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Australia’s Super sides had a disastrous 2017, losing all 26 matches against their New Zealand counterparts and losing a franchise. There wasn’t much to write home about in 2017, but these Rookies were some of the few bright spots for the Aussies.
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We found that 2017 was the year of the outside backs for NZ Super teams, with very few rookie forwards locking down starting positions and getting enough game time.
For Australian sides, it was very different, with a range of positions earning a spot on the list. To qualify, players must have never played a Super Rugby match before 2017 and played a minimum of 8 games during the season.
This is our list of the best Australian rookies of 2017.
5. Wharenui Hawera (Brumbies)
New Zealand-born Hawera was picked up the Brumbies after a steady 2016 campaign with Southland in the Mitre 10 Cup. With Matt Toomua playing overseas and Lealiifano battling leukemia, he was thrust into the starting line up and played all 16 games for the Brumbies.
Playing in the most critical position on the pitch, he guided the Brumbies to the playoffs and top of the Australian conference.
His role in the Brumbies system is more about organising structure rather than playmaking, but playing 10 in any Super team is a tough ask. As a rookie, he took over the majority of the kicking duties – goal kicks, exit kicks, out-of-hand kicks – directing the team around the park with the boot.
Defensively, he will be looking to improve his tackle efficiency of 69%. Despite missing the most tackles of any pivot in the competition, he also made the most tackles of any 10, indicating he has a heavy defensive workload and isn’t shied away from frontline duties.
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Hawera will be looking to become more of an attacking threat with ball in hand as he matures at Super level – he had a low line break rate (4.21%) and low line break assist rate (2.78%). He finished the season with two tries, one try assist, four line breaks and nine line break assists.
All-in-all it was a solid season for rookie flyhalf and worthy of the fifth spot on our list.
4. Izaia Perese (Reds)
Izaia Perese is pound-for-pound the most powerful runner in Super Rugby. The 20-year-old looks slight but has proven to be one of the hardest men to tackle in the NRC, starring at centre and wing for Queensland Country since 2015.
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Often thought too small for Super Rugby, Perese debuted in 2017 on the wing for the Reds and proved he could take it to the next level – his tackle bust rate of 0.53 per run is top 10 in the competition and higher than that of Chiefs dynamo Damian McKenzie (0.51).
He just needs the ball more.
Almost starved of possession on the wing with only 3.75 runs per game, Perese scored three tries in 12 games in his debut season also registering one try assist and three line breaks.
Defensively he will want to improve on his tackle efficiency rate of 62% but his attacking power cannot be questioned. With first choice 13 Samu Kerevi becoming captain in 2017, it is unlikely that Perese will get to play centre for the Reds but it is definitely something we want to see.
3. Jake Gordon (Waratahs)
The Waratahs have uncovered their successor to incumbent halfback Nic Phipps, with debutant Jake Gordon having a dynamic rookie season. The 24-year-old earned the NRC’s player of the year award in 2016 and carried that form into his first Super season.
He is a half with a dangerous running game, he seems to know when to have a snipe and when not to – he had the highest line break success rate (18.42%) of any halfback in the competition and lodged seven line breaks (2nd most of any halfback) on the season. Gordon also scored five tries (2nd behind TJ Perenara) and registered two try assists.
He offers the Waratahs a different kind of halfback to Phipps and we wouldn’t be surprised to see them build more plays around Gordon in the future. At 24-years-old Gordon is the future for the Waratahs spine.
2. Isaiah Naisarani (Force)
Naisarani was a great signing by the Force, who picked up the loose forward after a breakthrough NRC season with Brisbane City in 2016. He was voted Australia’s Super Rugby’s Player of Year in 2017 despite being a rookie but misses out on the top spot on our list.
It has been a massive 24 months for Naisarani, who was even playing club rugby in Brisbane last year, and is now set to join the Brumbies following the exiling of the Force.
He was a solid fit for the Force playing all 15 games, giving them a ball-carrying flanker/number 8 who is also a lineout jumping option. Naisarani was a decent ball carrier but most impressive was his defense, finishing fourth in the competition in tackle efficiency (90%).
A reliable defender who offered carries, but he didn’t have the same impact as our number one rookie. The 22-year-old will no doubt continue to impress next year at the Brumbies and push for Wallaby selection.
1. Amanaki Mafi (Rebels)
Our Australian rookie of the year is Japanese international Amanaki Mafi. Mafi had the advantage of experience at the highest level, but it was still his first taste of Super Rugby and he delivered for the Rebels playing in all 15 games.
His role with the Rebels was to provide power carries and a high work rate in defence. No loose forward ran as many times as he did – he took 184 carries outstripping the next best in his position by 53 carries and still averaged 7.49 metres per run, the third best in his position.
He made 12 line breaks (most in his position) and six line break assists (most in his position) and scored one try and assisted on two others, offering the Rebels not just a battering ram but an attacking weapon.
Defensively he had one of the highest work rates of any loose forward, his 166 tackles were the second most in his position, and top 10 for loosies. His tackle efficiency was a high 79% but more impressively he accounted for 15 turnovers either from pilfering the ball or forcing a ruck penalty.
This was double the next best in his position and third most of any loose forward behind fetcher specialists George Smith (17) and Chris Cloete (16).
He was the most dynamic two-way loose forward in the whole competition, offering a high work rate in attack and defence proving he could be a game changer on both sides of the ball making it an easy choice over Naisarani for Australia’s best Super Rugby rookie of 2017.
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Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
37 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments