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Jake Gordon has carried plenty on his shoulders at the misfiring NSW Waratahs this year and now faces the tandem challenge of Nic White and Ryan Lonergan.
Come Sunday, all three halfbacks could find themselves in the first Wallabies training squad of the year when coach Eddie Jones reveals his cards for the first time.
Wait just a minute. Before that, they’ll be split about as far apart as you can get in Australian rugby in the “us vs. them” camps of a feisty ACT Brumbies-Waratahs clash on Saturday night in Canberra.
For Gordon, 29, to be re-signed this week by Rugby Australia until the end of the 2025 season shows that Jones rates his play, experience and leadership.
Such signings don’t happen without the coach’s nod.
Gordon has poured 71 minutes per game into the Waratahs’ campaign so far so he’s leading from the front as an influential senior player should.
White will tag team with Lonergan on Saturday night. That’s as good a halfback double whammy as one club has fielded since the early 1990s when Peter Slattery and Brett Johnstone were both Wallabies halfbacks playing for Queensland.
Or the Nick Farr-Jones/Brad Burke double act at the Waratahs in the 1980s.
Tate McDermott’s performance against the Crusaders is of huge significance on Friday night. Inconsistencies with a ragged Queensland pack in front of him have made his own opportunities in games more messy.
He is still the best running halfback on the scene, a trait that Jones values very highly.
So what else are we talking about this week?
JOSEPH SUAALII…OF COURSE
Is there any chance that a big name, big money signing from rugby league is going to add star power to any other team than the NSW Waratahs?
The Waratahs get the rails run because the biggest chunk of NRL clubs are based in Sydney. If you can ask for big money, you can ask to stay in your own bed and live in your home city.
Here’s a quick check list of NRL guns with a Tahs stamp…Lote Tuqiri, Mat Rogers, Israel Folau and now Suaalii.
Wendell Sailor and Suliasi Vunivalu joined the Queensland Reds over time.
Ryan Cross (Western Force), Marika Koroibete (Melbourne Rebels) and Andrew Walker (ACT Brumbies) are three of the very few to play elsewhere.
If this is the start of one media outlet’s “mega-raid” on the NRL (and it’s not), the signings have to go to a variety of postcodes not just to “Sydney 2028”.
LEFT-FIELD EDDIE
OK. Let’s play some leftfield lotto.
Name five players unused or unavailable to Dave Rennie last year who could crack Jones’s training squad of 33-to-35 on Sunday?
Go.
Brad Wilkin (Melbourne Rebels), Liam Wright (Reds), Josh Flook (Reds), Ryan Lonergan (Brumbies), Corey Toole (Brumbies), Max Jorgensen (Waratahs) and Issak-Fines Leleiwasa (Western Force).
Sorry, that’s seven.
Jones is sure to see real assets in some of these players. Like it has been all season, we’re curious.
RED HAZE
The Reds will be the basket case of 2023 if they don’t get their act together in a hurry.
With back-to-back games at home against the Crusaders and ACT Brumbies, the Reds can be 2-5 and out of top four contention in a blink. Produce their first complete display of the season against a top opponent and the season is back on track.
Only teams with a 10-4 record or better commanded lucrative staging rights for a home quarter-final in 2022 so the season is very much on the line.
With no Wallaby in the tight five, the Reds are playing with a handicap that may be too much to overcome, especially if they stay so penalty prone.
Lock Ryan Smith and prop Dane Zander, dropped this week, are the most penalised players in the competition with nine to their names.
Reds skipper Liam Wright says a “line in the sand” has been drawn by the competition’s most penalised team.
“We’ve had to have some honest and confronting conversations this week. Penalties kill momentum,” Wright said.
Liam Wright of the Reds (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images)
“We’ve seen the list (of top 10 most penalised). Perhaps, we’ve been too general in the past with messaging around ‘cut out the silly penalties’ without being as up front and direct with those players as we have this week.”
The Crusaders are hurting injury wise with no Sam Whitelock, Sevu Reece, Jack Goodhue, Will Jordan or David Havili.
The Reds look better than 10-point underdogs even if the Kiwis still have the class of Richie Mo’unga, Scott Barrett, Leicester Fainga’anuku, Joe Moody, Codie Taylor and Braydon Ennor.
SUVA AMBUSH
The hardest place to win in Super Rugby Pacific might not be Christchurch after this weekend. It may be Suva.
Temperatures of 31 degrees and dripping humidity will be served up for the Melbourne Rebels dive into the cauldron on Saturday against Fijian Drua.
You can almost see the sunburn already on the face of Rebels redhead Brad Wilkin.
After taking the scalp of the Crusaders 25-24 on March 11, Fijian fans are desperate for an encore and they’ll be packing the ground. How good.
It’s another redhead who can make a difference for the Rebels. The return of classy Andrew Kellaway from the bench offers an experienced “closer” at wing, fullback or outside centre. It will be much needed when things get chaotic in the final 20 minutes.