Petaia on P-plates ready for a Mogg-ing in Wallabies fullback showdown

The Jordan Petaia v Jesse Mogg duel is just the sort of time travel comparison we all need to get the proper handle on the Wallabies’ fullback debate.

This match-up in the big Queensland Reds-ACT Brumbies clash at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night might just be the most instructive 80 minutes on where the Petaia experiment sits.

Urrgh? How could that be? Don’t you mean the dynamic new fullback toy in Australian rugby against the craggy, 32-year-old in the twilight of his career?

That’s exactly why it will be such a good guide.

We are going to get a comparison between a player who knows every nuance of the game at fullback against a youngster who is still just a terrific footballer playing with No.15 on his back.

Mogg has been drilling low left-footed touch finders, scoring chip-and-chase tries, feeding his supports with deft passes and taking high balls since Petaia was in short pants at school.

He’s a guy who will be in position just about every time.

Mogg has been at this caper for a solid decade since he first played for the Brumbies in 2012. His Wallabies career had a brief three-Test run in 2013 against the British and Irish Lions and the All Blacks before shoulder surgery derailed him.

Many would not have kept track of his career in France but an extended stretch of tries for Montpellier (2015-18) and Pau (2018-21) in the Top 14 are high-quality credentials.

Saturday night is very much a comparison between a 2022 fullback of the new age against a 2012 Mogg, with a decade of experience topping up his tank.

Jesse Mogg during his stint with Pau. (Iroz Gaizka/AFP via Getty Images)

Judging everything Petaia does brilliantly at fullback is not the way you work out if he’s a Test fullback.

In his few games there for the Reds, he has never had to punch three 35m clearing kicks in a row to get his players out of pressure from their own quarter.

He’s caught some high kicks well, as he does, but never three in succession with a wave of white English jerseys meeting him at the same time.

He’s never had to be metre-perfect with his positioning to intercept a kick from an All Black searching for green grass in the back field.

What he has done is show some great individual skills. He has already produced two of the best try-saving tackles of the season in cover defence. That beauty on Waratahs winger Mark Nawaqanitawase last weekend when the Reds were down to 13 men was a potential game-saver. It was just like his beauty on Fijian Drua attacker Onisi Rotave.

Against the Waratahs, he hared back to retrieve a dangerous kick, ran it across field in his quarter and boomed a kick 50m-plus downfield. That was class.

His skip of speed and change of pace down the touchline when fullback for the first time against the Fijian Drua produced a classy try.

If you stitch all the snapshots of skill together, Petaia looks like that big, strapping 100kg-plus back that the Wallabies would love in the back three.

It’s the routine moments in between those highlights that he has to do better because they don’t yet come naturally like they do for a career fullback like Mogg.

Australian rugby has a great tradition of being bewitched by shiny, new things and believing a player can be switched in position for an instant return.

It’s rarely that easy.

We’ve had locks moved to the backrow, openside flankers moved to No.8, props switched to hooker, wingers and fullbacks switching. It always takes longer than you want it.

Petaia won’t be close to being the finished article as a fullback by the time the Wallabies face England in July. Wallabies coach Dave Rennie would still have to throw him in at No.15 if he’s serious about him playing that position at next year’s Rugby World Cup.

Rennie always has Tom Banks when he returns from injury because he has been in form and as fast as ever for the Brumbies.

For now, let’s all take in how an experienced fullback like Mogg plays the game at fullback and how a fine footballer like Petaia applies his skills to the P-plate phase of his education in that position.

The “Vote Jordan Petaia for Fullback” thing is like one of those Federal election promises…just how much substance to it is there?

Unlike anything to do with the upcoming election, it will be fun finding out.

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