Yes, there were positives for the Aussies this weekend

It’s easy to lay the boot into the Australian teams currently. It is almost becoming a sport in itself.

We are left mesmerised by the exquisite skill of the New Zealand teams and simultaneously bewildered by that of the locals.

But, if you were prepared to look for it, there was actually a fair bit to be happy about from the four Australian sides in action over the weekend.

That’s not to say they were all brilliant; far from it. Three of the four teams lost, obviously, and the three losses were all pretty disappointing, on the whole.

The criticism of the Australian teams has been emanating for a few weeks now, and has been hard to ignore. And of course, the more you read it, the more you believe it; the more you believe it, the more you look for it.

And so sure, if you really wanted to, you could pull all kinds of issues out of the Waratahs-Brumbies derby in Sydney on Saturday night.

But I actually found it to be one of the more enjoyable Australian derby games in the last few years. Watching it live, it felt like there was a real pace to the game; a repeat viewing only confirmed this initial thought. It was willing, it was niggly, it was a forwards battle and breakdown contest, and there were some cracking tries constructed and scored. It ticked all my boxes, but I’m just one person.

The way the Waratahs fought back in the second half was quite impressive, after shelling quick tries like they did. To effectively fight fire with fire by launching attacking raids and making line breaks of their own showed a lot of ticker in a situation where they could’ve been excused for going into their shell.

Beyond that, and within the contest, the performances of some individuals really stood out.

For one thing, if Jed Holloway and Jack Dempsey don’t start every game for the rest of the season, then the demise of the Waratahs will be complete. Even without David Pocock, it was a pretty fair Brumbies backrow trio, and these two young punks with less than ten games each didn’t just compete, they quite often won.

I made the comment on Twitter late in the game that I surprised how often Michael Hooper was getting over the ball as the first man, even if he wasn’t actually getting a shot at the pilfer. The major reason for that was the guys who had been providing the clean out cover for 60 minutes of the game were sitting in the stands.

It doesn’t actually matter that Hooper never won a turnover all night. Just being in the position that he might often meant the Brumbies had to commit more players to the attacking ruck. But when Dempsey and Holloway went off, that threat dissipated. Even more so when Wycliff Palu was yellow-carded out of the game.

Dempsey’s work in the tight has improved with every game. He probably plays more like an openside, but in much the same way the Hooper-Pocock double-team worked during the Rugby World Cup, Dempsey can play his natural game, because it compliments Hooper’s.

Holloway is playing the kind of no.8 game you’d expect from a bloke with 50 caps, not ten. He’s not a wrecking ball type of carrier, but he makes the gain line with surprising regularity. I don’t want to compare him to Kieran Read, but he is having a lot of success running in those same wider channels that Read often populates.

These two young forwards are the type of players the Waratahs could be built around for a decade, if they were serious. They’re already playing well enough to keep Palu and Dave Dennis on the bench, and I can’t imagine that was part of the Tahs’ planning in January.

I’ll throw young prop Tom Robertson and fullback Andrew Kellaway up at this point too, for the same reason. Robertson has shown in just a couple of games that he’s well equipped for this level, and he’s just got a bit about him. And he’s a decent scrummager, most importantly.

Kellaway could easily have turned it up after being left in Joe Tomane’s wake twice in the space of a couple of minutes, but he got back into the game through the Tahs’ attack, and ran a superb inside support line off Kurtley Beale in the lead-up for Israel Folau’s try. After that, he was solid under the high ball, never really looked out of position, and played with more confidence than a guy on starting debut should. It would be easy to criticise him for the Tomane misses, but realistically, Tomane should be scoring those tries every day of the week.

Tomane was great, obviously, but he’s in good form; he’s been making those breaks for a month now. What helped him against the Tahs was the Matt Toomua probably had his best game at 12 in 2016, which was coincidental, because Beale probably played his best game of 2016 too. Everything that was good about the Brumbies attack had Toomua’s fingerprints, and everything that was good about the Waratahs had Beale’s.

No wonder Michael Cheika was so happy when he left the Footy Stadium on Saturday night.

Think about this. Cheika could randomly pick a centre combination out of Beale, Toomua, Folau, Tevita Kuridrani, and Samu Kerevi today, and whichever 12 and 13 he pulled out of the hat, they’d all be in decent current form. You could make a worthy case of all five players to get the nod, right at the moment.

Whatever Cheika said to Kerevi at the Wallabies camp, Nick Stiles and Matt O’Connor need to get Cheika on the phone to say the same thing to Kerevi before each game. The big centre just wants the ball now, and the Reds are reaping the benefits. But I can’t mention Kerevi without giving Anthony Fainga’a a rap. The ball for Kerevi’s second try was exquisite, and Fainga’a doesn’t often get credit for what he can and often does provide in attack.

The Folau-at-13 experiment gave us enough to know it’s worth persisting with for a while yet. Yes, he found himself on the end of a couple of Kuridrani fends, but he also caused some damage of his own. Running in that 13 channel is obviously not a new thing for him, and he does do it well. And if Beale can keep his form where it is, you want someone with a bit of finishing ability outside him. And further to that, Kellaway showed that he’s more than useful running off Beale’s inside hip.

The Rebels would rather put that Hurricanes loss behind them, I’m sure, and I’d similarly like to put that missed tip behind me, too. But it’s hard to ignore the continued good form of Jordy Reid, and particularly in this game when Sean McMahon had one of his quieter games this season. McMahon and Reid are another pairing who work very well together, and a lot of that is down to the presence of Adam Thomson, who’s been an outstanding buy for the Rebels this season.

Sadly, they faded out in the second half, and probably ever before, but I thought the first half performances of the front row was really encouraging. As was the 20 minutes from Dom Shipperley until he was forced off with what looked to be a nasty ankle injury. He seriously can’t take a trick on the injury front, Shipperley, and his three Test caps must feel like they were an eternity ago.

So yeah, there was plenty to like this weekend. You could quite easily get depressed about things if you really wanted to, and I couldn’t really blame you if you did. But there’s also some good signs worth highlighting, and worth celebrating. It’s probably a pity that we don’t more often.