It was a poor week in the Australian conference of Super Rugby, with all four teams in action losing. These poor results are becoming a worrying trend for Australian teams this season.
Australian Conference Review: Super Rugby Round 9
Auckland Blues vs A.C.T Brumbies
Score: 16-14; Venue: Eden Park
On Friday night The Brumbies put in what was almost certainly their worst performance of the season, losing to The Blues in a turgid, slow affair in Auckland. Leading up to the game, it looked like one that could lack flair and creativity, given The Brumbies propensity to play a tight, disciplined game and The Blues severe lack of confidence, and so it proved, with the first half in particular being a back and forth affair marred by mediocre attacking play. In particular in it was The Brumbies themselves who looked especially out of sorts, with the turnover, knock-on and penalty counts all being much higher than the Canberra natives normally produce over 80 minutes, let alone just one half. This wasn’t helped by a Matt Toomua injury in the 24th minute that sent him hobbling to the sideline, with Lealiifano moving to 10 in his place. This effectively blew up The Brumbies backline structure, as instead of two playmakers at fly half and inside centre, allowing a move varied and fluid approach, The Brumbies attack turned into a lot of one off runners lining up of Nic White of the stand in 10. Even before the change though The Brumbies were well below par, ceding the momentum and impetus to their previously winless opponents. They didn’t help themselves at all once Toomua was removed either, with sloppy play and ill-discipline allowing The Blues to mount pressure as the half wore on, culminating in an uncharacteristic defensive mistake (with Joe Tomane jumping out of the line, exposing the gap behind him) that led to The Blues only try of the game through Dan Bowden.
This, added to two penalties Bowden made earlier in the half, meant The Brumbies headed back to the locker room 13-0 down, completing what was probably their worst half of play under Steven Larkham. At half time, clearly believing his side lacked the impetus as power they normally exude, Larkham made two changes, bringing on Jordan Smiler on for Blake Enever and replacing Jarrad Butler for Ita Vaea. Out of the two, it is the latter move that is more interesting going forward. Since Pocock has come back into the team, Butler had been starting at eight, with Vaea used more as an impact substitute. This meant that The Brumbies essentially had three flankers on the field given that openside is Butler’s more natural position, and while this theoretically gave them a higher work rate in the backrow, it also sacrifices some of the big ball carrying the side had with Vaea in it. Therefore going forward, particularly as Pocock gets more comfortable, I’d expect Larkham to start with Vaea over Butler, particularly on the evidence of Friday’s game, where Vaea appeared to energise the side. As The Brumbies began to take control Pocock became more and more influential, seemingly turning the ball over every time The Blues got inside his team’s half. While it is easy to state the obvious and say that he needs to stay healthy and perform consistently for months, rather than just stretches of games, it was still an incredibly impressive display reminiscent of some of his vintage performances and helped his side maintain a consistent level of pressure on The Blues throughout much of the second half. The Brumbies began to chip away at their opponent’s lead, with Lealiifano getting his team on the board with a penalty in the 47th minute before a 20+ phase move led to Nic White firing a magnificent pass too substitute Lausii Taliauli who was able to stroll over the line after The Brumbies forwards had sucked in the defence. While Lealiifano missed the conversion from out wide, he made two penalties later in the half, with the second of those kicks giving The Brumbies a narrow 14-13 lead with just six minutes left. However, just a few minutes later it was Lealiifano himself who gave away a penalty after a George Moala carry (on a side note, he and fellow centre Pita Ahki did an excellent job keeping Henry Speight quiet, although equally the usually dangerous winger/centre wasn’t put in a position to succeed by those inside him), with substitute Ihaia West holding his nerve to slot the crucial penalty to make it 16-14. Nic White missed a Hail Mary penalty from 55 metres out as time expired but really, a Larkham later conceded, it was a game that The Brumbies lost due to a poor first half, with the fact that they only led for three minutes against the bottom side in the competition underlining what was a forgettable day at the office for Australian Conference leaders.
NSW Waratahs vs DHL Stormers
Score: 18-32; Venue: Allianz Stadium
While The Brumbies appeared to beat themselves with a poor first half performance, the credit must go to The Stormers for their magnificent defence and opportunism during their 32-18 victory over The Waratahs. Coming off the bye it appeared as if the home side were ready to go on the kind of run that saw them run away with top spot in last year’s competition, however they were met with fierce resistance from a Stormers side desperate for a first win on an arduous and previously winless tour. While The Waratahs dominated possession and territory for long stretches, they were left to rue missed opportunities and untimely turnovers. They were far too often caught going wide too soon, leading to the likes of Kurtley Beale and Israel Folau being tackled behind the gainline and getting isolated, with The Stormers outside backs (led by the returning Juan De Jongh, who was defensively superb throughout) reading some of The Waratahs more elaborate backs moves before snuffing them out. Of course for much of the first half in particular they were helped by some sloppy play by the home side, with one such catalogue of handling errors leading to Schalk Burger (whose ball playing continues to impress and astonish in equal measure) putting Damian De Allende over.
That try and subsequent conversion made it 13-5 to The Stormers halfway through the first half, but The Waratahs continued to apply pressure, leading to a 35th minute Bernard Foley penalty. As half time edged closer it seemed like they seemed to be gaining steam, with Kurtley Beale (who otherwise was a little too quiet) slicing between two forwards in and breaking into the backfield. This led to a five metre scrum a few phases later after a dropped interception, from which Nick Phipps floated a lovely pass out to Rob Horne who finished well in the corner. Foley made the conversion from the touchline to give The Tahs a slender half time lead. However, early in the second half came the key moment that swung the game in The Stormers favour. Kurt Coleman, bought on at halftime for Demetri Catrakilis to give a little more variety and unpredictability to the attack, did just that with a beautifully weighted chip from inside his own 22. The ball bounced seamlessly into the path of Jacobus Van Wyk, who flew past the cover defence and galloped the remaining 60 metres to score. While it was a magnificently executed try from a Stormers perspective, Van Wyk was put in the clear thanks to Israel Folau overplaying the original kick and being caught in no-man’s-land. It was an example of the drawbacks that come with the hyper-talented league convert (he has only been playing union for just over two years after all), who can at times be caught gambling in defence instead of making the more fundamentally sound move. It was in stark contrast to a moment of pure brilliance in the first half where he plucked a Will Skelton pass out of the air one handed before exploding through the defensive line and giving a well-timed ball to Taqele Naiyaravoro who crashed over in the corner. That in some ways is part of the fun of watching talents like Folau: one of the best and most unique players in the world in my opinion, he can go from the utterly sublime to the absurd, although thankfully from Michael Cheika’s point of view he does continue to weed the latter moments out of his game.
In this contest though that proved a costly error and one from with his side never fully recovered. While continuing to control the ball for basically the entire half (with an astounding 78% possession and 82% territory), they were limited to just three points in large part due to a steely Stormers defence that only grew in stature and energy as the game progressed. With the score at 20-18 after another Foley penalty (although he was only 3/6 for the game, an unusually patchy performance from the tee by his standards), The Stormers blew the game open in the final ten minutes, with their continued excellence in defence rewarded with tries from De Allende and Cheslin Kolbe to stretch their lead to 32-18 by the final whistle. While The Tahs themselves were hardly perfect, this was a performance that would beat most teams in this competition, with The Stormers proving a talented, disciplined and well balanced opponent. So, while there are still several areas to iron out if this version of The Waratahs is to accomplish what last year’s vintage managed, they are still well placed to push for a playoff spot despite this result.
Western Force vs Free State Cheetahs
Score: 14-25; Venue: nib Stadium
Things seem to be going from bad to worse for The Western Force this season. Since their shock win away to The Waratahs on the opening weekend, they have lost seven on the bounce and, despite being competitive in most games, that doesn’t seem like changing any time soon, with their next two coming against The Stormers and Chiefs respectively. While the conditions were poor in Perth (a sentence that I never thought I’d have to use…), both teams looked to be reasonably expansive from the outset, with Willie Le Roux in particular throwing caution (and the ball) to the wind with a colossal miss pass that saw Raymond Rhule score in the corner to open the scoring. However, like they have in recent losses to The Sharks and Bulls, The Force dominated possession and territory, forcing themselves back into the game after a neat offload from Dane Haylett-Petty found Luke Morahan who finished well under pressure with a Luke Burton conversion giving The Force a narrow lead at 7-5. After a Joe Pietersen briefly gave the visitors the lead again, The Force seemed to take control of the game with a penalty and a try from a rolling maul either side of half time.
They quickly gave up that momentum though, allowing first a penalty then a drop goal from Pietersen to cut into their lead. At this point they enjoyed a sustained period of pressure and despite moving through the phases well as they have all season; they rarely truly threatened The Cheetahs line, a crime for which they were punished when Heinrich Brussow (who was back to his dynamic, ball stealing best) profited from his own team’s rolling maul in the 66th minute. This gave his side their first lead since the 15th minute, but this time they were able to hold on, with a late Pietersen penalty only confirming the result while denying a consistently wasteful Force team even a losing bonus point. It was in short then a demoralising display from a team that often triumphed in tight contests last season; however this year they appear to be in a fight to avoid the wooden spoon rather than challenge for the playoffs like last term.
Blue Bulls vs Queensland Reds
Score: 43-22; Venue: Loftus Versfeld
Talking of the wooden spoon, the team currently in that infamous position also lost to South African opponents in an all too familiar theme this weekend. Admittedly The Reds were faced with a tougher task than The Force: a trip to Loftus Versfeld, one they again made without fly half Quade Cooper. This meant that Nick Frisby was again forced into the 10 jersey, a role that, while he has improved in, still seems far too big for a man usually asked to play 10 minutes at the end of games in the scrumhalf position. However, despite the adverse circumstances, The Reds put in one of their better attacking performances after some truly unwatchable displays with Frisby at the helm earlier in the season. In the first half though it was more of the same, with turgid phase play and one off runners allowing The Reds to keep possession while also looking a million miles away from actually doing anything with it for much of the half. The Bulls on the other hand were sharp and clinical, crossing four times in the opening half to seemingly end the game as a contest and lead 24-5 at the break. At the start of the second half though, The Reds appeared to mount a comeback that was as surprising as it was pleasing, scoring to good tries in the opening ten minutes of the half. The first a solo effort as Genia scythed through the home defence of the back of a scrum, while the second was a superb team move, with Samu Kerevi linking with Liam Gill before a beautifully weighed Genia grubber put Frisby in to score. While this fightback came to nothing, it did at least show some heart and invention that has been sorely lacking for much of the season for The Reds, although Genia’s continued resurgence even given his imminent move to Stade Francais show at least pique the interest of Michael Cheika.
“Main Photo:”
