Coach's corner: 'Barely recognisable' - Why Dave Rennie's Wallabies play nothing like his Glasgow Warriors

Another week in rugby passes, a week in which the Southern Hemisphere narrowly avoided a clean sweep of its top teams. The All Blacks came from 23-14 behind on the hour mark to overhaul Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday, and even that was a darned close-run thing.

Questions abounded on why sides like Italy, which currently lies outside the top 10 in the men’s World Rugby rankings and is the perennial cellar-dweller in the Six Nations, can not only topple a southern superpower like Australia, but also trump it for attacking innovation, as I illustrated in Wednesday’s piece.

Jim commented, “If the North innovates, the first time we see it is at the Test level, through word of mouth from players overseas or on a video, which is a bit like learning to be a doctor exclusively through watching porn films. We don’t get the weekly exposure that is needed to match and equal the best, so every Test is a classroom as northern teams show off their latest moves. So, what do we do? Get rid of eligibility rules!”

Phil added succinctly, “Where is our rugby intellect?”

Joe Schmidt is a Kiwi who cut his professional coaching teeth at Leinster and Ireland, and he has now brought that IP back to the All Blacks with an obvious impact in the second half of the 2022 season.

It’s the kind of IP that appears to be lacking in Australian rugby right now. Even Dave Rennie has diluted his coaching principles, or allowed them to become diluted by external pressures, in his time as head coach of Australia.

Leinster always had to pay a great deal of attention to Rennie’s Glasgow Warriors side, which was always near the top of the [then] Pro 12 and a contender in the knockout stages of the European Champions Cup.

Glasgow’s playing style was easily identifiable. It featured a mobile pack of forwards with a genuine number 7 (ex-Hurricane Callum Gibbins) and a back row ‘tweener’ Rob Harley more often than not partnering Johnny Gray in the second row. The four back-rowers guaranteed Rennie’s required wish for ‘brutality’ at the breakdown.

Glasgow played off 10 (Finn Russell) and 12, not number 9, and they were unafraid to go wide early to spread the defence. Characteristically, they ran the ball out of their own 22 on exits to soften up the enemy and stamp ‘high tempo’ on the game, and that was their unique calling card.

(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Even allowing for the change of rugby culture, how much of that specific identity has been preserved with the Wallabies? Dave Rennie has never been able to settle on a satisfactory back five in the forwards, and without Quade Cooper he cannot get to width early and effectively on attack.

The low ball-in-play time in Australia’s domestic Super Rugby competition means that his Wallabies cannot play at a higher tempo than the opposition consistently or run the ball out of their own 22. Legal brutality at the breakdown now just translates as lack of discipline in the same area. It is barely recognisable as a Dave Rennie team at all.

Rugby intellect, and the innovation which derives from it, is just there to release natural talent within an organic, harmonious framework.

Thing Me said, “This Italian full-back [Ange Capuozzo] is the greatest thing since sliced bread. He is the sort of back our Wallabies need. Right now!”

Why is Capuozzo enjoying more impact at international level than Tom Wright, or Tom Banks, or Jock Campbell? It is because he plays within an attacking framework, honed in URC play, which encourages him to use his running abilities. He announced his arrival with a counter-attacking try versus Wales at the tail end of the 2022 Six Nations:

When Italy get turnover ball via a kick or steal at the tackle, they are looking to get the ball into the hands of their young genius:

They know they can rely on the shape of their attack to shift the ball where it is needed:

Add in the Damian Penaud try in the Paris match, and all of these tries are being scored in between the wing and acting full-back, whether it is Campbell and right; or Campbell and Mark Nawaqanitawase; or Wright and Campbell.

When players leave Australia and are able to fulfil their potential more quickly in overseas settings, it should tell you something about the coaching environments at home. Mack Hansen became a hot topic this week:

Rugby Lover commented, “Mack Hansen played some games at 10 for the Brumbies and I could see his talent a mile away. He was a real option as he already displayed the full skill-set for the position. He also did well at centre and wing.” Train without a Station added, “Mack didn’t leave because there wasn’t a pathway. He was on the pathway. The issue was that he was stuck behind other players that were perceived to be better. So, he couldn’t progress along it.”

If Hansen was on the pathway, the road led to the wrong destination – in Ireland not Australia. Why wasn’t his value appreciated fully? Because the coaching environment in Canberra was not equipped to develop it.

As Dirk pointed out, “[The Brumbies] also let [Ireland prop] Finlay Bealham go. The guy has played 20 odd Tests for Ireland now.”

Bealham represented Australian Schools and the Brumbies ‘A’ side before he was allowed to leave for Irish shores. It is probably no coincidence that the Australian castaways all end up at Connacht with their Australian head coach Andy Friend.

John Porch will qualify for Ireland through residency in 2024 and Friend is in no doubt of his value:

“How he [Porch] is not in that Wallabies set-up is amazing to me,” he said recently. “He is an incredible talent. We know we can put him at fullback, he can play on the wing, his high-ball stuff is excellent and he has really worked on his kicking game. He is elusive with the ball, brave in defence, all things you want from a bloke. He’s delivering that. He’s been outstanding for us.”

When Tired Old Git says, “This is a symptom of a cold that will become a pandemic in Australian rugby soon enough”, he is playing catch-up. The pandemic has already happened.

Back to Mack. The coaching set-up in Canberra did not know what to do with him. Was he a 10, or a 15 or a wing? All of his attributes can be accommodated within the playing patterns used by Connacht and Ireland. Hansen can do the winger stuff, finishing moves and chasing kicks:

But he also has a point of difference for a wing, and that is the range and touch of his passing game. It is truly remarkable how many tries Ireland have scored in 2022 with Hansen making either the key, or final delivery:

That is Hansen in the white hat, firing skip passes across the front of defenders, or drawing and passing, or looping the ball over the top. The Dave Rennie I knew at the Glasgow Warriors could certainly have made use of that passing ability, so why can’t the Australian franchises see the value?

The rugby highlight of the weekend had to be the Black Ferns’ triumph at the Women’s World Cup in Auckland. The women’s game is still unfairly neglected by the rugby media, but how long can it be before there is a stadium sell-out at Twickenham, modelled on the crazy attendance figures at the Women’s Soccer European Championship?

Euro 2022 eclipsed the previous record of 240,055 at the same tournament five years previously, with 574,875 people attending the 31 matches at an average of 19K per game. The final between England and Germany drew a capacity crowd of 87,192 supporters.

Now we have the RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney aiming up at big attendance targets for the Women’s World Cup due to be held in England in 2025:

“We’ll fill Twickenham. We’ll get 82,000 people there for the final and hopefully for the semi-final as well. I’m confident we’ll do that.”

“Watching that match last night [the final], you didn’t feel it was a women’s rugby match. It was a competitive, highly intense sporting event. In many respects it was probably more entertaining than the men’s game.”

As JC Masher commented, “That was one of the best games I’ve watched for years. I must admit the Ladies seem to be showing the Boys how to run a tournament. What got to me was how they seem to play for each other so much. There’s no “I” in those teams and the sportsmanship, respect for each other and the friendliness amongst the players has been fantastic. A huge win for New Zealand and I really feel for the English girls.”

West added, “What a game! What a great win! Has to be one of the best finals you’ll ever see. Congrats to the Black Ferns, England is one tough team to beat. Women’s rugby has one hell of a bright future.”

The victory even drew Roar legend Ohtani’s Jacket out of hiding: “That was up there with the 1987 World Cup, the first [men’s] series victory in South Africa, the 2000 Bledisloe Test, the 2011 and 2015 World Cup victories, and any other great rugby moment of my life-time.”

I am proud that I was able to contribute to the Black Ferns victory in some small measure, by delivering analysis on the Red Roses both directly to Sir Graham Henry, and in a series of articles you can find on The Rugby Site and RugbyPass+. Old loyalties die hard indeed.

One of the great attractions in the women’s game is the relative paucity of kicking. Where there were 66 kicks in the recent end-of-year tour match between France and Australia, and 105 in the English Premiership final between Leicester Tigers and Saracens, there were only 32 in the Women’s World Cup final between the Black Ferns and the Red Roses.

Because the women do not get the same length and power on the punt, it largely takes the defensive template of ‘kick long for territory, defend high upfield’ out of the game. By and large, the women prefer to play their way out of their own end.

The Black Ferns’ kicking game is typically defined by attacking kicks which are intended, in the praxis of ‘The Professor’ Wayne Smith, to create scoring opportunities. Right from the start of the tournament, New Zealand announced their ambition to run from their own 22, and switch from pick & go to wide attack with blinding speed and accuracy:

The kick-off receipt is made by wing Portia Woodman, and the vertical strategy is reinforced by a pick-and-go from second row Maia Roos. After one more drive straight up the guts, the defence has been condensed around the ball, enough to justify the attacking cross-kick over to wing Reneé Wickliffe, with the lethal Ruby Tui in support:

It is a perfect combination of vertical and horizontal strategy, and a high proportion of New Zealand kicks were used for attacking purposes in the final at Eden Park too:

For a team that wants to play ball-in-hand – and the Black Ferns made 186 passes and 121 runs in the final – the kicking game is an essential complement. In the above example, it is number 9 Kendra Cocksedge making the diagonal kick from midfield to push play deep inside the English 22, with the bonus of the 50/22 and a turnover lineout throw to follow.

The attacking kick also played a critical role in New Zealand’s final try of the match:

With right wing Lydia Thompson off the field on a red card since the 18^th minute, there is only defender in the backfield and she is in the wrong half of the field when the kick is made by Black Ferns’ number 12 Theresa Fitzpatrick. Outstanding centre Stacey Fluhler duly picks up the loose ball to feed Ayesha Leti-L’iga for the go-ahead score.

Ultimately the appeal to nation-hood was probably the strongest influence in a superb tournament, and there was more than just a whiff of Fate in Caroline Drouin’s missed goal-kick at the end of the semi-final, and England’s botched lineout seven days later. The Wahine Toa carried all before them and Women’s rugby can only go from strength to strength from here.