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Scott Barrett on what he saw at set piece time against the Springboks
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Why Wallabies scrum-half Ryan Lonergan plays with taped fingers
reporting from Auckland
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ACT Brumbies scrum-half Ryan Lonergan captained the Barbarians against Northampton Saints one week before the Wallabies started their 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign. Several Australians were in the invitational side’s 23 that day, including a future Wallabies skipper on the bench.
Lonergan linked up with James O’Connor in the halves, with Hunter Paisami and Filipo Daugunu making up the centre pairing. Lachlan Lonergan, Cadeyrn Neville, Lachlan Swinton and Seru Uru were in the forwards, with current Wallabies captain Harry Wilson among the replacements.
Tom Wright and Lachlan Anderson were joined in an all-Australian back three by Dylan Pietsch, who revealed on the Kick Offs and Kick Ons podcast how that Baa Baas tour inspired Lonergan to start wearing finger tape in each match.
“I actually know this quite well,” Pietsch said, before explaining that then-Sunwolves halfback Kaito Shigeno used tape on his fingers. Lonergan trailed it out for a game, and the Australian has continued to use it since then.
“I’d already used a bit of tape on my fingers but it never really worked that well,” Lonergan said on Tuesday afternoon in Auckland.
“He gave me a box and said, ‘try it’, and I tried it and it was really good. I’ve just used it ever since and every time I go to Japan I load up on tape.
“It kind of just happened that way. It was a little way for me to be able to put a bit of grip-tech on them and then it just stays in and then I don’t have to keep reapplying it.
“I found that’s a way for me to be able to pass consistently in a game because it gets real sweaty when the boys are sweating all over it or it’s raining or something.
“That’s the story behind it. It’s nothing too flashy really.”
Lonergan doesn’t use the finger tape at training, instead looking to “get a feel for the ball” ahead of a match. The No. 9 has started in all eight Wallabies Tests so far this season, having emerged as a go-to goal-kicking option for the side as well.
Carter Gordon and Ben Donaldson were the primary goal-kickers in the opening match of the July Nations Championship window, before Lonergan took over those duties against Six Nations sides France and Italy.
Lonergan has kicked 26 conversions and four penalties in the last seven Test matches, including a 17-point haul against the Springboks in Perth. The 14-Test Wallaby has scored 65 points off the tea this season, playing a key role in the team’s six-match unbeaten run.
“At the start of Super Rugby, I hadn’t kicked for a while and it was probably just getting back into the rhythm of kicking,” Lonergan told reporters.
“Toward the backend of Super, I started to enjoy it a bit more.
“When I was younger I really loved goal-kicking all the time and over the last few years, when I wasn’t kicking, I came back in. It was another thing I had to think about it and I probably didn’t enjoy it as much as I do now.
“Honestly, that’s kind of the only change. You just ride that confidence through and it’s been working for me.”
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