Kiwis' form good news for Australia
Greg Growden | February 25, 2008
Credit where it's due - a good article from Grumbles.
MONDAY MAUL
AS FAR as the general health of Australian rugby is concerned, the most encouraging results of the weekend had nothing to do with the four local provinces.
Admittedly there was excitement about how the Force and Brumbies both survived in the final minutes, but the standard of play of the four Australian teams was only fair.
Instead the dominance shown by New Zealand teams the Canterbury Crusaders and the Auckland Blues, who both enjoyed big wins in South Africa to share top spot on the Super 14 ladder, indicates that two important identities who will shortly have a major say in how Australian rugby is run are on top of their craft.
Robbie Deans, who after the tournament will move from the Crusaders to the Wallabies, has again shown he is a master student of the game. His team, which has have enjoyed two 30-point-plus thrashings of the Brumbies and Bulls, is among the sides to have adapted best to the experimental laws.
Play at pace. Play on your feet. Use the space. Don't underestimate the power of the scrum. Vary your play. And importantly, remain positive about the laws.
Deans has been among the strongest defenders of the experimental laws. Yesterday he told one of South Africa's leading rugby writers, Clinton Van Der Berg of The Sunday Times, that early criticism of the laws was hasty. "People must be patient, the refs are learning, too," Deans said. "If the laws are applied properly, you'll end up with a game played by players on their feet." Hallelujah.
And despite the prediction that the laws primarily promote speed and endurance and will therefore lead to different rugby body shapes, Deans said the scrum remained paramount.
"The scope through attack retains the advantage of big men, because if you have an accessible gain-line from scrum-time you get go-forward," he said. "Defence has to descend to defend, so teams who have big body types will find it much easier to maintain momentum.
"The key against big-sized teams is to deny them access to the gain-line, otherwise you'll suck the hind tit the whole way. I'm happy that these changes cater for the ethos of the game, a game for all shapes and sizes."
Auckland Blues coach David Nucifora has also hit the ground running this season - enjoying two healthy triumphs over the Chiefs and Lions. And if the Australian Rugby Union gets its way, he will also be heading to their Crows Nest HQ.
Nucifora, who is in his fourth season with Auckland, is on top of the ARU list to take over from Pat Howard as the head of its high-performance unit. This is a tricky role, having to deal with provinces, players, player agents, coaches and officials.
The job - entailing multiple contract negotiations and general team planning - requires legal, financial and psychological nous. And it means you generally upset people, as Howard, who is set to leave in early April for family reasons, discovered.
Being abrasive may not help, but in this job it is probably a requirement, because when everyone is spruiking at you, it's not wise to be a pushover.
Nucifora wouldn't be that, as he showed when, as coach in 2004, he attempted to change the team culture at the Brumbies. There was conflict. Players back-stabbed him. Some left. But the Brumbies still won the Super title that year.
The ARU is keen to improve the Wallabies' culture and will continue to seek those, such as Deans and Nucifora, who are outside the incestuous Australian rugby web but have the knowledge, cunning, boldness and outlook to create something positive.
