The last sighting of Kurtley Beale as a Wallaby gave us the worthy appreciation of his mark on the game that his tepid display against England never did.
One last night as a matchwinning hero for Australia at 32 would have been the perfect script before riding off into the sunset after his 95th Test.
Setting up a superb Filipo Daugunu try and that sweet 45m penalty goal were a perfect snapshot of the best of his 12-year Test career.
This was a true heartbreaker for the Welsh to ruin the party 29-28 in Cardiff. The great fight, bravery and return of skill that the Wallabies displayed after Rob Valetini’s early send-off should have counted for a victory.
Centre Hunter Paisami had been pilloried for weeks. In this Test, we saw a different player. The grubber kick for the Kellaway try, a crisp, long cut-out pass, dangerous breaks and only one pushed pass. Ticks aplenty.
Likewise, hooker Folau Fainga’a. He played perhaps the best 10 minutes of his career as a Wallaby to close the Test with the final pass for the try and three terrific low tackles.
Red and yellow cards are tossed around like confetti these days. If there were some fairness to judging all in the game by the same standards, Scottish referee Mike Adamson would be stood down for two games and forced to wear a propeller hat when he next controls a big match.
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Rugby’s overcomplicated law book is strangling the game and the poor refs too. We all know it yet no one seems capable of doing anything about it.
When Welsh centre Nick Tompkins slapped down Tom Wright’s pass early in the second half, it was a clear knock-on.
How could I be so sure 16,000km away from Cardiff while spurting coffee into the air in a Brisbane lounge room with the sun still to rise outside?
You don’t reward a failed skill. It was a brick-handed grab, the ball went straight down at best and the tie-breaker, always, is commonsense. No skill, no benefit. Knock-on.
Fast forward a little in the Test. This deliberate knock-on business is a blight on the game because the punishment is way out of whack with the offence.
Beale tries to stifle a potential try-chance for the Welsh with a smother tackle. Yes, he succeeds in slapping at the ball too with outstretched fingertips. He saves a try because the Welshman couldn’t get away his pass in time yet gets a yellow card. A penalty fair enough.
No argument on the Valetini red card for an accidental but preventable, high-velocity head clash. The bloke he tackled is 2.05m so there is no excuse for not getting your collision height down on Adam Beard.
The Beale haters were out in force after his error-prone game against England a week earlier.
Nine runs for 78m, a couple of line breaks, a key ball-strip, the expectation that he might create something when he touched the ball…this was more like it.
His step, ball-dangle and fend to shoot through the gap to set up the Daugunu try was vintage Beale.
There was a little redemption brewing too in that pure 45m strike at penalty goal to give the Wallabies the lead 28-26 with two minutes to play.
Most will recall his history-making penalty goal from even further back to beat the Springboks in Bloemfontein in 2010 to end the Wallabies’ 47-year hoodoo at high altitude in South Africa.
I was thinking more of the one he missed against red jerseys in 2013 when he had that long range penalty shot to beat the British and Irish Lions at Suncorp Stadium.
He slipped in his approach and the chance was ruined.
The Lions’ fans were merciless and by the second Test in Melbourne they were full-on into the Australian fullback.
“He slipped, he missed, he’s always on the piss…Kurtley Beale, Kurtley Beale” went the ditty.
Beale’s rollercoaster career in rugby has always stirred passions at both ends of the spectrum. He has had some desperate lows of his own making off the field but this night in Cardiff was a chance to applaud one last time.
His moment in the final try was a chance to savour his jinking, this-way-and-that body shifts and timing because those skills made the best Beale such fun to watch.
However you regard Kurtley Beale at the end of the day, he has lived the great, the bad and the ugly in the cauldron 95 more times than most of us.
Jim Tucker
Expert
We remember that White kick at Suncorp. What to do with the ball in the final 90 sec of a Test is a skill that can and should be learnt. The kick-it-to-the-shithouse philosophy and tackling the opposition down the other end only works so far. You keep the ball and you control the destiny. That would seem the way to go but the stats often say the team without the ball has more chance of earning a penalty. The Wests-GPS club semi-final in Brisbane was decided on just this issue. Wests led in the closing moments, actually stole a lineout from GPS but because it was unexpected they passed the ball along the backline in their own quarter and knocked it on. Should have been kicked 50m downfield. GPS scored a late converted try to pinch it. Being indecisive is the killer...back one way or the other but at 100 per cent.
Ruckin Oaf
Guest
Ref’s rarely ruin a game Wanna run that one past Ricky Stuart ?
Ruckin Oaf
Guest
Run that by Dane Haylett-Petty and lemme know what he thinks. As a concept - "don't hit the other bloke in the head" - shouldn't be too hard for a professional athlete to work out.
Poco Loco
Roar Rookie
FF, it is the responability of the tackler to lower his/her height so that head contact does not occur. Red cards drive this home and it will change behaviour. Red cards stopped tip tackles and it will cause players to modify their approach and go lower in the tackle. I'm a WBs supporter but the RC was the right call. Cheers.
Poco Loco
Roar Rookie
Maybe the rule should be changed to say that a failed intercept by a player is a penalty and if that if that failed intercept is intentional, then it's a yellow card and if a probable try might have been scored but for the failed intercept, then it's a penelty try and a yellow. This way it does not matter which direction it falls. Cheers.
Poco Loco
Roar Rookie
FB, a Furphy is an untruth, a rumor. Back in the day in Q'land, Furphy made water tankers and the guys toting them around picked up the gossip and passed it on at the next water point. There was always embleshments as well as some facts lost in the telling the further away from the point of origin - like Chinese whispers (I'm half Chinese so I'm allowed to say it. So go away the political correction police) so such tellings became known as a Furphy. Cheers.
Poco Loco
Roar Rookie
Yes Jim, Kurtley played very well until the last and I am happy to have to swallow my words of previous comments He was the the saviour when he slotted that penelty and then a few minutes later tried to kick the ball upfield with 2 minutes on the clock - just stupid, the villain. That he was tripped is not the issue. The issue is that he tried to kick it away. With 2 minutes left you should be keeping the ball and protecting it with your life until the 80min mark and then kick it out. I remember we lost a game in much the same circumstances a few years back when we were leading and I think it was Nick White who kicked the ball away at the death playing the ABs who subsequently scored and we lost the game. Surely Beale and other players of his vintage should remember that and have the nouse not to kick the ball away. Hopefully he will remember this the next time he plays for the WBs and the rest of the squad too. Cheers.
Jim
Guest
Unfortunately Tom, I am agreeing with you. It is hard to watch these days, been heading downhill since about 2010. Such a shame. I think many Australians have been saying this for a decade or more. We have many more options than most other countries. Like you my talented Rugby playing son will most likely go to league also. At least then he can change a game instead of the Ref. It is cooked. Especially in Australia, where we won't put up with rubbish. It's heading down the path of soccer, just become a bit too lame.
Jim
Guest
Well I loved Ruby all my life, always preferred it over league, but, as hard as it is to say, league is a better spectacle these days, simply has common sense. Ref's rarely ruin a game. And it's amazing how all the highlight reels on YouTube for Rugby seem to get more rugby league clips than union. Union was the better game until we let them ruin it. Hard to watch 50% of games these days. I won't make excuses for rubbish.
Jim
Guest
Every day of the week this is a knock on. It is ludicrous to suggest otherwise. No common sense in the game these days. We shouldn't need to get out a magnifying glass. It was obviously a deliberate knock down and a knock on.
Jim
Guest
Definitely deliberate knock down, and Definitely a knock on. Plus, I understand Rugby has gone seriously woke, but I cannot cop a red card for an accidental head clash. I can't cop a red card for anything accidental. Been destroying the game for years. There will always be a percentage of the population who are susceptible to concussion/ dementia ect. We see it in boxing , League, Aussie rules, gridiron, MMA ect. If you don't want to take that risk then don't play. There are also far more players who played in a much more brutal era that are ok. It's life. To keep changing the laws to appease the perenialy woke is ludicrous. By all means take the deliberate head shots out, I have no problems with that,but have some common sense for goodness sake, and please, please stop referees from deciding the results of more games than any other sport combined. Those of us who have grown up with the game over 50 years cannot stand the tiddly winks it's become, despite the excuses people keep making to justify the games new pathetic decisions.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
It’s because, currently, there are 3 English refs ranked in the world top 5, including the one WR think is the best, Wayne Barnes – Thats UtterBollocks right there. They definately are not the best in the business in fact these wallys Pearce and Carley are horrible and Dickson is worse. The other English guys used as TMOs were extremely bad. Barnes has the odd decent game but sadly its rare when reffing against NZ. WR is so English it may as well be in the same room as the RFU headquarters. Concerted decisions by WR to constantly get English refs to ref NZ games in an unfair percentage compared to other nations cant be anything but deliberate bias. yes I didnt think complex rugby talk was your thing. It must be an English trait as the English refs didnt want to know about the SA runners being offside and deliberately interferring either.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
It’s because, currently, there are 3 English refs ranked in the world top 5, including the one WR think is the best, Wayne Barnes - and the ABs are just so ‘transcendentally important’, they always get a top ref when playing another Tier 1 side. That’s as far as I can follow you, though, as to go any further I’d have to try and deconstruct your weird beliefs that all English refs go out on the field determined to discriminate against the poor, wickle ABs, and the ABs are generally reffed more harshly than anyone else. It’s utter bollox. Regarding the ABs recent record, you’ve lost your last game against every other country in the top 5 of the rankings. There’s a problem - and as I’ve been saying for nigh on 3 years, it’s your pack.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
FB I know you jest but tell me why NZ had so bloody many English refs? 2 v SA. Then V Wales Ireland and France. And mainly English Assistants and TMOs too. Just odd that WR awards so many AB games to English refs isnt it? Contests in the air should be reffed the same for everyone yet SA players have a system where 1 runner comes thru and jumps to take out the catcher a half metre past where the ball is coming down and 2 backup runners come in to disrupt. To consistant not to be coached. And when SA kick they often have a runner a metre in front of the kicker yet oddly the English refs standing 5 mtrs away cannot see this yet they see a AB 3 inches offside 25metres away out in the centres. Dont agree with you about Foster either yet he is still the most successful coach of 2021. Sadly…
FunBus
Roar Rookie
I think you’ll agree, Jacko, that any criticism of Foster is ridiculous. What with all the pom refs going out to deliberately try and engineer an AB loss, and now WR ruling that the contest in the air must be adjudicated differently when the ABs are playing, he’s doing a great job coaching the ABs to get within a score or two in these losses.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
So your point is that the ref should have ignored the law, in fact ruled in direct opposition to the law, because it just ‘feels’ better? I hope I live long enough to see a ref do this in a game to the detriment of the WBs, so I can come on here and read all the compliments from WB fans about the ref’s ‘feel’ for the game.
Malotru
Roar Rookie
RG, in my view KB knew exactly what he was doing and so did the officials. Cheers, Malotru
Malotru
Roar Rookie
Cheers Cam, that's one issue resolved. But seriously I have never been able to understand why a 10 minute yellow card should stretch to 11, the player could simply be re-introduced on the half way line.
Handles
Roar Guru
You're right, Wales only kicked two contestable kicks. Beale dropped one at 40:54 on the game clock, and caught the second in the 79th minute. So 50% success not 40%. For what is worth, this was the best game Kurtley has played for the Wallabies for many years. But it was still marred by moments of rubbish.
No Arms
Roar Rookie
You’re sure they’re not poker dealers?