Barbarians to contest Wallabies' speed
Bret Harris | June 05, 2009
Article from: The Australian
IT will be like a sports car competing against a truck when the backrows do battle at the breakdown in the Wallabies-Barbarians game at the Sydney Football Stadium tomorrow night.
Notwithstanding the fact Phil Waugh will be the smallest backrower on the field, the Barbarians loose trio will still be much bigger, with fellow Australian Rocky Elsom and Kiwi Jerry Collins alongside him.
Conversely, the Wallabies' backrow of George Smith, Matt Hodgson and Richard Brown is built for speed.
The backrow that imposes itself on the other will provide its team with a significant advantage.
"They are pretty hard in the way they attack everything in the game," Smith said of the Barbarian backrowers.
"You know Rocky likes to get out wide and take a lot of runs in that area. He is very deceptive when he does a dummy-and-go. Jerry is a very hard player in terms of attacking and running the ball.
"With our backrow we've got a bit of speed there with Matt Hodgson coming in and Brownie is very apt in running the ball. There are different things, but they even out."
Smith has played with and against Waugh since they were 12 years old growing up on the northern beaches of Sydney.
But this will be the first time they have opposed each other in an international match.
"You know what you are going to get with Phil and I," Smith said. "You are going to get guys who play hard at the ball. Like to link up with the backs. Maybe throw a grubber in there now and again. I don't think that's what you want to see. You want to see Matt Hodgson make his debut in Australian colours.
"He has developed quickly. His reaction to turn defence into attack is pretty good. The way he turns over the ball and links with the backs and gets himself involved in games is a good sign.
"You don't see too many people willing to get in there and do the hard stuff and back up again and be on his feet and be involved in the next phase. He has definitely got positives in his game."
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans is taking a calculated gamble in playing two openside flankers in Smith and Hodgson, but Brown was confident his Force teammate would make a good debut.
"He might be the shortest number six ever to play for Australia, but I reckon he'll do it justice," Brown said of Hodgson.
"Hodgo has really taken on that role of six better than other players I've seen because he is quite useful in the lineouts and you'll see that, I think.
"He's got so many different aspects to his game. He won't be letting the side down in any way. He'll be strengthening it.
"And he is great at the breakdown as well. He's on par with some of the best I've seen. I won't say it's going to be a success, but we'll see after the game.
Hopefully, we can put our best foot forward and have a good crack."
While Elsom normally plays blindside flanker for the Wallabies, he will be packing down at number eight for the Barbarians. "He is big and physical," Brown said. "He is good in the lineout. He's a handful. It just makes you ask more of yourself basically.
"When doesn't Phil Waugh play an aggressive, hard-nosed game? He's going to be a handful. He's going to be hard on the ball.
"He is just going to be a hard man to control the whole game. I think he will be highly motivated and he's going to ask a lot of us."
Brown admitted that competition for places in the Wallabies backrow would be intense when Elsom and Waugh returned next week and Wycliff Palu recovered from a broken hand.
"It's just going to ask more of the guys who are in those starting jerseys to keep them and that can only be a good thing," Brown said. "I understand that I had a lucky opportunity with Cliffy breaking his hand. I'm not saying I'm the best and that I'm going to keep it, but I'll go out there and put my best foot forward and then it's up to the coaches."
Brown dismissed claims by the Barbarians that they were having a good time in Sydney, night-clubbing and drinking.
"I remember last year when we played the Barbarians on the end of the tour and they said that," Brown said. "I was broken for a good few weeks after that game. They can say what they want, but I won't be listening to it. It will be what I see on the day."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
