- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The Waratahs’ season hangs in the balance while the Reds’ most certainly doesn’t after an entertaining – if not particularly close-fought round of Super Rugby AU.
Here are a few talking points from the weekend of rugby.
Saturday night all the evidence needed of Hunt’s importance
It’s a strange situation in part forced by the recruitment freeze Rugby Australia imposed on the state during the COVID-19 shutdown, but Waratahs midfielder Karmichael Hunt remains out of contract for 2021.
That could be resolved soon enough, although it could be compounded by recent reports of the Waratahs wanting to decrease their annual player payments bill by as much as a million dollars.
How high up the top-earners list Hunt sits might dictate his ability to win a new contract as much as his general fitness. He was ruled out of the Waratahs’ big loss to the Brumbies by a minor hamstring strain that has dogged his career going all the way back to playing NRL for the Broncos as a teenager.
But the 38-11 loss should stand out as all the evidence needed as to Hunt’s importance in the NSW midfield.
Will Harrison and a number of Tahs vaulted back into Wallabies contention on the back of consecutive wins over the Reds and Force, but the real reason the Waratahs clicked as well as they did those nights was Hunt’s presence at no.12.
As well as being the defensive organiser among the Waratahs backline, Hunt is also the focal point in attack, offering enough variety, subtlety and skill to raise doubt in the mind of opposition defenders.
A step or a jink here, and inside dummy or offload there engages the defence and acquires all of their focus.
That was missing on Saturday night against the Brumbies, and try as they might to spark something during that barren second half, they just never looked like troubling the hosts’ defence.
They went sideline-to-sideline, even in their half, but didn’t engage the defence, instead just transferring the ball from one player to the next. The Brumbies simply slid with the ball and contained whichever Tah happened to take them on.
Rob Penney’s squad fell over in a lot of areas in Canberra, and may still have lost if Hunt played. But his absence was a sharp insight into what the Waratahs will miss if he isn’t around to help the talented young’uns next year.
(Ashley Feder/Getty Images)
PONI list to remain fluid after weekend showings
New Wallabies coach Dave Rennie tried to hose down the importance of the so-called ‘Players of national interest’ squad published on Friday, telling rugby.com.au on Monday that the list “constantly changes”.
“If you even look back to the weekend before where Hunter Paisami and Alex Mafi both got injured, they’ve got long-term injuries, so we took them out of the mix to replace them with other guys that we would look at over the next months,” Rennie said.
“I guess this is as much a discussion document as anything else and there’ll still be people potentially from outside of that current group that could be in the Wallabies.”
Much was made of the 11 Waratahs named in the August list, after only three were on the list circulated in April.
Jake Gordon was on both, but he was among a host of NSW players who came out of the 38-11 loss to the Brumbies with their tail between their legs. Jack Maddocks, Angus Bell, Tom Horton, and Lachie Swinton would be others.
Whether there is any international rugby played in 2020 remains unknown, though Rennie and his assistants Scott Wisemantel and Matt Taylor continuing to look at player performance and evolving that list over time contrasts the approach predecessor Michael Cheika took.
Brumbies flanker Lachie McCaffrey impressed in his first start of the season, while lock Cadeyrn Neville underlined early-season thinking that has to be near the top of Australian second-row options.
(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Force shopping list a start, but others are more gettable
There was an interesting discussion taking place on the site over the weekend, with Roar Rookie Carrick Ryan nominating six names he’d target for 2021 if he was Western Force backer Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest.
Will Skelton headed the list, despite being contracted to La Rochelle in France until the end of the 2021 season. Queensland Reds runaways Izack Rodda and Isaac Lucas featured, as did Brumbies halves pairing Ryan Lonergan and Reesjan Pasitoa.
Waratahs backrower Carlo Tizzano rounded out the group, and like Pasitoa is a product of Western Australia.
Rodda would be a good target, and could forge a strong lock rotation with veteran All Black Jeremy Thrush and Ollie Atkins, who returned to Perth this season from the UK.
The Lonergan inclusion sparked debate that ex-Force scrumhalf Issak Fines might actually be the Brumbies scrumhalf to target, but this too overlooked Joe Powell, who looks like being forced away from Canberra due to Nic White’s return and Lonergan’s likely retention. From an Australian point of view, Powell playing for the Force would be preferable to a mooted stint in the United States.
Here are some other names that the Force should target without looking overseas.
Flyhalf Mack Mason is back on the family farm in Queensland after three wasted years in Sydney holding tackle bags for Bernard Foley.
Former Force openside flanker Richard Hardwick still hasn’t been able to nail down the Rebels no.7 since landing in Melbourne. Ross Haylett-Petty would be another, and former Reds scrumhalf James Tuttle has just made his return to Super Rugby after two separate Achilles tendon injuries.
Ex-sevens players Boyd Killingworth, Lewis Holland and Lachie Anderson are all in Melbourne too, and would be very useful additions.
Bryce Hegarty’s future in Queensland is far from clear, while Jack Hardy might also be enticed back to Western Australia after coming through the Future Force program.
Friday, September 4 looms as the deadline Rugby Australia placed on New Zealand for agreement on a trans-Tasman competition for 2021, which may not be possible due to ongoing COVID-19 cases in both countries.
However, it is clear that Rugby Australia need to tell the Force what their plans are, in the hope a squad can be built that will produce more than gallant efforts and 60 minutes of competitiveness each week.
Brett McKay’s regular Tuesday column is in temporary hiatus and will hopefully return soon.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.