Lolesio lessons: Foley’s patience in picking his moments provide a future blueprint

Five days after the fact and the fallout of Mathieu Raynal’s 80th minute decision to ping Bernard Foley for delaying a kick to touch in Melbourne last week has so far shown few signs of slowing up.

On that, it is actually all getting a bit silly now.

An entirely unique scenario played out on the field, but in the days since off it, this highly complex and nuanced event has been framed in binary terms by commentators, pundits, and fans the world over.

We’ve had enhanced audio followed by supposedly contradictory transcripts, analysis of other penalty kicks in previous games and even games played since in completely different competitions and the comparisons thereof, and a strange fascination in proving the Wallabies were wrong coming out of South Africa that I can only presume is a carry over from the Marika Koroibete tackle on Makazole Mapimpi in Adelaide three weeks ago.

Makazole Mapimpi of the Springboks is tackled by Marika Koroibete (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Now, we have reports of official complaints being lodged as well.

And it’s all getting a bit silly because none of it will make a lick of difference.

The law in question is ambiguous. The question of how long is too long is left entirely up to one person in that moment, and is wide open for interpretation. The idea that a national body would be within its rights to demand the referee in question never be put in charge of their games is as ludicrous as it is schoolyard juvenile.

The moment is gone. The score won’t change and the result will stand. It’s time, rugby fans, to move on.

So, with that in mind I wanted to take a closer look at Foley’s game at 10 – a game that he is being rightly lauded for, given it was his first Test in nearly three years.

Generally speaking, he played very well, and it’s not hard to see why he will undoubtedly remain in the conversation through to the Rugby World Cup next year. He was brought in to do a job, and he did it pretty well.

But it was hardly a perfect game and Foley was the first to admit that. He said himself he needed to take time to get back into the swing of international rugby again.

For the stats-minded, his numbers could have been from any of his previous 71 Tests; that is, largely unremarkable.

Three carries for 12 metres, for one defender beaten and one offload, four kicks, nine passes, and two try assists. He kicked two penalties from two attempts, four conversions from four, made six tackles and missed just as many, and conceded three turnovers.

He certainly did take his time, but that was kind of enforced by the fact Australia barely touched the ball in the opening exchanges. Indeed, Foley’s first touch of the ball for the match was to restart the game after New Zealand’s first try. The Wallabies’ first meaningful attacking phase in the All Blacks’ half didn’t come until the 13th minute and ended by conceding a ruck penalty.

Foley’s only real attacking involvement in the first half was to take the tap-on pass from Len Ikitau, and get a pass out to Andrew Kellaway after drawing in two defenders. Kellaway did everything right, bar actually ground the ball.

Australia finished the first half with less than half the possession share, and Foley really didn’t have many chances to inject himself into the game. By halftime, with not much more than a penalty and conversion to his name, you’d probably just have described his game to that point as ‘fine’.

What becomes evident in the second half though is that Foley took on more of an organisational role as the his team had more ball. He still didn’t get his hands on the ball that much – Lalakai Foketi and Len Ikitau on occasion did a lot of first or second-phase carrying from first receiver – but Foley was often there behind everything, steering people into position for carries, and readying himself for the later-phase attack he was trying to set up.

The Wallabies often failed to get to that phase Foley was planning for, but you could see what he was doing.

But when he did become involved, he made it count. From first receiver and seeing Richie Mo’unga rush up on his outside, Foley stepped off his left, ran to the line and burst through to tackle of Hoskins Sotutu, getting through the line and finding the little offload with Samisoni Taukei’aho still holding on as Kellaway raced away for his first try.

Andrew Kellaway (Photo by Getty Images)

By now he was playing more for players out wide, running second-phase plays out the back for Koroibete and the outside backs, but again often letting Foketi run the carrying line in the phase immediately before.

Foketi was again at first receiver and found Foley, from which the flyhalf saw the space outside two rushing defenders to land the ball in Kellaway’s hands again, sending him away for his second try.

In between, he kicked well for touch and when clearing, and obviously kicked everything at goal.

This is the lesson for Noah Lolesio. Foley showed him that he doesn’t need to run every play, and he certainly didn’t even need to touch the ball every play. And that’s not to suggest Lolesio tries to do that, but rather that a flyhalf can still have a major impact in a play without actually being involved in the play.

Lolesio has good attacking instincts. His vision for space is good, and he’s certainly not unwilling to run at the line. The game-management plan Foley was running to is well and truly within Lolesio’s capability.

And this is a good thing, because having Lolesio and Foley able to play the same game over the next 12 months is going to be hugely beneficial for the team. Ben Donaldson probably has more instinct to run than Foley and Lolesio, to my eyes at least, but he could slot into this method pretty well too.

The point being, none of them need to try and play like Quade Cooper. Which is handy, because they can’t.

Australia need to take a pragmatic approach into games and that’s exactly what Foley did last Thursday night in Melbourne. He got himself into the game, picked his moments carefully and effectively, and found that he could have valuable involvements in an attacking phase without touching the ball.

Of course, we don’t even know how much Foley will be available over the next year, though we do know that no Japanese-based players will go on the Spring tour.

So, the heeding of lessons and swotting-up of the young guys over the next year needs to start now.

The more key playmakers the Wallabies can have all singing from the same songsheet, the sooner the squad can start building consistency – and, hopefully, the results that come with it.