With New Zealand-born Curtis Rona having made his Wallabies debut against the All Blacks, we can delve into just how he was welcomed into the team before the disastrous first Bledisloe Cup match on Saturday.
Coach: Curtis, congratulations; you will be starting for the Wallabies this weekend.
Curtis: That’s brilliant. I’m so excited – not as excited as when I was selected for the Kiwi league team a couple of years ago obviously, but excited nonetheless
Coach: You will be playing on the wing, okay?
Curtis: All good, coach.
Coach: We have a couple of blokes with 60-plus Test caps in the spine who don’t really like the physical stuff and who have more chance of reading Dostoyevsky than they have a counter attack, so I will need you to defend in the centres.
Curtis: Not an issue, I often do that for the Force.
Coach: For who?
Curtis: Doesn’t matter.
Coach: There are a couple of things you need to be aware of, though.
Curtis: Not a problem; I’m up for anything.
Coach: Good. The All Blacks have a big bloke with tattoos who likes to offload, so I need you to go high and wrap him up, league style.
Curtis: Right in my sweet spot, got it.
Coach: But he will get a few away so keep an eye on that Ryan Crotty bloke when he makes runs in close.
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Curtis: All good. Anything else?
Coach: That Beauden Barrett guy is quite quick and will run wrap-arounds before straightening. You need you to cover that for us.
Curtis: Ah, okay – I’m getting a little busy, anything else?
Coach: You have got to watch Aaron Smith. If he passes from the base, the runner will attack your outside shoulder, and if he takes a step before passing to commit Hoops in the ten channel, then the runner will be running a cut back coming at your inside shoulder.
Curtis: Hoops? Where will Bernard be?
Coach: Doesn’t matter. You got that?
Curtis: Yep, leave it to me, boss.
Coach: You will posting up between Samu and Henry.
Curtis: So another winger and a slightly dodgy defending centre up against Sonny Bill Williams, Crotty, the world rugby player of the year and a plethora of Smiths.
Coach: Yep, need you to cover in behind both our guys. Is that an issue?
Curtis: No, boss.
Coach: Good – and remember defence is 50 per cent attitude.
Curtis: Does that mean half our guys don’t have any defensive attitude at all?
Coach: You learn quickly, kid.
Curtis: I appreciate the opportunity, sir.
Coach: You stuff this up and you will be joining the Quade Cooper/Scott Higginbotham NRC magical mystery tour, we do like a scapegoat.
Curtis: Yes, sir.
Gary
Guest
yep I agree , he was totally lost , looked slow, lumbering even. One of the best comments I saw by a Roarer after the match was that he must have been bribed not to tackle. I have no idea how he beat Hodge to a starting spot as Hodge brings way more to the team.
MitchO
Guest
He had a lot of work to do on debut playing a seriously weird defensive system. Seriously does anyone else have so much movement or are we clever Aussies leading the way? A serious problem any D has is that AB backline. Importantly though the Lions put a good squeeze on them in forwards. It wasn't just backs rushing up. The other Lions also put a good squeeze on the Hurricanes and BBB wasn't able to get the job done for them. Even when you can squeeze the forwards enough, just give the kiwis a sniff and they'll score points. But if you don't win it in the forwards you are going to run out of tacklers at some point.
Jock Cornet
Guest
Did not have a clue, looked lost but every league gets a wallaby jersey in the contrCt
Highlander
Guest
You can't fault his effort. Just seemed way too much to ask to post him up inside all the time, when more experienced guys don't fancy it.
MitchO
Guest
I thought Rona and at least one other Wallaby should have been able to stop SBWs try but otherwise I thought Rona didn't perform/made a mistake maybe two or three more times. On the whole I thought his debut was ok. If he gets a chance to play full time wing he'll be fine. But I think KB needs to drop back to full back and Kerevi move to 12. It did look like Speight and Rona were doing a lot of defending in the centres. No wonder we leaked some points against the best backline in the business.
Dutski
Roar Guru
Love that! I actually think ROna looked pretty willing on the weekend.
Bob Wire
Guest
Nice one Highlander!
JeffR
Guest
Thanks Highlander, I particularly enjoyed the Force comment.
Highlander
Guest
BT , totally agree Folau best under the high ball when it is coming to him, something struck me st the game saturday, have never seen him catch one going away from him -chasing a midfield bom from your own team for example
Highlander
Guest
Rona didn't have a good one sadly, but it was almost preordained, can't ask debutants to defend in the middle like that. Actually felt sorry for him he looked so lost.
Machooka
Roar Guru
Have you been bugging our strategy meetings again H'lander? Oh by the way... I enjoyed an excellent scapegoat curry yesterday. Tasty stuff. Thoroughly recommended. And I'll be back for more next w'end. No doubt about it. Yep, it was that good. Very tasty. ;)
BrainsTrust
Guest
This guy is scared of trying to catch high balls more than tackling. That should be the first order the day to improve his play. Folau on the other hand is fearless going for the high ball, I think he should be shifted into the line out, he has got an enormous leap on him and could be capable of pilfering the ball. It would also mean a tackle shy player is not in the backline defence after them. Half the backline is tackle shy and others are not smart defenders. Its not a formula which will work.