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To wrap up another sensational season of the National Rugby Championship, the only thing really left to do is drop some names.
The are the guys who have come out of the 2017 NRC ready to take their game to the next level in Super Rugby.
And yes, there will be some liberties taken here today. Some of these guys have played Super Rugby already, some of them haven’t and still might not in 2018. But I reckon the vast majority absolutely will.
The obvious starting point is the champion Queensland Country side, who in taking out the 2017 tournament, finished with the leading try-scorer, the leading points-scorer, the Player of the Final, and even though I’m still not sure how this was a different person, the Player of the Season. (And I promise no more about that.)
Filipo Daugunu scored 13 tries for the season, which is a pretty decent strike rate for ten games. Except that he didn’t play ten games, he only played eight, not featuring in the first two games while Izaia Perese started on the right wing. It wasn’t until Round 4 we got our first look at Daugunu, and for defending teams, what they mainly saw about him was the no.14 on his jersey as he ran away to score yet another try.
So, 13 tries in eight games, but a streak of ten tries in his first four games. We hadn’t heard of him until Round 4, yet by Round 8, he’d been unveiled as a Queensland Reds recruit. The 13 tries included two hat-tricks – and one of them in the final against Canberra – and four against the Greater Sydney Rams in Round 7.
He’s a great finisher, of that there is no doubt, but with a background in football, he has a more than useful kicking game, including at goal. If the Reds can create the space for him next year, he’ll do the rest.
James Tuttle is a bit of a known quantity, having displaced Nick Frisby in the Reds no.9 in 2017, and the promise he’s already showing was undoubtedly a major reason why the Reds couldn’t – or wouldn’t – make room for Will Genia. But Tuttle’s play during the NRC showed a new level of maturity, and control, and though there were plenty of flashier or more explosive players getting the headlines for Country, there weren’t too many more important that their scrumhalf.
(Photo by Jason O’Brien/Getty Images)
Tuttle finished with 103 points from his NRC campaign, including 40/55 conversions. Still only 21, he’s got a surprising amount of senior experience under his belt now, and promisingly for Reds fans, he’s playing like it.
Duncan Paia’aua is even more of a known quantity, and doesn’t need much more written about him here. What will be fascinating to see next year is whether he starts becoming more of a focus in attack for the Reds, popping up at first receiver a la Kurtley Beale for the Waratahs. And given he’s already worn the Wallabies no.10, this might be an interesting test of the cordiality and co-operation between state and national programs.
Caleb Timu has a huge opportunity to lock down the Reds blindside or no.8 starting position next season, with doubt around Hendrick Tui’s status for 2018. Having already played the two seasons allowed for foreign marquee players, you’d have to think it a long shot that any dispensation for Tui would be allowed, given the emergence of a player like Timu, and with Scott Higginbotham still contracted for 2018.
Timu was a bit of a slow-burn during the NRC, really only getting the headlines in the last few weeks of the competition, but they were certainly headlines worth reading. He averaged around ten carries and ten tackle attempts per game, for more than three metres per carry, and an 85 per cent tackling success rate. And if he’s shone like this after just a few months with Brad Thorn, imagine his possible impact and output after a full off-season.
Then there’s Taniela Tupou, who didn’t pick up any awards per se, but did run over blokes for fun. By the end of the NRC season, and particularly that semi-final display against the Fijian Drua, his schoolboy YouTube clips were playing out for real.
(Image: Sportography)
More importantly, his scrummaging is showing real signs of promise, even if he did get a bit of a touch-up in the first half of the Final. He gets a lot of a credit for the way Country were able to claw their way back into the scrum contest in the second half, and it’s actually a shame he won’t get to work with Mario Ledesma from a Wallabies perspective going forward. Let’s hope the next national scrum coach reads from the same page.
From the Canberra side of the final, Rob Valetini must be short odds to debut in Round 1 next season for the Brumbies. The former Melbourne schoolboy had an incredible campaign at with the back of the scrum or on the blindside, with an impressive work-rate, a more than useful breakdown presence, and a surprisingly athletic attacking game. He reminds me so much of Isi Naisarani this time last year, and we all know what kind of season he had in 2017.
The Naisarani-Valetini combination is more than a bit mouth-watering for Brumbies fans, especially when you lob the David Pocock cherry in on top, but I wouldn’t rule Vikings skipper Tom Cusack out of the mix either.
Cusack was a surprise packet for a lot of people this NRC season, especially for those who hadn’t seen a lot of his transition back to XVs after four years in the Australian Sevens set-up. Only 24, but with a wealth of worldly experience already, I’m sure Cusack will add to his two Super Rugby caps in 2018.
Some wildcards to finish: I’ll be really interested to watch how the Melbourne Jacks, McGregor and Maddocks develop under Dave Wessels in 2018. Maddocks has already had a taste of Super Rugby, but I reckon it won’t be long until McGregor does too.
And likewise, I’ll be interested to see how the Waratahs manage the development of Mack Mason and Maclean Jones. Both looked more than comfortable at NRC level, and deserving of Super Rugby game time in 2018.
So that’s a wrap on the NRC for 2017. It turns out that knocking sound I’ve been hearing for a few weeks now is the sound of leather on willow.