The Big Rugby Championship Question: Breakouts and surprise packets

The Rugby Championship is over for another season, won by the dominant team achieving the maximum points possible. Hardly sporting of them, was it?

But forget them. Forget teams in general.

This week – the penultimate week of the panel – is all about naming names, as we ponder who blew us away and who raised our eyebrows and caused us to smile wryly.

The Big Question: From your respective country, which player had their breakout international performance over the course of The Rugby Championship?

Harry: “The Boklings’ breakout performer?

“The mostly weak, passive, and small-ish Boklings mostly made me break out in hives. I broke out the whiskey to survive the Boklings’ historically pathetic defence. I broke out into an old Gaelic dirge; post-games were like grim Irish wakes for fishermen lost at sea.

“The Boklings and their coach Kootchie Koo the Kandidly Kak Koach couldn’t break out of a Mexican jail even if El Chapo dug the tunnel for them. Exits were painful: charged down, futile, sloppy, and worse.

“No Bokling deserves accolades. Those who were okay (Eben Etzebeth, Francois Louw, Vincent Koch, and Pieter-Steph du Toit) had already been discovered.

“But the boss wants a name. So, I’ll go with Warren Worker Whiteley. His case is simple: productivity and no glaring errors. He broke out of the shadow of Thor:

– Played every minute
– Tackled like a Trojan (97 percent success)
– Beat more defenders (12) than any Bokling, and more than Dane Coles and Ardie Savea
– Didn’t knock on much; scored good tries
– Never hung his head; pushed to the end
– Stole lineouts; owned the long throws.”

Nobes: “This answer is very easy for me.

“Facundo Isa was the new kid on the block in Argentina and he made incredible efforts for the team. In my opinion, he deserves to be rewarded as the most important player in this team on this tournament.”

Digger: “For me, there is only one player to nominate and that is Anton Lienart-Brown.

“He has taken to this level like the proverbial duck to water. He looks assured, has time and has played an instrumental part in several of the All Blacks performances after earning his opportunity, and for such a young man to take on such a difficult position and succeed has been truly astonishing.

“Considering the angst over this particular position before the international season had started, it suddenly looks one of the most assured and Anton looks to have that jersey locked up now for quite some time.”

Brett: Picking the standout Wallaby this year has at times felt like nominating your hottest cousin, and arguably, could’ve been less productive.

But nonetheless, the further The Rugby Championship went on, the further some names went up in lights.

And though it would be easy to pick a headline grabber like Reece Hodge, I’m going with raw-boned lock Adam Coleman.

In the space of three-and-a-half months, he’s made a nervous Test debut off the bench, was dropped for the next game completely, started the next one, and put in such a performance that he’s started every Test since.

And in truth, his first start, in the second Bledisloe in Wellington, was such a rock-or-diamonds performance that he was simultaneously praised and panned in post-mortems. Since then, he’s just got better with every outing, and he now looks like one of the few genuine ‘must-picks’ in the Wallabies forwards for the immediate future.

His workrate is great, his aggression is already more measured and better timed, and h’s well on his way to becoming that physical lock around the park who’s also pretty bloody handy in the set piece that Wallabies fans have been crying out for since Dan Vickerman Mk I.

The fact that he has been a relative constant among a forward pack in a seemingly continuous state of flux (to use a great oxymoron) is an indication of his rapid development, and I’ll give Michael Cheika a wrap for sticking with Coleman when he’s done nothing of the sort with plenty of other forwards this year.

The Not-Quite-So-Big Question: From one other country, which player surprised you the most during The Rugby Championship this season? (both questions from Brett)

Harry: “As far as a surprise player from the good (non-South African) teams: Anton Lienart-Brown for me. Calmly manning one of the trickiest defensive posts in rugby, he showed relish for smash-mouth tackling, smart in space, still offloaded in contact, ran full force, and looked like a better, bigger, younger, faster Conrad Smith starter kit.”

Nobes “I had a big debate with myself but I believe Beauden Barrett deserves the trophy. His name has been around for some time and this year he had the number 10 on his back. He had some weak kicking to convert tries and penalties in some games, nevertheless he was the leading man in points.

The man has shown great maturity and has been a great driver for the NZ offence. I have not done the math but he has to be the one with the highest numbers for the All Blacks since the Tri became the Four in The Rugby Championship.”

Digger: “Outside of New Zealand, Samu Kerevi and Pieter Steph Du Toit have been excellent in my view, however the big stand-out has to be Facundo Isa.

“In my view, he was the form number 8 from this season’s Championship and I look forward to watching him in years to come.”

Brett: Mine might be from left-field a bit, but I’m going to nominate Morne Steyn.

His selection for the Loftus Test against the Wallabies was just about universally condemned, yet he turned in a vintage display right from the ‘Boks 2007 playbooks that had one simple goal: Win. The. Game.

At 43, or however old he actually is (players tend to artificially age when playing in France), it was actually a wonderful reminder of what really well-worked 10-man rugby can look like.

Tips

Week 6: Digger, Brett, and The Crowd 2, Harry and Nobes 1

And with that, The Crowd claimed their second consecutive tipping title for 2016, keeping Digger and I at a one-point arm’s reach away, and we in turn kept Nobes and Harry a point further back as well.

I can’t be disappointed by the result, there were 600 of you voting some weeks! We had to come up with our tips all on our own AND we had to lodge our tips every week before we saw teams – we could easily lay claim to a moral victory on per capita basis, or something convenient.

Obviously, this means The Crowd’s future involvement is in significant doubt!

No-one likes a smart-arse. Especially not hundreds of them. Though that decision may or may not be influenced by The Crowd’s ability to claim the treble in 2016 by taking out the NRC tipping as well.

Harry: “Congratulations, Digger and Brett! Nobes and I had to stick with our teams. I’ve never learned to tip against my own team, except in private wagers!”

Nobes: “My congratulations to the crowd: once again it has been smarter than the panel, tipping wisely throughout The Rugby Championship. I would also like to congratulate Digg and Brett who beat Harry and myself. I am very pleased to share the wooden spoon with a smart gentleman like Harry and not be all by myself in the last spot. Not bad for a rookie!”

The Summary