The moment Tom Robinson's All Black quest came to an end….. for this year
Tom Robinson the red-haired whirling dervish, ginger-ninja blindside flanker has been setting the pace in this year’s Super Rugby tournament. His energy levels seem to know no bounds; it’s great to see a player exhibit so much fervour and eagerness, piling himself into rucks and tackles and bound with ball-in-hand in open spaces, what a breath of fresh air!
His humility, the “aw-shucks” persona is making him a huge hero not just in far north (his home region) and Blues country but all over the rugby-mad nation.
We all love a ‘rookie comes from nowhere’ story, something a little off the normal “AB script”. Robinson seemed to be heading down that road.
Last Saturday as the Blues knocked off their fourth victory in succession against the Waratahs, the Big Red opened the try-scoring account screaming down the left flank. All through the game, he impressed with another lung-busting shift.
Then in the 75th minute with the Blues 32-24 ahead the Waratahs had an attacking scrum 12-metres out. Scrum-half Jake Gordon was off like a flash, probing the tight blind side where Harry Plummer stationed on the wing. That’s when the blindside flanker has to spring into action, off the scrum and cover the 9. Sadly Robinson had his head down adding his weight and strength to the pack. In the end, openside flanker Dalton Papalii got closest to Gordon, coming from the other side of the scrum. Akira Ioane was also head down, bum up.
Luckily the Blues held out to win the game but that moment underlined that Tom Robinson has a bit to learn about wearing the 6 jersey at a high level.
He’s spent a lot of time at lock and even though he has the physical attributes and energy levels for being a world-class blindside, when you look at the pantheon of world class 6s in the last 40 years, they have the physicality but also the knowledge of how to read a game, the anticipation to be at the right place at the right time.
It was noticeable the error was barely mentioned in the post-match breakdown as Tom Robinson has the admiration of everyone and he hasn’t blown his trumpet. It seems almost unfair to expose the mistake and grill him about it. The press and public have been speculating on whether he will be the World Cup bolter for 2019. Robinson has remained grounded and realistic.
When he was asked what he was looking forward to in 2019 a couple of weeks ago, he said: “getting stuck in for the Blues and the Taniwha” (Taniwha is the nickname for Northland, his Mitre 10 side).
He knows he has a load to learn at 6 and he will, and odds are on he’ll go on to be an outstanding All Black. But not this year.
Richie Mo’unga ahead of Highlanders’ derby:
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments