It is one of the most iconic golf holes in the world – the 17th at the Sawgrass Country Club, the regular venue for the Tournament Players Championship in Ponte Vedra, Florida.
The 17th is an island green, a tiny emerald peninsula protected by a deep-blue lake on all sides. Although it is barely 130 yards from tee to green and only requires a pitching wedge from the pros, it represents the ultimate in sporting treachery.
(Photo by Stan Badz/PGA TOUR)
Without a fairway, there are only three places you can land a golf ball – in the small bunker at the front of the green, on the super-slick surface itself, or in the water. More than 120,000 balls are recovered from the lake by divers every year.
Jack Nicklaus has said that the hole is typical of the entire course: “I’ve never been very good at stopping a 5-iron on the hood of a car.”
Back in 1999, Fred Couples dropped his first tee shot into the drink, then knocked the second into the cup for an unlikely par.
As if that wasn’t enough, one year before Couples’ three, Brad Fabel had landed his ball successfully on the green only to watch it promptly carried off by a seagull and dropped into the lake – “another hazard to add to the perils of the 17th” was the wry footnote appended by one TV analyst.
In such unforgiving conditions, assessing the wind conditions and selecting the right club is all important. In Brisbane on Saturday evening, there can be little doubt that Joe Schmidt under-clubbed, while Michael Cheika got his own preparation spot on.
In the absence of six of Leinster’s champion players in the starting line-up, Ireland were sluggish and Johnny Sexton’s replacement, Joey Carbery, endured a difficult evening at number 10.
By way of contrast, Cheika’s selections (with the possible exception of Izack Rodda in the second row) all paid off handsomely. He judged the wind, and the speed of the green just right.
Australia had to prepare accurately in the areas I highlighted in this article a couple of weeks ago. Above all, they had to challenge in the air and disrupt Ireland on the ground.
The single most impressive feature of the performance was the Wallabies’ dominance of the high kicking game. It began right from the opening kick-off:
Ireland started by trying to run their own aerial specialist, Rob Kearney, straight at Israel Folau, in a modern reinterpretation of the medieval joust between champion knights. Although he was temporarily knocked off his horse, Folau dusted himself down and won this contest conclusively, with the added bonus of a penalty for interference in the air.
When Ireland repeated the tactic from the next restart, in the fourth minute, Folau won again; at the next attempt, in the 36th minute, Carbery chipped the ball tamely to the Wallaby fullback without any challenge at all. It was somehow symbolic.
By that stage, Folau had well and truly proved his point. Australia defused Ireland’s box-kicks off Conor Murray with their backfield duo of Folau and Dane Haylett-Petty:
They also targetted Ireland at one of their strongest points, off kicks launched by Will Genia and Kurtley Beale:
A second penalty was earned (and goaled) by Folau’s challenge on Kearney, with Bundee Aki picking up the pieces from an offside position.
Kearney has been one of the bulwarks of the Leinster side this season, but the sound of his deteriorating confidence was almost audible:
Another error of judgement under a high kick led to the Wallabies’ first try of the match:
Genia punted high, the threat of Folau caused the misjudgement, and David Pocock took advantage. Three phases later, the Wallabies moved the ball across to the other side of the field to score the try at 0:37 on the highlight reel.
The dominant Aussie kicking game was also the key to their second try, in the 71st minute:
Once again, Folau won the high cross-field kick over the left side of the backfield defence – this time, wing Jacob Stockdale was the victim. After the initial breach, Genia cleverly ramped up the pressure with a second kick over the top into an empty backfield:
The counter-ruck by Michael Hooper and Folau squeezed a penalty out of Jacob Stockdale, setting the position for Pocock’s match-winning try at 3:00 on the reel.
The second area in which Australia needed to prove their competitiveness was the defensive breakdown. Although Ireland enjoyed about 60 per cent of territory and possession, and built 130 rucks, they did it at a 94 per cent success rate – three or four percentage points below their typical retention rate.
It was probably a sign of the importance Cheika attached to this area in preparation that Australia finished the game with no less than four big on-ballers on the field – Pocock, Hooper and replacement forwards Pete Samu and Tolu Latu.
Key to the challenge was the presence of Pocock, back from sabbatical and ready for action. The game contained three signature turnovers from the best jackal in the world:
This first example gave Ireland early warning that if they couldn’t remove Pocock’s base (his legs), there was little chance of taking him on purely for upper body strength.
The second example proved it.
Poor Carbery had the unenviable task of trying to remove Pocock one-on-one in the upper body. There can be only one winner in that contest!
The third turnover was engineered (as they so often have been for the Wallabies in recent times) by a Hooper tackle:
A Pocock-led counter-ruck on Aki led to the Folau ‘try’ (at 1:30 on the highlight reel) which was subsequently hauled back for Adam Coleman’s tackle without the ball on Iain Henderson:
One try scored, three clean breakdown turnovers and a fourth engineering a try that probably should have been allowed – a man of the match performance, right?
In fact, matters are far less clear-cut. There was a subtle spectre hanging over Pocock’s performance which also casts a shadow over Australia’s prospects of winning the series as a whole.
The four turnovers were partially balanced by two penalties given up on the deck, when Pocock failed to support his own bodyweight for at least a part of the jackaling process:
When Ireland were able to handle Pocock at the cleanout efficiently, they tended to find space to attack in the line immediately on the following play:
Here ‘Poey’ was cleaned out quickly, and CJ Stander promptly found a nice seam between Beale and Bernard Foley to exploit on the next phase. Stander really should have crowned that break by putting the ball down over the goal-line.
Ireland might have scored another try when Murray broke directly around Pocock’s side of the scrum, but again the men in green failed to find a finish:
On a broader canvas, the Australian lineout without Rob Simmons looked jittery to the point of being neurotic, giving up three turnovers directly and a further three spoiled balls, one of which was converted to a turnover on the next phase.
Having Latu, Pocock, Hooper and Samu all on the field together in the last quarter may pay off on the deck, but it could backfire up top in the remaining two Tests.
Summary
Michael Cheika looked into his bag and got his club selection right on the 17th at Brisbane to go one-up in matchplay against Joe Schmidt.
Australia dominated the airwaves through Israel Folau, ably assisted by Dane Haylett-Petty, and their kicking game ended up well in profit.
They also managed to disrupt enough ball on the ground to apply a measure of brake on Ireland’s domination of territory and possession, and create some turnover ball with which to attack.
But in truth, that success is balanced on a knife edge, and the ball is well capable of sliding off the green and back into the water.
Schmidt under-clubbed in the first round, he is unlikely to do so in the second. He has the tools in his bag to improve selection considerably, with Johnny Sexton and Garry Ringrose reuniting in an all-Leinster midfield, the entire starting Leinster front row available, and Dan Leavy and Tadhg Beirne potentially in the back five.
Even David Pocock’s performance demonstrated the fine margins of success – four turnovers, a try and one try-assist balanced by two breakdown penalties and two clear try-scoring chances given up. The Wallaby lineout failures have to be weighed against their breakdown gains.
Ireland have every chance of winning the 18th and forcing the series to a sudden-death decider.
One thing is certain – this series is only going to get tighter, and fingernails will be bitten down to the bone by its end.
Fin
Guest
Hi Nick, I thought you would find these comments from Stephen Moore of interest. Former Wallabies captain Stephen Moore believes Super Rugby is the code's weakest link in Australia and has urged administrators to push for wholesale changes from 2021. Moore, a Wallabies and Brumbies centurion who retired at the end of last year, says the game is in good health at the top and bottom, but was being harmed by a competition no one understood or cared about. "Super Rugby has lost a lot of relevance in the Australian sporting landscape," Moore says. "People just aren’t that interested in it any more. That’s an issue. "There’s work to do around the conference system and it’s a really interesting time because what do South Africa do?" Moore says. "Do they send all their teams up north, leaving Argentina on their own? You really feel for them [Argentina] because, in terms of geography, they’re a little bit isolated in terms of the rugby powerhouses. “Does that leave a trans-Tasman comp with maybe some Asian involvement? I don’t know." Moore has taken a chief-of-staff role with the North Australian Pastoral Company and is embracing life after rugby. He and wife Courtney welcomed their third child, Lawrence, late last year and are enjoying much quieter weekends of park dates and birthday parties instead of away games and recovery sessions. The change has allowed Moore to step back from the high-performance environment and take in the game as a whole. He says he is encouraged by the state of club rugby in Brisbane. But Moore questioned whether schools rugby was heading in the right direction. Interestingly for a product of the professional system, the 129-Test hooker wanted to see the pressure taken off talented schoolboys. "It’s taken really seriously and I’m not sure that’s the best way to approach it," he says. "Rugby’s just part of someone’s education at school and we need to be mindful of that. There’s lots of different things we should be encouraging our kids to get into and sometimes we get the balance off a bit at schoolboy rugby. It’s run like a professional program and I’m just not sure if kids at that age should be thinking like that." A Brisbane Grammar School student, Moore says he "scraped into the first XV", but was more interested in cricket as a teenager. It was club rugby that developed his passion and gave him a broader understanding of why people love the game. "I was lucky because I played quite a bit of club rugby before I played professional," he says. "I was playing with people who were 15 years older, had full-time jobs, were studying, or were tradesman. It gave me a great perspective on life in general. I really hope that young players now are getting that same opportunity."
Fin
Guest
Hi Nick, I think you will find this article of interest. https://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/wallabies/sekope-kepu-on-the-wallabies-rising-pacific-islands-influence/news-story/09381265963e8f2488ec4fddd7f24c53
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
You may have to focus on those mini contests Fox as I cannot see much of a challenge coming from fifteen versus fifteen in the last two games!
Fox
Roar Guru
Yeah fair point Nick - I would seem remiss to not give him more chances IMO - I was very impressed with him - a fantastic talent - and the battle between he and Reiko would be fun to watch as well - we need of that sort of mini contests within a contest.
Fin
Guest
Hi Nick, I thought you might find some entertainment value in this. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zbYAyalgjsE
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
The only reason I mentioned (well, maybe not the only one) was that we had to work out how to defend Thomas for the ECC final - not an easy task at all! I hope he gets a few more chances in the rest of the series to show NZ rugby fans what he's all about :)
Fox
Roar Guru
Maybe so Nick but the first 40 is where a lot of the gains are made - and I am not sure it would be "hands down" as in easily, but yeah okay That run was nearly eight metres but after TT early explosive acceleration he still had to dive to tackle him round the calves. But yeah he is quick. I don't think would be that much it over 100 metres Doug Howlett was easily the quicket winger I have ever seen but then has been clocked at speeds over the hundred on a race track that were pretty scary even whenhe was sixteen. No one ever caught him once he was in the clear and no ever gained on him either - he was ridiculously quick
Harry Jones
Expert
Teddy Thomas makes everyone in France except Cheslin Kolbe look like they are stuck in quicksand. So, I knew he was fast, but when he chased Rieko Ioane down, I was really surprised. That was really amazing. SA has a couple of serious flyers in the Bok setup, now, too. Would love to see a sprint race ...
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
Nah Fox - anywhere between 40-100 yards, Thomas wins hands down! :)
Fox
Roar Guru
Yes I did he has serious gas and like Ioane is in superb form - I think he actually surprised Ioane initially who thought he was away. I watched that on the relplay again and though I am not taking anything he away from the flying TT, who never gave up the chase - Ioane looks like he is toying with him at the end - You have to watch it on slow mo - he has a huge grin on his face as TT closed the gap - then near the line, Ioane looked backwards grinning as if he was almost bating TT knowing he would score. IMO I think Ioane has a ego thing at present knowing how much gas he has and plays slilly buggers and it has cost him before on one occasion in a Blues game. But as I say, credit to TT he never gave up - has great speed and I thought he had pretty good game actually. A winger with some class and acceleration. You have to have some very serious gas to catch Ioane either way so good on em for hanging in. He is dangerous with ball in hand. I was reading a facinating article a few months ago where scientists believe that due to initial surges in energy and its acceleated transfer into the muscles, that some runners may actually reach a faster speed for brief 0.5 - 3 seonds than their flat top speed when the initial surge from the chemicals in the brain and body levels out. In other words some can very quick over in the first few yards but no necessarilly quicker than there opposition in top speed. They are also doing studies on why some some athletes can accelerate quicker than others even if their top speed is not as fast the opposition athlete and why some have both super top speeds and acceleration while others like say Fafita, have very fast top speeds but not super acceleration. The studies were sparked by why some sprinters were very fast in first 5-25 metres of 100 metre sprint, often being up to a metre in front and yet come 3rd or even fail to get a place and it is now moving into sports and pace in general. More journal articles for physios and trainers to read ;) But you certainly see evidence of this phenomena in sport like Rugby etc.The next thing we will have, is not steriods but drugs that induce the release of more of the brain and bodies natural chemicals to enhance acceleration for longer periods - wait for it Nick ! I see Dr NO in his lab already!
Fin
Guest
Yes Nick, I played a season in Scotland and didn't particularly enjoy the coach in the middle of the team huddle 5 minutes before kick off frothing at the mouth, losing his cool, and projecting his Saliva all over everybody. It wasn't a pretty site! Very different to calm messages I was used to hearing from coaches down here where we would summarise and reinforce the key points and paint a mental picture to take onto the field. No one would be yelling.
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
Nice use of the golfing analogy in that last bit Lost :)
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
Ireland teams of the past (i.e. amateur era) had a rep for making a living off passion - so tended to be irresistible for about half an hour, then blew up big time... To some extent true also of most sides with a Celtic mentality or background. Ofc that all changes (steadily) with professionalism, only tends to be evident now when they play England!
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
Not so sure - he did a number of things wrong in Brisbane, so it may have been a straight choice between him and Andrew Conway?
Fin
Guest
Thanks Nick, His introduction to rugby sounds similar to Justin Harrison who rocked up to university fresh from the bush and asked where the best place to socialise and meet new people was. The advise given to Justin was to join the rugby club on campus, and the fact that he didn't even know what rugby was didn't matter. Interesting point in the article where Langford talks about the passion for the game in Ireland and how the players revved themselves up before kickoff which is the opposite to a typical Australian dressing room which is quiet and process focussed. Players get themselves mentally prepared for 'battle' in different ways I guess. Rod Macqueen used to say passion is not about demonstrating the histrionics. Passion comes from doing the hard work and preparation beforehand and taking that onto the field. He believed that The loud agro demonstrations in the name of 'passion' are often displayed by players/teams that have not put in the necessary hard work to deliver the required outcome on game day. Rod Macqueen would like Rob Simmons' disposition I am guessing.
cinque
Guest
so Stockdale injured ....
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
As someone else pointed out, Sean Cronin seems currently to be in Joe Schmidt's bad books. Although he has not struggled against some very good front rows in the European Champions Cup, it appears he has copped the blame for Ireland's poor scrum near the goal-line!
soapit
Roar Guru
personally i dont think its that acceptable for a coach of a representative team to have so many players on his black list for fairly poorly defined reasons but thats me
soapit
Roar Guru
nah pocock was napping a little there pure and simple for mine. as far as im concerned it just confirms that he's not perfect.
soapit
Roar Guru
you must have said the right thing to get that response ralph. well done mate, points in the bank edit:unless she was saying it to someone else, in which case youre got a decent points deficit out of that one