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Opinion
Jack Frost has just finished his Christmas stint in the UK.
For the best part of a fortnight, I stepped out into the back garden and puffed out my first breath like a wispy cobweb in the air.
The sun would be rising, low and brilliant across the horizon in a clear blue sky.
For the next few hours, the world remained stubbornly frozen beneath a thin, spiky film of frost. Motionless above, but flowing below.
The world, according to the new Wallaby sensation Nick Frost, was different indeed on Australia’s end-of-year tour.
The raw stats reveal a veritable cyclone of activity from the Canberra-based rookie.
Wallabies coach Dave Rennie speaks to Nick Frost before the Wallabies’ series decider against England on July 16, 2022. Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Frost emerged from the debris of the tour leading almost every important category for a tight forward:
It was a hugely impressive effort from the 23-year-old greenhorn in his first season of international rugby.
It also illustrated just why Frost’s services were so highly sought after by various AFL clubs, and why head coach Jason Gilmore hustled him back into the Junior Wallabies post-haste at the end of a stint with the Crusaders’ development program back in 2019.
Frost had not played a part in any of the under 20s preparatory camps, but he went straight into the World Cup later the same year.
At the time, Gilmore commented prophetically:
“Nick played [for] Australian Schoolboys and has come through the pathway and then went over to New Zealand for 12 months, and the Brumbies have just re-signed him so he’s become available for selection for us. That was a tough decision for us because we’ve got a pretty settled squad.
“We just feel Nick will value-add to our set-piece. He’s a big athletic kid, so we’re expecting good things from him.
“Last year proved with ‘Hocko’ [Harry Hockings] and ‘Blythey’ [Angus Blyth], when you’ve got two locks over two metres tall, at kick-off and at lineout it’s really crucial.”
Frost promptly proved Gilmore’s point by scoring a truly spectacular try against Ireland, straight from a kick-off receipt:
Several players have already advanced to higher honours from the young Australian team which took the field on that sunny afternoon in Santa Fe.
In the backs Noah Lolesio, Ben Donaldson and Mark Nawaqanitawase have all progressed to senior representation in the Wallabies along with Angus Bell, Lachlan ‘Noss’ Lonergan, Harry Wilson and Fraser McReight up front.
It says something that Frost could yet turn out to be the pick of that golden junior harvest.
When a forward measuring 6 foot 9 inches tall and tipping the scales at 120 kilos runs as well as that in space, the question naturally arises whether he is best fitted for the second row, or the row behind it.
It is not just Frost’s sheer speed across the ground, where the Ireland number 14 is never a chance to catch him. It is his outside swerve to beat the first would-be tackler and his awareness in contact, twice shifting the ball into the outside arm and away from an approaching defender on his way to the goal-line.
With Australia’s premier lineout caller Izack Rodda due back from injury in time for the 2023 World Cup, there is an intriguing case for Frost shifting to the problematic role of blind-side flanker for the tournament in France.
While Jed Holloway has established that the job at No.6 is his to lose in 2022, things stand to get even better with the NSW forward and Frost swapping spots.
Let’s set the scene with a breakdown of the roles played, and some keynote stats from the end-of-year tour for the three main contenders in the second-row outside Rodda: Frost, Cadeyrn Neville and Will Skelton:
| Player | Minutes played | Carries/metres/ busts* | BD attendance (attack/defence) | Tackles made | Lineouts won [own/steals*] | Pens conceded |
| Frost | 320’ | 29-38m/1* | 75/4 | 42/46 | 23/2* | -1 |
| Neville | 221’ | 8-2m | 52/29 | 32/36 | 6/0 | -3 |
| Skelton | 111’ | 22-53m/5* | 31/11 | 9/9 | 0/1 | -2 |
Frost’s job as the best athlete of the bunch is to win lineouts and get around the paddock, carrying ball and cleaning out rucks on attack and piling up the number of tackles on D.
Neville offers little as a lineout and carrying option, his main role is on the other side of the ball.
Along with Dave Porecki and Allan Alaalatoa, Neville is one of three Wallaby scrappers at defensive rucks, not turning ball over but making life as awkward as possible for the opposing scrum-half.
Skelton is far-and-away the best ball-carrier in the Wallaby tight five, racking up more yards in his cameo appearances than any of those who played more minutes. He also amps up Neville’s presence at the breakdown to megalithic proportions, on both sides of the ball.
When he returns, Rodda can launch the lineout into an altogether higher sphere of operations.
At the same time, there is an opportunity for Dave Rennie to streamline the efficiency of his back-five forwards further, by asking Holloway and Frost to swap roles.
Holloway came to prominence as a Wallaby contender during the 2022 Super Rugby Pacific season as a lock playing in the middle of the field.
He carried hard and defended even harder in traffic.
Within the first minute of the second Bledisloe Cup fixture at Eden Park, he had already stopped one All Black carry cold and made a line-bust in the middle of the of the park:
Andrew Kellaway chases the opening kick-off up the middle on to Jordie Barrett, and all of Porecki, Alaalatoa and Neville pile in behind his tackle.
At 0:15 on the game-clock, Holloway is there to make the high force-back on Brodie Retallick on the following phase.
Only 30 seconds later, the NSW big man is running straight past Kiwi prop Ethan de Groot on a kick return, to take play deep into the New Zealand 22.
Once you find yourself locked in the Holloway high-tackle embrace, there is little to do but backpedal and hope for the best.
In that match, Holloway was defending inside another forward who provided the linkage out to the first back. More often than not, it was Michael Hooper.
This is where he is most comfortable, but at No.6 for the Wallabies he is usually asked to play the link role itself, which he finds far more difficult.
Scotland made a living on attack by setting a big short-side, and switching play back on to Holloway.
Holloway is defending with the forward (Valetini) inside him and there is no sense of a connection to the first back (Bernard Foley). That creates a gap for Scotland’s opening try of the game by fullback Ollie Smith, and it is particularly evident in the view from behind the posts.
Now let’s look at a longer sequence featuring the same principle later in the same half.
Frost makes two consecutive tackles as the ball is driven into midfield off the lineout, with Neville, Alaalatoa and Porecki fulfilling their part of the bargain and scrapping it out at three successive rucks.
By third phase, a 10-metre gap has developed between Holloway and Foley on the blind-side, and the big Waratah is clearly unsure whether he should be wrapping to the far side, or staying put:
Ultimately Holloway chooses to wrap, but the urgency of Foley’s cries for help show that he understands it is a merely a set-up play for Scotland to come back to the short side with their backs on the next phase. The men in blue would probably have scored with relative ease if No.10 Blair Kinghorn had opted to pass short and simple to Smith, rather than speculate long to the side-line.
The dangers of asking Holloway to defend next to the first back consistently were reinforced early in the match versus Ireland:
Potentially there are four Ireland backs facing three Australian defenders (two of whom are forwards) on this kick return to the wide side of the field. It is only the failure of the Ireland numbers 10 and 12 to work hard enough on their realignment which saves the Wallabies.
The alternative would be for Frost and Holloway to swap positions, with Frost using his acceleration to form a stronger link out to Foley.
As it is, he quickens pace to block the outside route for Mack Hansen, then doubles up with an excellent ‘sacrifice’ cleanout on Peter O’Mahony at the ensuing ruck.
No neck-rolls from Nick Frost, in a match full of them. Even when confronted by one of the best on-ballers in the world.
It was no accident that Frost’s one tackle break on tour occurred when he stayed wide from a lineout, rather than carrying the ball inside:
Why not pick him at No.6, where he can do the same job more regularly on both attack and defence?
Summary
Nick Frost enjoyed a breakout international tour against some tough opponents from the Northern Hemisphere last November.
Adam Beard definitely will, and the likes of James Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, and Cameron Woki all conceivably might, feature on Frost’s menu at the World Cup next year.
The Brumbies tyro finished top of virtually every category that matters for a tight forward.
He played the most minutes, gave up the fewest penalties, won half of all Australia’s lineout ball and provided terrific work rate on the carry and in the tackle besides.
And yet, there is still a strong case for utilising his talents even more efficiently at No.6 for the World Cup in France.
With Izack Rodda returning from his lingering foot injury to likely lead the lineout, Dave Rennie will have a strong corps of four big men to pick from in the ‘engine room’ at numbers 4, 5 and 6. He will also have Matt Philip to back them up.
Frost and Rodda, along with Jed Holloway and Will Skelton, could prove to be a powerful, well-established quartet by the time the World Cup in France arrives.
Furthermore, Frost shifting to the blind-side flank would create room either for Skelton to start or for Holloway to play in the middle of the field from lock, where he does his best work.
Absolutely nobody in Pool C would be taking the thought of Skelton, Rodda and Frost lightly. All start at a baseline of 6 feet 8 inches tall, and at anywhere between 120 and 140 kilos in weight.
If Rennie and his support coaches can move Frost further out towards the edges of the field on both attack and defence, they stand to reap progressively bigger dividends.
Big men running hard and fast into space, with skills to match their speed, is the modern ideal.
By way of Canterbury and Canberra, Frost is up and running, and reaching fast for that athletic torch.
If he can produce any runs as good as that 60-yard dash against Ireland in the 2019 under-20s World Cup, it will be Rennie’s eyes that are smiling in France.