Forget his physique, Justin Tipuric must be considered Springbok enemy No.1
Justin Tipuric doesn’t do self-promotion.
The most outlandish part of his persona is his bright blue scrum cap, which conversely, is a reminder to stay true to his Swansea Valley roots. Social media? It’s not for him. He’s more likely to be found coaching youngsters at home in Trebanos. You see Tipuric is a throwback. A kid who just wants to play rugby and the result is a profile lower than a Russian sub.
His grandfather Dragotin was Croatian and was released by the Germans during the Second World War. He headed for Wales, where his prodigious size meant he pitched up at the local rugby club, Trebanos as an escape from the long hours working down the pit. The Tipurics have barely left the club since.
As a kid, certain characteristics appealed to him as a rugby player. He looked up to Richard Hill because of the unseen dirty work he did and his commitment to putting the team before personal acclaim.
In his late teens he was a Welsh wunderkind who broke age-grade try-scoring records while packing down as a blindside for Wales, sporting a mullet and chubbier jowls which gave away a predilection for cakes that had to be curtailed when rugby became a serious vocation.
Physically, he’s no Popeye. He would struggle to shift the sorts of tin his backrow counterparts and gym-rats Josh Navidi and Aaron Wainwright do but his lightweight frame has its benefits. He is easy to flip up, like a circus acrobat, when taking front and back lineout ball and he covers the turf economically, at 400m runner pace, unless he’s in pursuit of a kick-chase as we saw against Georgia. He doesn’t have the heft to put in the leg-driving ‘hits’ so beloved of YouTube – so don’t expect him to knock Duane Vermeulen and Pieter Steph-du-Toit back on their rumps this weekend, but do expect him to pilfer the ball if they give him even a millimetre of space to work with.
Some great head to heads this weekend. #RugbyWorldCup #RWC2019 pic.twitter.com/bOntt0oZIE
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 23, 2019
Truth is, you’ll struggle to find a savvier player at this World Cup.
When Dan Biggar was gurning in ecstasy like the Wolf of Wall Street’s Jordan Belfort seconds after booting the ball into the stands at the end of a pulsating quarter-final win over France, Tipuric was, typically, at the bottom of the ruck, with his face in the turf tasting Japanese dirt. Ground level is where he’s happiest and being lofted high onto a pedestal isn’t his bag.
. @EnglandRugby have three non-negotiables if they are to beat the All Blacks on Saturday
– writes @alexshawsport ??? #rwc https://t.co/4kv2QCDbHE
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 23, 2019
‘Tips’ as he’ universally known has been superlative in this year’s tournament. Against Georgia, he showed his nose for the try-line by showing and going from close range to power over. Against Australia, his leadership, nous to slow up ball, and work with Alun Wyn Jones to hold up big Wallaby ball-carriers, was integral to the rear-guard action. When Wales needed secure ball at the lineout with two minutes to go, Tipuric was the one propelled skywards.
With Biggar’s fitness was a concern, after two successive head injuries, there were semi-serious calls for Tipuric to be cover at No 10 against Uruguay, such is his plethora of gifts. He’s highly regarded by his contemporaries. When this writer asked the tough-tackling England lock Courtney Lawes who was the most skilful player he’d played alongside as a Lion, Tipuric was the first name he mentioned. His long-time adversary for Welsh No 7 shirt, Warburton, magnanimously put him in the top five flankers he’d ever played alongside or with and earlier this month Lawrence Dallaglio, who knows a thing or two about backrow play was fulsome in his praise of the Osprey.
Makes you wonder what Vahaamahina was thinking ? #RWC2019 #WalesRugby pic.twitter.com/rQuRcsSKwg
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 23, 2019
While Tipuric has never been a power merchant his tackle completion is comfortably in the high nineties. After one-to-one work with club defence coach, Brad Davis, in the 2016-17 season, he made 346 tackles and missed seven for a 98 per cent success rate – that’s Jonny Gray territory. Rare is it for a player to have such rounded attacking and defensive skills.
With 70 caps, and stints as Ospreys skipper, he’s added leadership to his skillset and captained Wales against Uruguay for the first time – a nod to the esteem with which he is held and shows how highly he is valued by not only the management but also to his peers. On the field, he has been a beacon of excellence. The no-look pass down the tramlines early on to Josh Adams was sublime and against France, he showed his jackalling skills with a critical turnover after three minutes when Wales were under the cosh by hauling down French No 8 Charles Ollivon with a perfectly executed wrap tackle, springing to his feet, getting over the ball and driving through the gate to drive Antoine Dupont backwards and win possession. It was all done in perpetual motion and textbook Tipuric.
James Haskell has revealed an explosive exchange with Brodie Retallick, moments after New Zealand beat England in the first match of their 2014 test series ?https://t.co/hXPawXIZB6
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 23, 2019
He went through the card for the remainder of the game.
After 26 minutes, his eye for a gap saw him bisecting Romain N’Tamack and Jefferson Poirot making precious yards and seconds after the break, his spin pass from the ruck to Hadleigh Parkes would have done Trebanos legend Robert Jones proud. On 60 minutes, he whipped a 20m pass off his left hand in open play to Aaron Wainwright who stepped Yoann Huget on the right flank, making headway. A watching Jonathan Davies would have nodded away sagely at Tipuric’s passing range.
As Les Bleus held on, he didn’t let up. His pickup, spin and pass to Parkes on 67 minutes was another example of how his rugby brain moves at warp speed. On 73 minutes, when Antoine Dupont was dispossessed with ferocious strip from Tomos Williams, before the French could blurt ‘Sacre bleu’, he was hurtling towards the try-line only to be held up by inches, yet he still had the presence of mind in a high-pressure situation to recycle and that led to Ross Moriarty’s defining score.
Wales' Ross Moriarty relives the moment in the quarter-final versus France when he feared being red-carded https://t.co/MYDMDk4Q2y
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 22, 2019
The Springboks will have Siya Kolisi pegged down to deal with the Trebanos Terror and he will need to stretch every sinew and shred of grey matter to outwit and outfox his Welsh counterpart at the breakdown, in the tramlines or hanging onto his coat-tails after a kick-chase. He will need his three Shredded Wheat.
Sporadically Tips is reluctantly drawn from the shadows he prefers to patrol but there’s no doubt Tipuric is vying for Wales’ player of the tournament and Sunday could prove a defining moment in his career. The day of the jackal. Don’t bet against it.
Comments on RugbyPass
Bulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to comments