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Larkham works on style points
By Wayne Smith, The Australian, c/o Fox Sports
January 26, 2007
WINNING one last title with the Brumbies is only one of Steve Larkham's goals as he goes into his farewell Super 14 campaign.
He also intends to use it to refine the tactics he hopes will sweep Australia to Rugby World Cup success.
Larkham will sit out tonight's pre-season trial against the Hurricanes, as well as the opening Super 14 fixture against the Chiefs in Hamilton tomorrow week, to be on hand to support his wife Jacqueline, who is due to give birth to their second child on Monday.
"Better to get somebody else in there to do the whole week's training," Larkham, who is setting as his first outing of 2007 the Brumbies' home match against the Blues on February 10, said.
"I'd only ruin the preparation for the whole team, not just myself."
He fully endorses the man expected to deputise for him at five-eighth, Julian Huxley, believing the versatile goalkicker could just be the man to fill the Wallabies all rounder's role vacated by Mat Rogers.
But Larkham is anxious to continue working on his adjustment to the backline tactics Wallabies assistant coach Scott Johnson is trying to implement.
Larkham, as playmaker, had the most difficulty adjusting to the Johnson style last season. After 10 seasons of international rugby during which he took the ball to the line faster and more decisively than any other five-eighth, he found it hard to rein himself in.
It was only in the Wallabies' final Test, against Scotland at Murrayfield, that Larkham started to look comfortable and that came from playing a hybrid of the two styles.
"Particularly off first phase I was reverting a little to things that had worked in the past, but I was also trying to concentrate off phase to control my running speed and use some skills of the other backs outside me," Larkham said.
That is the major plus of the Johnson plan - that by not over-committing himself and having just a quick Ella-like touch on the ball before backing up in support, Larkham could create more room for the players outside him.
Small wonder that he now finds his fellow backs yelling to him during Brumbies training, "Control your speed".
"So it's coming through the Brumbies ranks now," he said. "I think that's important. I'd hate to play a whole season of Super 14 using one style and then having to try to adapt all over again with the Wallabies."
He laughed when reminded of wing Lote Tuqiri's plea that as an old dog, Larkham should not be required to learn new tricks.
"That might work in dog-land but everyone's got to try to improve, and I'm certainly trying to adapt," Larkham said.
The more rest the 32 year old is given, the more Wallabies coach John Connolly will like it.
"Bernie (Larkham) is a world-class player and incredibly important to our chances at the (Rugby) World Cup," he said.
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