Tasty Tahs, a Rebel with promise and reality check for new boys as SRP off to a slow start

While it’s certainly true that you don’t win competitions in February, the opening round of Super Rugby showed us that the first few hit-outs for teams this year will be much more about laying foundations later in the season.

Winning is still important – if anything, winning now might be worth double – but with every team encountering some degree of COVID disruption since the New Year, there was still a bit of a trial game feel about what we saw across the weekend.

And that’s not really a criticism, simply a reflection of reality borne out of necessity. If you can’t play as many trial games as you had planned, then the first couple of games for competition points are your only real opportunity to iron things out and try new combinations, aren’t they?

So, I don’t think there’s many conclusions to be drawn yet on playing styles or game plans or the like, because the teams wouldn’t quite be at the point of drawing conclusions and finalising plans themselves.

And I’m certainly not going to criticise teams for not being able to find a bonus point in Round 1, especially those playing in biblical rain. I’d argue that every team who took to the park over the weekend made a decision in-play or took an option on the run that they came to regret minutes after the final whistle.

At this time of year, that’s just to be expected. Players, captains, teams, and coaches will all – as the great sporting parlance tells us – be better for the run with the first round now behind us.

What the first games of the year did leave me with was a series of thoughts and observations, which in time will quite probably lead to my own conclusions. But first and foremost, it was just great to see live rugby on the TV and in the flesh again, and really enjoyable to watch each contest with an open mind. The rugby will get better, for sure, but it was far from terrible on opening weekend.

One thing that did stick out very early in the piece is that the upward trend of the Waratahs is on and it’s very real.

Though the jersey remains the same, and a lot of the personnel is the same, this is a completely different side that has instantly benefitted in the return of experience in key positions, in the new way of thinking about rugby by a coach who has built his reputation on getting results from teams in need of overhaul. The Tahs are playing with the freedom that comes with knowing they can’t possibly play as bad as they did in 2021.

I loved that Darren Coleman instantly deflected praise to assistant coaches Jason Gilmore and Chris Whittaker and all the staff and players who endured plenty last season, and anyone who’s had anything to do with ‘DC’ won’t be surprised by that in the least. He helps good people to reach the success they desire.

So while yes, it was hard not to like the significant contribution of their forwards, it was great to see young guys like Charlie Gamble and Will Harris standing tall among them. It was just as great to see some fluidity across the midfield, and just a completely different shape and intent running off Ben Donaldson at flyhalf.

We suspected there would be plenty of upside to the Tahs this year, and that’s abundantly clear now. What’s more, there’s genuine anticipation about the oldest interstate clash in Australian rugby this Friday night.

Conversely, the Fijian Drua copped a Round 1 reminder that the step up to Super Rugby level is significant, and that pure passion alone doesn’t make tackles and compete at the set piece.

Not that there was any question they didn’t know it was going to be a difficult debut; it was always going to be that way, and they expected nothing less.

What Friday night showed them is that the step from a trial game to Round 1 is bigger again, and little things that might have got away with a few weeks ago won’t wash now that the cameras are rolling and their fans are flooding in to support them in the flesh. They missed lots of tackles, and they pushed lots of passes (they conceded 20 turnovers), but they also showed some glimpses of the dangerous side they will become in time.

If anything, they might have even played a little too conservatively, but that could easily be opening night nerves.

I wondered about the Chiefs this season, but the way Josh Ioane slotted in at no.10 tells me that post-DMac life might not be so rough after all.

He kicked well, directed the team around well, and showed plenty of signs that he’ll be a really good recruit. He’s a very different player to McKenzie, obviously, and it was noticeable the Chiefs looked to be playing a more rounded attack, with more focal points for the Highlanders to focus on.

And that’s not said to suggest that McKenzie is a selfish attacker or that the Chiefs only looked to him for their attack. Rather, that because Ioane is clearly not McKenzie, the Chiefs simply have to build an attack around more than one player.

The Rebels found the going pretty tough in Brisbane against the Reds and the Queensland weather, but their new or new—ish no.10 Carter Gordon showed enough to see why he’s the only listed flyhalf on the Rebels squad list.

In exactly the same way you see it in Donaldson for the Waratahs, Gordon just has time with the ball, and when the Rebels can properly find their shape as a team, it’s not difficult to see Carter becoming a very dangerous player.

There’s a valid question on the Rebels at the moment, the same question that’s been around them for several years now, but Gordon could well be a major part of the answer.

And that leaves me with the Western Force, who after 78 minutes and change had done the hard work in Canberra to lead the Brumbies by one.

The Brumbies had beaten the Force on the previous 12 occasions, and the Force hadn’t won in Round 1 since 2015 and never at all before that. After clawing their way back into the contest, and with a finger hovering over the final siren button, they were about to create another bit of history for this squad.

And then they kicked long. In fairness, two minutes is a long time to try and close out a game. And while this was certainly one of the aforementioned moments of regret, it certainly wasn’t the only one. Brumbies skipper Allan Alaalatoa and forwards coach Laurie Fisher within minutes of fulltime both conceded to us on the ABC Sport call that they should have taken the three points on offer in front of the poles minutes before the Force scored the try that edged them ahead. But again, it’s Round 1.

What I did see from the Force though, was a much improved defensive alignment and a sharper, straighter, more direct midfield attack. Just though two elements alone will push the Force further this season, but add in another season of experience at this level, and other pre-season together as a squad, and all the signs are there that the Force will cause plenty of trouble for plenty of teams this season.

And how good is afternoon rugby? Finding someone who doesn’t love rugby in the sunshine is harder than finding evidence of rugby existing in Fox Sports’ eco-system, but either way, it’s a great way to start the rugby year.

Join Brett McKay and Harry Jones every Wednesday on The Roar Rugby podcast, and if you have any questions for them or this week’s special guest Jim Tucker, please leave them in the comments section below.