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A fair bit has been written about the Brumbies apparent lack of zing in attack in the 2017 Super Rugby season.
The common refrain has been surprise and disappointment that the man many regard as Australia’s best fly half ever can’t coach his team to mimic his own stellar performances in the Wallabies ten jersey.
The attacking stats for the Brumbies this season paint a bleak picture, with the Brumbies performing relatively poorly in terms of tries scored, clean breaks, carries, metres run, defenders beaten, offloads and ruck success. However in the scrum, lineout and tackle success the Brumbies inhabit the upper reaches of the tables, with the team’s tackle success rate currently being a chart topping 88 per cent.
That, combined with a game that emphasises a lot of kicking from hand it appears that that Larkham has returned to the much derided ‘Jakeball’ formula of his mentor Jake White. The question is then, why is Larkham playing his team so conservatively?
Last year instead of simple lineout drives we saw some wonderful ensemble attacking movements off the Brumbies lineouts, with big fast centres and outside backs running in all directions for Christian Lealifano picking out one to punch through the opposition line. But the closest we have seen to that this year is the tricky move off the back of the rolling maul against the Higlanders, with Joe Powell running as a dummy in one direction while Chris Alcock belted down the blindside to score, a good move but not really that exciting to watch.
Then having fired that shot the Brumbies appeared to run out of ideas, simply trying to barge over with the rolling maul and losing the game when the Highlanders defended effectively against that.
I think the answer to that question is that Larkham simply does not have the playmakers to pull off the clever moves this year, not yet at least. He has lost the experience nine Tomas Cubelli to injury, quick-footed Lealifano who is still recovering from illness and in particular the visionary Matt Toomua to England.
It is not just set attacking moves that have suffered for the loss of these blokes. The identification of off the cuff attacking opportunities, something at which Toomua in particular excels, just aren’t happening like they used to.
Instead, he has the talented but raw Joe Powell, a Kiwi journeyman Wharenui Hawera, and Kyle Godwin – who is a tackling machine at 98 per cent tackle completions – but doesn’t seem to be able to create opportunities.
Suffice to say the 9/10/12 attacking combination just isn’t what is was at the Brumbies last year.
What I have noticed about Larkham is that he introduces new attacking movements cautiously and incrementally, which tells me that he has a fastidious nature and wants to be as near to certain that the big attacking move for the game is going to work before he reveals it to his opponents, thus not ‘wasting’ them. Quite reasonable I think.
So this has left Larkham with the only real option that he has this season, to fall back on the basics of defence, set piece and kicking, which have held the Brumbies in good stead over many years. And while it doesn’t make for pretty rugby, it is serving the Brumbies reasonably well. They may have only won two from five but they are at the top of the Aussie conference by virtue of the fact that all of their losses have been close, hence they have won bonus points. And if they win the Aussie conference, which they may well do, they get an automatic finals spot.
I know that Australian rugby fans rightfully cringe at the term “rebuilding” being used to justify poor performances, but with the loss of those playmakers as well as Stephen Moore, David Pocock and Joe Tomane this season was never going to be anything but a rebuilding phase for the Brumbies.
And while Larkham may be playing Jakeball, there are glimpses of the improved handling emerging from the focus on skills currently occurring in Australia with the hiring of Wallabies skills coach Mick Byrne, for example Tevita Kuridrani’s try against the Sharks drew comment as being notable because it went through the hands of three front rowers to get to him.
I frankly didn’t rate the Brumbies as having any chance of doing well this season after they lost so many players but I have to take my hat off to Larkham, he is showing other Aussie coaches how to make the most of the cards dealt and is in the process showing himself to be a much smarter coach than he is given credit for by many.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.