On Saturday evening at the Suncorp, everything looked set for the ceremonial transfer of power. The old king was ready to abdicate, and the new prince of Australian rugby was primed for coronation at ‘the Sun-court’ in Brisbane. The Queensland Reds’ time to take over as the leading light of Australian provincial rugby had come at last.
All except for one small obstacle. The Brumbies were not prepared to hand over the crown without a fight, and the Reds were not quite good enough to take it from them. At the end of the game, the old regent remained stubbornly on his throne, sceptre defiantly in hand.
It was not as if the fates conspired to thwart the men in maroon. Quite the opposite. The Reds shot out to a 14-0 lead by the end of the first quarter, and the Brumbies lost their best back, centre Len Ikitau, to concussion after only three minutes. The home side could not have asked for a more propitious start. In the second half, the most promising young forward in Canberra, loose-head Blake Schoupp, was only on the field for five minutes before losing the remainder of his season to a serious Achilles injury.
The stars were fully aligned for Queensland to show their maturity as a team, and a championship-winning mindset. The fact the Brumbies prevailed 39-26 away from home showed they remain the proud possessors of both qualities, and still hold the keys to the kingdom in Aussie.
When five teams were reduced to four, and the playing spoils from the Melbourne Rebels had been divided up before this Super Rugby Pacific season ever started, nothing seemed less likely. The Canberra club was the last dog to the bowl when the assets from Melbourne were redistributed. Moreover it was the only franchise to come out in the red as the balance between prospective starters gained and lost on the transfer market became clear.
If you are not acquiring from without, you have to be promoting from within your own academy structure, and that is what the Brumbies have done so effectively for so many years. Young players are channelled through an excellent youth system and step out on to the Super Rugby stage ready to perform. ‘Cohesion’ is one word for it, and that seamless cultural staircase off the field tends to have some important outcomes on it. The Ponies have always responded well to adversity and risen to a challenge decisively, and they have demonstrated an ability to adapt quickly to changing circumstances.
These were the three qualities head coach Stephen Larkham highlighted in his comments after the game.
“You have got to make sure you can play well at home and on the road,” he said. “We started slow and we know the Reds are very dangerous on turnover ball and kick returns; we gave them a few of those opportunities early on and they capitalised on them. [But] we stuck at [the task] and there was nothing spectacular about it…
“I think conditions played a part in tonight’s game. We certainly have a game-plan that is suited to wet weather. We are pretty good at putting up a contestable [kick], chasing and putting pressure [on] at the breakdown, and the Reds kick long and adapting to the conditions was probably hard for them.”
You need plans which can win games home and away, plans which enable you to win in varied meteorological conditions, and ‘win ugly’ when the game dissolves into a chaotic scrap.
The same cannot be said of Les Kiss’ Queenslanders. Coming hard on the heels of their loss to the Chiefs in round eight, this was the second time in a row the Reds have failed to handle wet weather efficiently, and adapt to ‘the ugly’ – at their home in Brisbane, and away from it.
Les was fuming about some basic inadequacies.
“Each time we scored we exited poorly,” he said. “We always measure time in the opposition 22, we had two minutes in the game and they had eight minutes. We gifted too many opportunities for them to advance the game.
“I’ve got to take my hat off to the Brumbies. They were very disciplined in what they did and, eventually, the pressure turned into points. The Brumbies came here with a good plan and they were nice and fresh, and they played that way.
“I thought once we made a couple of errors. we probably got a little bit down on ourselves. We went away from the style that we like to play. But you’ve got to give credit to the Brumbies.”
Queensland skipper Tate McDermott added pertinently, “we always talk about being fast and hard, and we went away from those two key principles that got us the points in the first place.”
The Reds’ primary directive is to inject quicker tempo, using their handling skills and making the extra pass whenever they can – Queensland rank second in offloads per game – but there are times when the handbrake needs to be applied in adverse conditions. There are too many occasions when you need to content yourself with doing the mundane task well, and accepting the ‘ugly’ face of the game.
Exit strategy is a pivotal example. Exits seldom appeal to the more romantic, expansive spirit of the game. It is a matter of moving play away from the danger area near your own goal line as efficiently as you can. It is mundane work, it can get ugly, and it is accented by the change in mindset needed to come down quickly from the emotional high of having just scored yourself. For the Queensland Reds this season that is always a try as they still have not potted a single penalty goal. The potential for a big psychological crash is underlined in bold.
Queensland’s botched exits effectively lost them the crunch game of their season so far. They led directly to three tries by the Brumbies, three more penalties against and two other turnovers. The problems began after the Reds had scored their first try.
The hosts had already meandered through a couple of phases in their own 22 when McDermott threw a loopy pass at Tom Lynagh, and the Brumbies promptly turned the ball over on the next play.
If there are two aspects of the game which are keeping Tate out of the Wallaby starting XV at present, they are probably consistent attention to his quality of pass and the routine details of decision-making.
That picture was repeated in the 48th minute after a scruffy lineout win.
Allan Alaalatoa cleverly peels away one of the Reds’ cleanout players en route to the breakdown and the Ponies win the one-on-one contest. The men from Canberra scored through their driving lineout on the next play. They had already pulled off the same one-two knockdown combination in the first period.
First Josh Canham misreads the receipt from the kick-off, then the Reds double down by giving up a penalty at the next breakdown. On the scoring play, the reason why the Reds plug one of their blind-side wings into the 10 channel at short-range lineouts remains a mystery: Lynagh could not have done any worse than Tim Ryan at stopping the Bobby Valetini steamroller, and Harry McLaughlin-Phillips would probably have made a better fist of it than either of them.
The Reds appeared quite unable to manage the emotional reset required after scoring a try, and they duly crashed back down to earth with a bump instead.
Kiss’ Queenslanders remain the best provincial team in Australia – potentially. But at the Suncorp last Saturday, the Brumbies took the opportunity to remind them the reality on the ground is very different. In terms of winning culture and winning the matches that matter, the men from Canberra are still a world apart.
That strong culture has been enough to overcome the scraps from the Rebels’ bowl they received before the season ever started, and project them ahead of the two other Aussie sides sitting on a 5-3 win record.
It will also have amplified the urgency of questions surrounding the claims of Kiss to be Wallaby supremo without the right support around him. His Reds have improved and play a brand of attractive footy which will bring back the crowds to the Suncorp.
But until they can find a way to enjoy kicking penalty goals as much as they like to convert tries, and relish the ‘low’ of exits after the ‘high’ of scoring, they will not bear comparison with their brethren from Canberra. And the Brumbies will remain what they always have been. The understated, the unpretentious and all-too-often-disliked outliers who know what they really are: the best team in Australia.
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