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Opinion
Australia run the risk of being hustled, bustled and outmuscled by opposing forward packs at the World Cup.
Every successful international team in rugby league history has had a pack leader, a big bopper with a mongrel mentality who will lead from the front.
Who is that person in the Kangaroos’ World Cup squad?
Mal Meninga’s squad announced on Monday has plenty of skill, lots of pace out wide and enough big-game experience to ensure they will start the tournament as deserved favourites for a third straight title.
But who will be the alpha male who stands up to the mountains masquerading as humans among their main opposition, particularly New Zealand, Tonga and Samoa.
The Shane Webcke, the Glenn Lazarus in the middle or the Gorden Tallis on an edge, causing havoc and instilling fear in the opposition.
Gorden Tallis was a giant wearing the green and gold. (Photo by John Marsh/EMPICS via Getty Images)
Cameron Murray and Isaah Yeo are two of the smartest forwards of the modern era but their game is based around quick play-the-balls, tactical nous and high work rates.
Tino Fa’asuamaleaui is the most likely candidate of the selected Australian forwards to cause some carnage.
Luckily for Meninga, the Titans skipper opted to represent Australia despite overtures from Samoa
He has the size – at 193cm and 115kg – and physicality in his hit-ups and tackles to match it with the behemoths that Australia will face from the Pacific nations.
But he can’t do it alone.
(Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)
Patrick Carrigan is also no shrinking violet and the Broncos forward will need to produce the kind of rip and tear performances he produced in the Origin arena that deservedly earned him a Wally Lewis Medal in his debut Maroons campaign.
Just tell him to imagine all the opponents are wearing sky-blue jerseys and that should do the trick.
From there, the middle forward rotation is likely to be filled by veterans Jake Trbojevic and Reagan Campbell-Gillard or young guns like Lindsay Collins or Reuben Cotter.
All very fine NRL players but when you’re coming up against the likes of Jason Taumalolo, James Fisher-Harris, Junior Paulo and Jared Waerea-Hargraves, they need to bring some nasty to the arena.
If the Kangaroos forwards can’t dominate, the likes of Nathan Cleary, Harry Grant, Cameron Munster and James Tedesco will find it a lot harder to pick apart opposing defensive lines.
Tonga showed in Australia’s most recent outing, in Auckland in November, 2019, that they can be unsettled by a big pack making metres up the middle.
Taumalolo with 188 metres, including 62 post-contact, found willing comrades in Addin Fonua-Blake (165, with 64 post-contact) and Siosiua Taukeiaho (183m with 58 post-contact), during a stretch when the Roosters veteran was arguably the best prop in the world.
Australia’s pack didn’t lack physical presence that night with Papali’i and David Klemmer the starting props but only a teenaged Payne Haas (123, with 46 post-contact) and Paul Vaughan (106m, with 40 post-contact) off the bench making more than 100m in hit-ups.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
In fairness to coach Mal Meninga when it came time to choosing his World Cup tourists, the obvious choice to be the designated enforcer for his side, Haas, withdrew from the selection frame to allow his shoulder to heal and to stay in Brisbane due to personal reasons.
Origin forwards Junior Paulo (Samoa) and Josh Papali’i and Junior Paulo (Tonga) also pledged their international allegiances elsewhere.
Two players who could have brought some much-needed bash and barge on the edge were Canberra’s Hudson Young and Parramatta second-rower Shaun Lane – both can feel unlucky to have missed the cut.
Young is over the disciplinary issues which dogged the early stages of his career and he was one of the form forwards in the NRL over the closing months of the season, along with Lane, who has the size and offloading prowess to cause trouble on an edge.
Neither of these two have played Origin but that also applies to South Sydney centre Campbell Graham, who was a bit of a surprise selection in the 24-man squad.
Forward strength won’t be an issue at all for Australia in the group stage when they come up against Fiji, Scotland and Italy.
Jesse Bromwich. (Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)
As the presumptive winners of Group B, the Kangaroos in the quarter-finals will face the runners-up from Group C, which barring a catastrophe won’t be New Zealand but one of the minnows in Ireland, Jamaica or Lebanon.
Incidentally, Tonga should top Group D ahead of the Cook Islands, PNG and Wales so they’ll face the second-placegetter from Group A.
Unless France or Greece spring a major upset, Mate Ma’a Tonga’s opponents in the quarters will be England or Samoa, depending on who wins the tournament opener next Sunday (12.30am AEDT).
A Tonga vs Samoa quarter-final at the World Cup could cause reverberations in the north of England which could be felt in the Pacific with the likes of Taumalolo, Kaufusi, David Fifita and Haumole Olakau’atu in the red corner matching up against Paulo, Papali’i, Braden Hamlin-Uele and Spencer Leniu in blue.
Now that’s some serious size.