is typically only stopped via penalty and/or an opposition try.

The Wallabies have most recently selected tireless workhorses and not enough dominant, hard-shouldered tacklers, ball-slowing ruck nuisances or immovable, possession-winning jackals. And surely there is a shotgun waiting for the next backrow meerkat who dares stick his head up in the middle of a tense set-piece exchange?

Pocock will go some way to correcting this in the starting XV (if this is indeed the way Michael Cheika goes), but the Wallabies front on defence needs more sting. The set piece needs more weight, guile and experience. And the Wallabies breakdown needs more ‘See You Next Tuesday’.

Magnificent though he unquestionably is, none of this says Michael Hooper. And we potentially have a great backline capable of making line breaks if given the front foot platform.

Liam Gill is a better on-baller than Hooper and quicker to the breakdown than Smith
Another outstanding footballer, Gill is a more classic openside than Hooper and the style of 7 I would lean towards given the balance of the likely Wallaby forwards.

Gill has great commitment to the breakdown and admirable resilience to withstand the contest. While Gill would undoubtedly be quicker in a 40-metre footrace than Smith, speed is but one component of breakdown effectiveness. The far more important one is instinct. The ability to read the play and anticipate the opportunity two plays ahead. In this way, the defining speed metric is in that which resides between the ears.

And then there is the actual contest itself. Smith is a limpet mine. With a centre of gravity residing approximately eight inches above sea level and a remarkable strength over the ball that comes with the unique combination of balance and power – as well as a contortionists ability to emerge from the unlikeliest of collisions with the seed – Smith remains in the top two Australian ball pilferers.

One of the other key areas that George Smith outplays Liam Gill is in front-on, toe-to-toe collisions. Sometimes the occasion calls for nuance. Sometimes, blunt-force trauma.

I’m aware that brains may explode, seas may rise and skies may fall up and down the eastern seaboard if I were to suggest Smith should be Australia’s first-choice openside flanker this season (although, ask me quietly in the pub later). So my proposal for Michael Cheika is this: Pocock for the first 50. Smith, (with his backrow versatility), on for the championship minutes. Depending upon the opposition, backrow balance and game momentum, both to stay on to terrorise the breakdown.

When not involved in the tackle, Pocock and Smith aligned two-deep either side of the ruck: imagine the players attacking teams will need to commit to retain possession, that extra look before deciding to pass or take the contact, the possessions acquired by two limpet-like immovable objects unencumbered by the trivial laws of physics.

There are many viable arguments for why this is not the direction the Wallabies should go in selecting their World Cup backrow. But given Smith’s unprecedented experience, unquestioned pedigree and current form – with a Rugby Championship to play – Smith should grace the pitch in gold at least once more to put his compelling case forward in flesh and titanium-coated bone.

Both Gill and Hooper are phenomenally gifted footballers and worthy of their Wallabies jerseys. But I want my 7 to be hard shouldered at the point of collision when second man in isn’t an option, have instinct and an opportunist’s timing rather than simply workman-like metronome, be that immovable object leveraging the defensive breakdown when tiring locks are struggling to retreat, be the sideways glance George Ford takes just before he punts to clear his 22.

I want my openside to be the smartest guy on the pitch, unafraid to stick his head into the darkest of places and emerge with the pill and possess a tireless motor that defies age, logic and countless failed beep tests.

I want George Smith.