Beau and Croft will make perfect partners
Beau and Croft will make perfect partners
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Waratahs flanker Beau Robinson, who was drafted into the NSW team yesterday to counter Queensland's David Croft at Aussie Stadium on Saturday night, is certainly blunt … on and off the field.
Inside the fence, Robinson is one of those vigorous, chest-beating back-rowers who loves irritating everyone around him. Sometimes he has be to be hosed down by his coach. Outside the fence, Robinson is similarly assertive.
Players involved in their first representative season are usually cautious about saying anything, relying on the footballer's cliche handbook to get them out of trouble. Not the 20-year-old Robinson - especially when asked about his form this year which has seen him in and out of the Waratahs' starting XV.
"I haven't been really happy with my performances," he said.
What haven't you been happy about?
"Just my performance," Robinson said. "I don't think I've stepped up and haven't taken the opportunity as well as I should have. I think I've let the team down a bit.
"The step up [to Super 14 football] has not been tougher than I thought. I just haven't been able to handle it.
"I think I am capable of it, but haven't been able to do it this year. And it's pretty frustrating."
The feisty flanker was just as direct when asked to explain precisely what he was going to do during the interstate encounter - basically be a pest at the tackle contest, niggling away at Croft and co.
"I'm hoping to just get my hands on the ball at the breakdown," Robinson said. "That's a real focus of the whole team - just slowing it up at the breakdown."
No wonder NSW coach Ewen McKenzie recalled Robinson for this match, as he is the aggressive type required to contain Croft, one of the more rebellious back-rowers running around.
Phil Waugh would have been perfect for the job, but the injured Waratahs skipper remains a sideline spectator for several more weeks.
Instead Waugh's young lookalike will get his chance to at last "step up".
McKenzie said it would be helpful to have a tenacious operator up against Croft, as the Queenslander invariably performed at his best against the Waratahs.
Croft will also be highly motivated to excel as this will be his 100th appearance for Queensland, prompting more than 60 of his closest friends to travel to Sydney for the game.
The group, which includes Croft's parents Jenny and Dennis, will be at one end of the ground.
They will also be easy to recognise - all will be wearing bald wigs in recognition of the Reds flanker's shiny pate.
McKenzie said: "Beau is very motivated. He's one of those guys you don't need to fire up."
The coach admitted he sometimes had to calm Robinson down, but that wasn't a bad trait, especially with the oldest Australian provincial encounter looming.
In other team news, Morgan Turinui - who has been linked with a move to the Reds next season - will have a new centre partner in Ben Jacobs, with Sam Harris dropping to the bench.
Greg Growden
