Hard work and discipline has to be the new Australian way

If a week is a long time in rugby, then in Australia it’s an eternity.

This time a week ago, we were praising the Rebels’ ability to claw back into a contest through superb game management while simultaneously wondering how the Brumbies could so quickly turn such a good first half into such a lacklustre second half.

We were admiring the sharpness of a Waratahs attack that went forward first and not wide, but then wondered how the Reds could manage very little in attack despite their forwards pack competing very well across the park.

This week, it’s literally the opposite. Up is down; right is left.

The Rebels were excellent, then terrible. The Brumbies took time to get into the contest, but then dictated terms.

The Waratahs started kind of ok, but the gave nothing. The Reds looked set for a touch-up at halftime before turning the game on its head to win a thriller.

Harry Hockings of the Reds (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Of the winners, the common denominator of the Brumbies and Reds was that, as teams, they were prepared to roll up the sleeves when the game didn’t start the way they wanted it to, and just got on with playing the game in a way that allowed them to get on top.

For the Brumbies, this had pretty well happened inside twenty minutes.

After the Waratahs scored through the most obscure of ways – Bernard Foley reigniting his fascination with hitting the posts and Michael Hooper reviving memories of Ray Price in scoring off the rebound – the Brumbies slowly but surely dragged the contest back into the middle channels and turned it into a set piece battle.

Their ball carrying forwards took charge up the post-to-post corridor. James Slipper, Rory Arnold, and Sam Carter all carried well in this area, even if they weren’t peeling off massive metres. Their impact was more about drawing Waratahs defenders into the context, which in turn created room out wide if they chose to go that way.

Aside from Hooper and Ned Hanigan, the Tahs just didn’t have the same sort of grunt work output from their forwards, and their general lack of go-forward was only exacerbated by the chronically lateral nature of their attack when they tried to force the issue.

And that was an issue in itself. It seems crazy that for a playing group who have played as much rugby together at the Waratahs backs have, that losing Karmichael Hunt who’s been with them for a month would be so pivotal in them lacking any semblance of shape in attack.

Paul Cully’s Saturday morning assessment of the Waratahs’ senior players in the Fairfax press, that “too many Wallabies in the Waratahs are sleepwalking” was as scathing as it was surgically accurate.

And as much as I think Wallabies selections in March are all a bit pointless, Cully’s take on Kurtley Beale is difficult to argue, too:

“Beale, in particular, has had an underwhelming start to the year and if a Wallabies team was picked on form today he wouldn’t be in the match-day 23.”

Hunt can’t return quick enough for NSW. He was already shaping as the buy of the year, but his absence has made him only more valuable again.

On the other side of the result, the Brumbies’ 19-13 win was about as far removed as it gets from the eight-try rampage over the Chiefs back in Round 2. But you get the sense it will be every bit as important as a seasonal benchmark.

The same has to be said of the Reds’ comeback against the Sunwolves, where approaching the hour mark and still down 21-5, it was hard to see how they could hit back at the fast-paced Japanese side.

Something clicked, though. The Reds’ forwards got cracking on the pick-and-drive and their lineout drive delivered, too, with hooker Brandon Paenga-Amosa snaring two of the three converted tries scored in seven minutes.

It’s worth mentioning the performance of Hamish Stewart at fullback here, as well. Whether it’s a better understanding of his contribution to the general playmaking of the Reds, whether it was an awakening that his place in the side was under serious threat, it all played out the same way.

A composed injection from the back, as well as deliberately methodical goal-kicking as the Reds drew level and then overtook the Sunwolves at home.

From the flatlining showing against the Waratahs at the SCG a week before, this was a massive and encouraging turnaround from the Queenslanders.

Waratahs player Jed Holloway (4) goes up for the ball (Photo by Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The turnaround from the Rebels in Johannesburg was similarly massive, but not in a good way.

My Twitter followers might be familiar with my curiosity as to how a penalty count could be so one-sided, but extreme doubt about the Lions’ apparent angel status aside, the Rebels’ second-half discipline was nothing short of horrendous. And not new, given they were the most penalised team in Super Rugby last season, as well as the equal most yellow-carded side as well. They already have a share of the most yellows in 2019, too.

The way the Rebels were able to build a sizeable lead largely against the run of play will be incredibly pleasing for coach Dave Wessels. But the way they threw that lead away so quickly and so frivolously through some seriously ordinary discipline will have eroded their coach’s pleasure in minutes.

The Rebels missed the playoffs last season by a hair. You really hope that Ellis Park loss doesn’t come back to bite.