Brilliant Brumbies set the Super Rugby standard

First things first. The first matches of Super Rugby 2016 – the Blues’ thrilling defeat of the Highlanders, the Brumbies’ brilliant demolition of the Hurricanes and the Jaguares’ gutsy, hard-shouldered comeback victory over the Cheetahs – were far and away the best opening matches in competition history.

The Chiefs’ inventive and aggressive win over an impressive (from last season!) Crusaders and the Waratahs’ smashing of the hapless Reds, especially in the first half, showcased rugby of a quality and abrasiveness that tragics usually enjoy at finals time, and not in the first round.

The experiment of introducing three new teams, too, on the evidence of the opening round deserves a pass mark.

The Southern Kings, back again after a brief flirtation with Super Rugby, are going to be a waste of time for all concerned.

The Sunwolves will add some interest to the tournament, especially when their franchise is bedded down.

And the Jaguares are clearly going to be one of the strong teams in the South African Group.

Even though we have only completed the first round, I am going to make a fearless prediction that the Jaguares will win one of the three finals positions allocated to the South African Group.

The side that played so splendidly against the Cheetahs had 21 Test players in the match squad. They have two of the best players in world rugby in crucial positions, Agustin Creevy at hooker and Nicolas Sanchez at No.10.

One aspect of their play that will need to be cleaned up is their discipline and temper. At one stage, when they were down on points, too, they played with 13 men for some minutes.

There were incidents, as well, like kneeing a player after he had scored and a willingness to brawl, that will hinder their success, if they don’t stop behaving like brats and start playing the hard, no-nonsense rugby of the Brumbies, Blues, Waratahs and Chiefs.

As the referee Stuart Berry told the Jaguares players who were complaining (wrongly) about his rulings on foul play: “Your responsibility is to play this game fairly… It is your responsibility.”

But no such positive predictions that apply to the Jaguares can be made the for Sunwolves (for this season at least) and the Southern Kings (ever, I suspect).

Gregor Paul in The New Zealand Herald, though, was jumping the gun a bit with his call for the “white flag to be raised on behalf of the Sunwolves”.

His point is that they are going to be smashed, “out-gunned in the contact area”, as he phrased it. In particular, Paul suggested that their scrum “is a particular worry” and that there are “safety concerns” as a consequence of this weakness.

This sounds a bit like the Hurricanes scrum to me, a scrum that offered very little resistance to the Brumbies machine. Or the Waratahs scrum at times, especially towards the end of the match at Allianz Stadium against the Reds, a side not noted for its scrumming.

I would argue against the Gregor Paul line on the Sunwolves, weak scrum or not. They will be an asset to the tournament.

The Sunwolves had 11 Test players (10 from Japan and a Samoan international) in their match squad. There were all sorts of distractions involved in getting the side together. They had no pre-season training and only one formal trial match. They have been training for two weeks, only.

And their coach Mark Hammett had to go back to New Zealand earlier in the week to attend the funeral of his mother.

The time slot for the Sunwolves’ matches in Japan, three o’clock in the afternoon, is terrific for the Australasian viewers.

The ground at Tokyo was packed with spectators who were clearly knowledgeable and enthusiastic. When the Sunwolves scrum did hold up and their five-metre mark (something that Gregor Paul doesn’t seem to have noticed) there were roars of approval.

And best of all, the Sunwolves were clearly competitive with one of the better South African teams. At the 60-minute mark, the Lione were up 19-13.

The Sunwolves were denied one try after a wonderful series of attacks involving 19 phases. This was one of two tries they were denied with technical calls (alleged shepherding in this case). They also lost a player to the sin bin for an offence that did not warrant such a penalty.

The Kings, however, are another matter. They shouldn’t be in the tournament. South Africa has trouble fielding five competitive Super Rugby teams, let alone a sixth team from a franchise which is bankrupt and is kept afloat by the SARU, which is itself under the searchlight for alleged financial irregularities.

If only SANZAAR had opted for three conferences of six teams: the Australian franchises plus the Sunwolves, the five original South African franchises plus the Jaguares, and the New Zealand franchises plus a Pacific Islander side.

With the Kings in the tournament, as their performance in going down 43-8 (six tries to one) to the Sharks indicated, the South African Group is significantly weaker than the Australasian Group.

The Stormers’ 33-9 victory over the Bulls, too, indicates that the traditional strength of South African rugby, its veldt teams, is significantly compromised.

There are over 150 South Africans playing out of Africa. Too many of the Test players are involved in this migration to other rugby pastures. SARU, for the sake of the integrity of the South African Group in Super Rugby, has to stop the exodus.

The best way to do this is to follow the New Zealand and England practice of denying national selection to players who do not play in tournaments involving their local teams.

This is a problem for SARU to resolve, or not to resolve which is the most likely outcome.

In this part of the rugby world, the best thing to come out of the opening round for Australian supporters was the brilliant form of the Brumbies, the strong form of the Waratahs, and the good form of the Rebels and (surprise, surprise!) the Force.

In the lead-up to the Brumbies’ opening match against the Hurricanes, coach Stephen Larkham had been talking about “now or never” for his team. The point he was making is that many of this generation of Brumbies players, most notably Stephen Moore, David Pocock and Matt Toomua, will not be playing for the Brumbies next year.

The heart of the team that Jake White created has this year to win the first Super Rugby title for the Brumbies since the glory days of George Gregan and Larkham.

The second point Larkham had been making all week is that the assault on the Super Rugby title was going to be led by ending Jakeball and the Brumbies going back to their clever, defensively aggressive, systems-led attacking style that was created by Rod Macqueen and executed so successfully by the Gregan-Larkham team.

Last season, for instance, the Brumbies scored only a handful of tries started from inside their half. This was because the Brumbies invariably kicked out of their half. Larkham promised that this was going to change. The Brumbies were going to be go wide and be expansive with their running game inside their half.

The Argentinian half, Tomas Cubelli, had a superb match. His crisp passing and dinky break from around the rucks non-plussed the Hurricanes defenders. And the Cubelli-Christian Lealiifano halves combination was so slick and effective that you wished that the rules could be changed and that Cubelli was somehow eligible to play for the Wallabies.

And right from the opening whistle, the Brumbies played to this gameplan. And the Hurricanes could not contain the big Brumbies forwards charging forward, followed by the speed and power of the outside running backs.

The Brumbies forwards dominated the Hurricanes in the scrums and lineouts. The Hurricanes, admittedly, were missing their main locks pairing. But their loose forward trio were comprehensively outplayed by the terrific Brumbies back three, especially Scott Fardy who was in dominating form.

There was a cynicism, too, about the Brumbies play that most great teams have. The Hurricanes found it impossible to cope with the Brumbies’ line speed on attack as runner after runner was knocked over like 10-pins. Allied to the power of the Brumbies defenders was the tactic of not releasing the tackled player.

The result was that the Hurricanes could not get the quick ball, “slow or dead ball” as their coach Chris Boyd called it, that their counter-attacking game needs to be successful.

I called the tactic used to slow down the Hurricanes rucked ball as “cynical”. And I am sure this is the case. The Brumbies were warned time after time by Andrew Lees, who refereed well except for his reluctance to give a yellow card to Pocock et al for their refusal to allow the Hurricanes to re-cycle possession.

In the end, the Brumbies lost two players towards the end of the game to the sin bin, Pocock and Toomua. But by then the game was over. The Hurricanes were smashed. Their famed attack was reduced to scoring a single try.

I was amused with Larkham’s statement that he is going to ask the Super Rugby bosses for clarification on the way his team was policed at the ruck. The answer is very simple. The tackler has to release the tackled player immediately before then attacking the ball. Pocock et al simply did not release the tackled player after the tackle.

It will be interesting to see if the Brumbies try the same tactic of killing the ruck ball of the Waratahs in their game of the round at Canberra on Friday night.

It was noticeable that the Waratahs blunted the Reds’ attempt to rush their attacks by using Will Skelton as the first receiver. The massive Skelton invariably got over the advantage line (something the Hurricanes could not do) and this made it easier for Kurtley Beale, excellent at No.10, to set up attacks that exposed the Reds defence out wide.

The Waratahs fielded a strong, dominating back row in Jed Holloway (an outstanding young talent), Dave Dennis and Michael Hooper. It was a Hooper break from an inside pass early on in the game that fired up the Waratahs attack and an enthusiastic crowd of over 24,000.

The only real weak point in the Waratahs’ performance was poor scrum work, especially towards the end of the match when they were under a scrum-siege and somehow survived, despite the fact that their scrum was being crushed.

The two starting props of Paddy Ryan, playing on his wrong side, and Angus Ta’avao, recruited from the Blues, are a weak pair for the Waratahs hoping to go forward at scrum time.

By way of comparison, the Brumbies scrum looked to be in control against the Hurricanes. New Zealand rugby writers are not so sure. They point to the fact that in the first scrum of the match, the Hurricanes “shunted” the Brumbies off the ball.

Then Lees “let the scrums deteriorate” and then “decided that To’omaga-Allen was responsible”.

There was one curious bit of captaincy for the Waratahs that deserves noting. Towards the end of the match, with the result in the bag and the Waratahs having scored four tries to one (bonus point territory), the Waratahs won a penalty near the Reds’ tryline.

Instead of opting for a five-metre lineout and the chance to score the try to consolidate their bonus point, the Waratahs kicked the penalty and gave themselves three points they didn’t really need.

As it happened, the Reds should really have scored another try towards the end of the match when they dominated a series of scrums in front of the Waratahs’ posts. Referee Angus Gardner kept on penalising the Waratahs scrum for collapsing and other misdemeanours. I thought he might have awarded a penalty scrum after yet another collapse by the Waratahs.

If that had happened, the bonus point for being three tries to the good would have been wiped out. And rightly so.

I normally cringe when watching (or trying not to watch) the Force play. But they and the Rebels provided a fine spectacle of aggressive, expansive rugby played with passion and at pace.

I think that if both these teams stick to the faith about the running game, they will have successful seasons, or at least much more successful than last year.

The highlight of the match was the incredible performance of the Rebels’ newcomer, Reece Hodge. Hodge is big (100 kilograms, 190 centimetres) and can kick the ball out of the stadium. He started the match as fullback, played on the wing and then finished at No.10. He scored two tries, kicked two penalties and two conversions.

What a debut!

Just about as good on debut was David Horwitz for the Waratahs. Holloway, too, an occasional Waratah a couple of years ago, cemented his spot with a storming game for the Waratahs at No.8.

The point about these three young tremendous players is that Reece (Manly), Horwitz (Randwick) and Holloway (Southern Districts) have all come out of the Sydney premier grade system.

Last week I copped a lot of flak for having the temerity to point out the obvious – that the ARU was doing a disservice to Australian rugby by refusing to give appropriate grants to the Sydney and Brisbane premier grade clubs.

I offer these three splendid young players as examples of the necessity for the ARU to invest in club rugby.

And I present my main witness to the truth of this, Matt Burke. I followed his career from his days as a talented all-round athlete at Joeys, his Australian Schoolboys debut against Jonah Lomu and Jeff Wilson, his sterling play for his club side Eastwood, numerous Waratahs and Wallabies matches and his crowning glory as a player, his match-winning performance for Australia in the 1999 Rugby World Cup final against the eye-gouging French.

In The Sun-Herald, Matt Burke presented the case for the value of grassroots club rugby. Take it away Matt.

“An interesting stat I saw in relation to the Waratahs is that out of the 38 players in the squad, 33 of these players were born in NSW.

“I just think that is quite incredible. Yes, there is a former All Black playing and a former All Black coaching, but the majority have come through the rugby development pathways: schoolboys, under-20s, Shute Shield and the Waratahs developmental academy.

“As the Waratahs show, playing that early level of club footy is a necessity for players and referees alike. It’s like your apprenticeship to the big time. You learn your trade in the grind of week-in-week-out football.

“Surely statistics would tell you that club rugby has to be a genuine pathway. This has to be nurtured and looked after, as the local clubs, with all their juniors affiliates, are paddling like made to keep their heads above water.”

ARU chief executive Bill Pulver believes clubs “piss away” the money given to them by the ARU and this is why they are being refused their rightful direct grants money.

This is shameful behaviour.

I know who I’d trust out of Bill Pulver and the champion Wallaby Matt Burke, one rugby’s great fullbacks, on how great players and great teams are created.