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Brett McKay is one of The Roar's good news stories and has been a rugby and cricket expert for the site since July 2009. Brett is an international and Super Rugby commentator for ABC Grandstand radio, is the voice of ACT club rugby, has commentated on Under-20s Championships, Women's Uni Sevens and National Rugby Championship coverage, and has written for magazines and websites in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK. He tweets from @BMcSport.
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With the Wallabies 31-7 down at halftime on Sunday, I said to my wife that I was getting angry and yelling more at a replay than any sane adult really should.
If there’s been a constant about the National Rugby Championship over its five seasons, it’s that the next wave of young talent has always found a way of shining through.
Coaches will always try to find positives when asked how they’re going to move on from a loss; this is not an earth-shattering development.
So then, one month down, five weeks to go. With three more weeks of regular season and two weeks of National Rugby Championship finals to come, we’ve hit the halfway point of the season.
I was taken aback by the comments earlier this week from World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper, in which he inadvertently or otherwise suggested that internationals are not necessarily as equal as we thought.
It was a truly eye-opening read this week, with an ex-NRC and Super Rugby player under the moniker ‘Johnny Football’ highlighting the reasons why a further consolidation of NRC sides based in NSW hadn’t necessarily produced two significantly stronger sides over the opening rounds of 2018.
There is simply no condoning the carry-on a Wallabies jersey-clad man dished out to the Australian players after Saturday night’s loss to Argentina.
The third round of the National Rugby Championship looms as a belter of a weekend with four matches that could genuinely go either way.
Turgid. Train wreck. Rubbish. Average. Woeful. Embarrassing. Scrappy and ugly. Disgraceful. Error-riddled. A farce.
I suspect I wasn’t alone in feeling a bit uneasy earlier in the year when NSW Rugby announced that they would be represented by just two teams in the National Rugby Championship this season.
A really interesting conversation about backrowers on Saturday evening proved to be a completely unrelated, but entirely valid follow-up to a point I made last week about Wallabies coach Michael Cheika’s Rugby World Cup planning and legacy.
The fifth season of the crucial pillar of the Australian rugby pathways, the National Rugby Championship, is upon us again, with three games this weekend in Fiji, Canberra and Brisbane.
The thing about calling for a coach’s head is that regardless of whether it’s bang on the money or a massive over-reaction, once that call has been made, it’s out there for all and sundry to chew on.
The Sydney Bledisloe is done, and though the extent of the result still stings, it now has to be consigned to history like every other painful trans-Tasman loss in as far back as you’d care to remember.
Ultimately, the history books will show only a 38-13 defeat from last Saturday night, and a new All Blacks record for most points scored in the second half of a Bledisloe Cup Test.
The days before the first Bledisloe Cup Test of the year; that time of year when tentative views about the Wallabies have been building since June, forming the most uneasy question in the forefront of the Australian rugby mind.
At this time of year, when the six-month grind and rigour of Super Rugby has ended and the Rugby Championship is yet to kick off, Friday and Saturday nights are used to re-introduce yourself to family too often ignored during the season.
Call it generosity, call it collusion, call it outright Super-Rugby-tipping-panel-fixing if you must. Whatever it was and whatever you want to call it, it decided a winner for 2018.
In the end, it went according to script. The Crusaders were indeed too good, too well-drilled, too relentless on their way to securing an incredible ninth Super Rugby title, beating the Lions for the second straight season in the decider.
And then there were two. Although you’d be excused for thinking there was only one.
Nick, I get what you’re saying, but I don’t think the Australian system eve “expected you to go to England in April and carry on the good work.”
Blokes went to England, sure, and there even used to be the old Esso Scholarships that sent young players over for a season of League cricket (both Waugh brothers went, the list was quite long), but even back then there were restrictions in how many foreign players the Counties could bring over. Hayden, if I recall correctly, only played two English County season in those first five Shield seasons.
And either way, the English season has changed as well, with the different formats of the game ‘blocked’ out a la the Australian season – which is why they now tend to call in specialists..
40 is the new 50: Why form can't be measured the Hayden way
The chances of this becoming reality are only slightly better than the rediscovery of the thylacine, Bushy, but I absolutely love the thought you’ve put into this and logic behind it all.
It almost makes too much sense…
40 is the new 50: Why form can't be measured the Hayden way
Ravi Ashwin has been ruled out of the Second Test, so the lip-licking will have to wait…
40 is the new 50: Why form can't be measured the Hayden way
Luke, there’s a lot of truth in this, no doubt – but I actually reckon we’re arriving at the same conclusion via different routes. And that is that, ultimately, our batsmen are playing the wrong shot to good balls, or worse, really ordinary shots to bad balls.
Whether that’s fear of getting dropped, a fascination with boundaries and power, it all points to a really poor mental approach to batting that needs to resolved one way or another.
And you’re dead right, the tail-enders – and Pat Cummins in particular – showed the benefits of application and patience..
In the end, it’s the hope that kills you…
The only thing comfortable here, Battler, is your confident combination of conjecture and hindsight…
In the end, it’s the hope that kills you…
Mediocre, please…
Name me a world class spinner doesn’t prefer bowling into footmarks?
In the end, it’s the hope that kills you…
Warne has been pushing Stoinis since they got back from the UAE…
In the end, it’s the hope that kills you…
I couldn’t work out why Finch spent so much time under the lid, Brainstrust, and especially when Handscomb or Harris weren’t in there too. Both have far better hands in close..
In the end, it’s the hope that kills you…
I reckon the low scores and run rates were more to do with the outfield Chris, which even had Jason Gillespie puzzled about the slowness. I’m sure it was Sunday he was remarking that he couldn’t recall so many 3s being run at the Adelaide Oval…
In the end, it’s the hope that kills you…
On behalf of cricket, I’ll just say ‘welcome back’ Chookman…
In the end, it’s the hope that kills you…
Warne mentions Stoinis at literally any given opportunity. You’ve actually done well to avoid this…
In the end, it’s the hope that kills you…
Come on guys…
By “Lyon was robbed by DRS”, what you actually mean is ‘Rahane was not out’.
In fact, ‘Rahane saved by DRS’ would even be more accurate, given ball missed bat by some distance…
Nathan Lyon robbed of another wicket by the DRS
What’s curious about this angle David, is not the raising of Daniel Hughes as a Test prospect (he was mentioned last year, and even earlier this season), but that in going for Hughes, you’ve ignored his opening partner Nick Larkin.
And why do I bring this up? Well…
To date, this Shield season:
Hughes 462 @ 46.2, 2 x 100s 2 x 50s HS 134 (v SA currently – also 116 v Qld)
Larkin 494 @ 49.4, 2 x 100s, 1 x 50 (HS 175* v Qld, also 109 v SA in this game)
The point being that Hughes has been more than matched by Larkin this season, and their partnership has been very productive this summer. Further, they both played a Futures League together game before the Shield season began, put on an opening stand of 240 when Hughes was out for 115, but Larkin went on to make 205.
In fact, this current game against SA is the first time this summer where Larkin hasn’t been the senior partner when they’ve put on a big opening stand.
It’s great that other openers around the country are making runs, but it’s a better discussion when everyone is considered…
(As an aside, Kurtis Patterson now has 400+ Shield runs at better than 50, though is currently not out in Sydney. High scores this summer: 107* 63 56 50. And I wouldn’t have him anywhere near the Test side…)
Daniel Hughes puts his hand up for baggy green recognition
John, not 30 minutes before this comment you wrote above, “AUS have a greater chance of bowling first and hopefully getting India out for cheap. ”
It’s a rather dramatic change of mind in half an hour…
(not to mention the early wickets since)
Australian selection riddles build first Test intrigue nicely
Had very much the same reaction, James. I like Handscomb’s inclusion, but I would’ve been on board with the benefits had Marsh played..
Australian selection riddles build first Test intrigue nicely
I was quite take aback by the bold declaration, Bushy. That something could be so forcefully declared with seemingly no room for the possibility that a team might change…
Australian selection riddles build first Test intrigue nicely
I just have this feeling India will win the toss and bat, but lose both openers early… 😆
Australian selection riddles build first Test intrigue nicely
Yep, top comment Bushy. The race to be outraged is only matched by the race to write people off early…
Australian selection riddles build first Test intrigue nicely
Confirmed: Paine read out his XI, and Handscomb is in. M.Marsh heading back to WA for a Shield game…
Langer confirms Test debut for Marcus Harris; doesn't guarantee a spot for Marsh
Nah, I reckon if the White call went ahead, we’d know about it, Joel. Even if it took a week or two, I’m still pretty sure it’d come out. These things almost always do…
Australian rugby can turn this corner, but only if it wants to
“I’ve been arguing for a suitable domestic comp to put up against AFL & NRL for decades, preceding The Roar, preceding professionalism, & you Johnny-come-lately is suddenly hailed as somehow “nailing it”.”
🙄
Australian rugby can turn this corner, but only if it wants to
Doc, if the current state of the Wallabies was the *only* issue Rugby Australia and Australian rugby more broadly was having to deal with, I’d probably agree that that’s the simple solution…
Australian rugby can turn this corner, but only if it wants to
Wow, that’s an awfully self-important way of agreeing, Sheek…
Australian rugby can turn this corner, but only if it wants to
Paul, if it’s way easier to average 50, then why do so few Shield batsmen do it?
And I don’t think I was saying it’s impossible to break 1000 runs, nor was I blaming the calendar for a lack of quality batsmen.
What I am saying is that applying the same benchmarks from 25 years ago on a cricket schedule that looks nothing like it did back then doesn’t make a lot of sense..
40 is the new 50: Why form can't be measured the Hayden way