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Wallbies Luke Burgess fails to hit his own pass mark
Wayne Smith, Rugby Union editor | July 03, 2008
WALLABIES halfback Luke Burgess has delivered a scathing appraisal of his own performance in last weekend's Test against France, claiming his wayward passing stifled Australia's attack.
Clearly, as hard as Burgess, 24, plays, he marks even harder. While there is no denying the two-Test novice needs to improve his service, he more than once sparked the Australia attack with his stunning ability to take a gap.
Indeed, the entire Wallabies' performance turned on his brilliant burst from a stolen lineout just after half-time to pave the way for Nathan Sharpe's seventh Test try.
Small wonder foreign critics have identified him as a possible Wallabies' trump card in the upcoming Tri-Nations series.
The Waratah, however, is convinced he didn't pull his weight in the first Test against France and is determined to make amends in the re-match at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
"I don't think my contribution was enough, not from a personal perspective but I want to help the team as much as I can," Burgess said yesterday. "It's never about an individual and making a contribution is at the forefront of everyone's mind."
On one level, his adjustment to Test rugby has gone a whole lot smoother than he had expected. Although he found the Irish and French teams were more clinical and precise than Super 14 sides, there was no great adjustment for him to make in terms of intensity or tactical surprises.
"The biggest challenge I've found is settling into a new environment with these highly skilled athletes," Burgess said. "The biggest challenge is being cohesive and working well in our own individual units."
But as far as the Wallabies' halves unit was concerned, the Sydney Test was very much a mixed bag.
There were moments when Burgess and five-eighth Matt Giteau combined like they were George Gregan and Steve Larkham playing their 80th Test together. At other times, they looked as though they had not been introduced. Burgess insisted the problem was not an inability to keep up with Giteau's sudden late switches of play.
"It's not hard at all," Burgess said. "He communicates very well but I've just been inaccurate with my passing. It stifled the attack a bit and that needs improving."
Giteau came in for criticism for standing too deep and wide to receive Burgess's pass but it seemed he was so uncertain about what might be coming his way - to the point that he dropped one pass cold, an almost unheard-of mistake - that he was giving himself a safety buffer.
Burgess maintained that his errant passing was not the product of an ingrained technical fault but rather of a temporary form slump.
"I'm just going through it at the moment," he said.
His remedy is a high volume of passes in training, something he has even managed this week despite being troubled by a corked leg that kept him out of team sessions on Monday and Tuesday.
Still, with his boyhood hero, 1991 World Cup-winning captain, Nick Farr-Jones having volunteered to give Robbie Deans whatever help he needs, now or at least in the weeks leading up to the July 19 Tri-Nations opener against the Springboks might be the perfect time for the new Wallabies coach to take up the offer and put him to work honing Burgess's service.
Given that Gregan wore the No9 jersey for the Wallabies virtually uninterrupted for a world record 139 Tests, it was inevitable that whoever succeeded him would be subjected to close scrutiny. But if anything, Burgess has won over the critics by being about as far removed from Gregan as possible in the way he plays.
Burgess was scragged repeatedly by the Irish forwards in the Melbourne Test on June 14, one big green-jerseyed joker even playfully patted him on the head as he waited for the ball at the breakdown, but Burgess has no intention of emulating Gregan's much-criticised ploy of taking a step backwards from the ruck to free himself of traffic.
"I like to just clear it off the deck," he said. "I find you can't take advantage of (running) opportunities if you drop back."
Meanwhile, the Australian Rugby Union has welcomed yesterday's decision by the Federal Court preventing an unofficial corporate hospitality provider from furnishing fans with packages to the July 19 Springboks Test in Perth.
Corporate Sports Australia began proceedings against the ARU over access to tickets for the Test. It had intended to bundle tickets into corporate hospitality packages, in apparent breach of ARU ticket conditions.
More than 100 fans are understood to have been affected by the ruling but the ARU has offered to discuss alternate arrangements with them.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
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