With the countdown to the Rugby Championship underway and the return of Kurtley Beale from England on a promise from Michael Cheika that he will play a more senior role in the Wallabies team, there is speculation rife about which position he is likely to occupy.
Michael Cheika has recently indicated that he considers 12 to be Beale’s best position, which lends itself to questions about what that means for the makeup for the rest of the team.
The key issue is that while Beale is an outstanding attacking player, he is not a strong defender. Aside from being a poor tackler who is often covered in the midfield by another player such as Rob Horne from the wing, the problem that I have seen with him is that he just doesn’t have good defensive awareness.
Beale’s attention seems to switch on when his team has the ball, when the opposition has it he becomes distracted and hesitant and he certainly doesn’t take a defensive organisation role like Matt Giteau did so effectively for the Wallabies in 2015.
Beale’s weakness in defence was aptly demonstrated in defence during the World Cup final in 2015, when he replaced Giteau was who had been concussed. All three All Black tries were scored after Giteau was sent off and Beale had a role in two and possibly three of them.
In the first try by Nehe Milner-Skudder, Beale was in the position to rush up on Conrad Smith to shut down the overlap, but instead appeared to panic and did not attempt to tackle anybody.
In the second try by Ma’a Nonu, the Wallabies midfield had broken apart under an offloading assault by Sonny Bill Williams, probably because Giteau was not there to organise. Beale standing back at fullback was completely wrong footed in a one on one contest Nonu, who had run through the gaps.
In the third try Ben Smith had picked up a dropped ball from Drew Mitchell, run and kicked ahead for Beauden Barrett to score at the other end. Beale, who had passed to Mitchell, can be seen jogging at the bottom of the screen, instead of chasing hard when he was not so far behind that as a fast man, catching Barrett was out of the question.
Personally I think that substituting Beale for Giteau so early in the game was the biggest mistake that Cheika made in that World Cup, because he had a good defender who is also no slouch in attack in Matt Toomua on the bench. That is history now, but what we can do however is learn from the mistake.
However, Cheika appears to be headed towards making it again.
What starting Beale at 12 would mean is that Karmichael Hunt, who demonstrated very strong defensive and offensive credentials in the position during the June Test series, would probably be left on the bench.
It would also mean that another player, most likely a winger, would need to be selected based on their ability to defend in the midfield. The only player who I can think of who would fit the bill as a decent winger and a strong defender, is Reece Hodge.
I rate Hodge highly, but I don’t know that as a young player, he has the presence of Hunt to fill the desperately needed role of midfield defensive organiser. I also think that Hodge is the perfect ‘finisher’, he can play any role from ten to 15 and therefore may be best employed off the bench this season.
Finally, when teams counterattack from the turnover – which is when the All Blacks are most dangerous – Beale would be opposite monster centres like Sonny Bill Williams and Nganai Laumape. Not good.
So what would the Wallabies really gain by running Beale instead of Hunt at 12? I can’t see how any gains in attack would offset the defensive losses. To me Beale’s skill set would be best utilised as an outside back. With Folau being a shoe in for the 15 jersey, to me that suggests that Beale should be competing with Dane Haylett-Petty for the wing position.
Beale is fast and has a good kicking game, which Cheika clearly values in a winger to help Folau, whose kicking game isn’t great.
However, where Beale really outshines Haylett-Petty is in his attacking instincts, which were demonstrated aptly from the wing when he replaced Rob Horne in the World Cup pool match against England.
Despite not often playing on the wing, Beale instinctively knew how to call the attacking move and rove inwards, to set up Bernard Foley for his try. I can’t think of a Wallabies winger who was that intuitively creative since Campese, and I think that is where Beale best fits if he is to start with the Wallabies this year.
Markie362
Guest
The defining moment was bender being sin binned
Marto
Guest
George G, that Silenced Jackeaglet ..haha
Timbo (L)
Roar Guru
I was trying to be positive and stay culturally sensitive, trying not to offend. The success of an indigenous Australians should be celebrated. The Ellas, Ernie Dingo, Kathy Freeman, Yothu Yindi, Archie Roach and many others sets a good example for a community that, to be blunt, had and has many troubles. To give kids a good role model like Goods or Kurtley creates a positive community focus. Curtley's contribution is "to not do anything else bad" I admit is a pretty low bar. There are a number of missed opportunities as you have pointed out As I said, He could do more , the Indigenous Jersey is a good start but isn't going to clean his slate like Karmichael Hunt was able to.
kiwineil
Guest
oh god ... this again yes he is a great attacking full back and great under the high ball but his defensive positioning is terrible, his kicking is poor and he doesn't read the backfield well He belongs on the wing...
Ed
Guest
Kurtley will be our 10 if Foley goes down. “Kurtley Beale has got that covered with the 10s, we’re working on a few other ideas, I’m happy enough with the players we have here now, I don’t think we need to bring anyone," Cheika said on Tuesday. “Of course when Quade starts playing again, we’ll be straight on to having a look." When did Beale last play at fly-half in any game? As TWAS has noted, his last time for the Wallabies was not a positive.
Fionn
Guest
Salmon Morne was much more limited than Cooper, but boy could that bloke kick a goal. Around 2009-10 he was the best kicker I've ever seen. Goal-kicking robot. I'm just imagining how much more effective the Wallabies could be with Morne Steyn's goal and out of hand kicking.
MitchO
Guest
And PK if you are really serious about owning the D, then give Hodgo a call up to play 7. I think he may have a 100% goal kicking record for his super rugby career. So double bonus.
MitchO
Guest
PK Lance can goal kick. It is just that he's played most of his games at the Force the same time as Peter Grant. The big mission for Wallaby D is to come up with an exit strategy which works. They need to find a way to shield the kicker as Genia and Foley have given or risked too many charge downs. Surely putting DHP and Hodge on the wings is an option with Naivalu (or Speight) on the bench. That way there are two decent boots at the back plus Folau who can run and popcorn kick and take a high ball. With two boots back there instead of one you can cover the whole line. Hodge is quick enough and he is a good finisher in his own right. You'd also have Foley and Genia running around somewhere. So 2 good boots, 2 smallish but genuine boots plus Folau.
piru
Roar Rookie
Are we ignoring Hodgson due to his retirement?
FunBus
Roar Rookie
If Will Skelton doesn't come back a better player after his second stint at Saracens it will be his fault. He'll be fighting for a place with significantly better locks than he'll have experienced in the Wallabies, let alone the Tahs.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
MitchO has given you some names. You'll see more in the future because the age profile of players heading to Europe seems to be changing. 30 year olds aren't particularly likely to come back better players at 33. 25 year olds may well come back better at 28.
MitchO
Guest
Will Skelton but that may just have been a fluke. Dane Haylet-Petty, according to Dane himself. He was young though so would have learnt here if playing high enough level. Bill Meakes. He couldn't make the NSW squad in Aus but came back from Europe and helped spank them. Of course he was young when he went and had some good coaches. Sekope Kepu maybe. The Matt Giteau that came back for the world cup was better than the Matt Giteau who had left Aus - but I think that was because MG became physically past it in Aus and had not yet learned how to cope with sporting life as an old man. He went to Europe and adjusted his game. Brock James hasn't come back but he was doing badly here and well over there. I am sure that neither Kane Douglas nor Dean Mumm lost anything by their time in Europe. The inconvenient truth for mine is that there are some pretty good players who play all their rugby in Europe. EG Sean O'Brien, George Kruis, Ben Teo, Connor Murray... If follows that it must be possible to maintain or improve your game in Europe.
Ash
Guest
And the fact Foley never gets dropped no matter how bad he plays.
piru
Roar Rookie
Will you 2nd tier Aussie teams stop arguing please? you're both rubbish
piru
Roar Rookie
You can afford for a Morne Steyn not to be able to tackle - not so a Cooper That said Cooper's defence is far better than people (or coaches) give him credit for, the worst thing you can do with a confidence player like Cooper is show no faith in an aspect of his game (like hiding him at fullback because you don't think he can tackle)
Hoges5
Roar Rookie
great point - it will be lost on this forum sadly....
Hoges5
Roar Rookie
Turn it up Chook! QCs defence is no worse than Beale's. You are either choosing a kicker with good outside-back linking skills or a great long-passer with ok kicking skills and game mangement. Neither is complete but then again nor was Morne Steyn or Steven Donald (apparently) but both seemed to pick up World Cups..... might have something to do with the other 14 players on the field...
George G
Guest
EagleJack, thanks for the data you put forward. I'd like to follow that up though in looking at the starters. I think Cheika does a good job at selecting a varied extended and playing squad, but consistently selects his former Tahs to start and play at least 70mins, leaving scraps for other teams. Therefore listing the subs in the data you gave makes it look balanced but in reality it isn't. The starting squad data looks like this: Fiji: 5 x Tahs, 4 x Brumbies 3 x Force, 2 x Reds (+Genia from overseas) Scotland: 5 x Tahs, 3 x Brumbies, 3 x Force, 3 x Reds (+ Genia) Italy: 5 x Tahs, 3 x Brumbies, 2 x Force, 2 x Reds, 2 x Rebels ( + Genia) So, as you can see, despite a horrific performance against Scotland, Cheika continued to select Tahs and drop the others in the squad CONSISTENTLY. This suggests he either has no alternatives to pick or that he thinks the other members of the squad to be the root of the problems. In any case, he picked 5 Tahs each game- leaving four other teams to fight over 10 starting spots. This is despite a horrific vein of form from the Tahs this year where they were expected (yet again) to top the conference easily. They finished 4th in the Aussie conference.
Marto
Guest
Kane Douglas was not picked in the Wallabies Rugby Championship squad as he was dropped to premier grade this year for being lazy in most games.. Super form does matter to to Cheika , he said the same about Cooper and Higginbotham....Oh my. umm.., yeah.. hold on, wait ...um ..err arr..yeah .... Kane was selected by Cheika? ... No !!.... He was ? Good one Cheika you Clown !!!
Marto
Guest
Just ignore Jack Eaglet, he may get his big boy wings and fly away soon..