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Flitting between franchises dilutes origin idea
Spiro Zavos | March 3, 2009
JOHN CONNOLLY, the doughty and successful coach of Queensland in their glory days of the "it's great to be an Australian, and even better to be a Queenslander" attitude, has proposed a rugby union state of origin match. The idea has some merit but it really reflects a back-to-the-future obsession when the main game for Queensland was to defeat NSW.
Super rugby, with the shifting of players from one franchise to another, has taken the edge out of the fanatical (for Queenslanders, at least) rivalry.
Scott Fava, who is in the Waratahs squad, has played for all four Australian Super 14 franchises, for instance. The rise of the Brumbies, too, has meant that when Queensland beat NSW (for the rivalry is more passionate among Queenslanders than it is south of the border) the team and its supporters cannot indulge in unmitigated bragging rights as the best state side in Australia.
The thought struck me on Sunday, while I watched the Reds run the ball incessantly at the bulky Cheetahs, that the bright young coach Phil Mooney and the QRU's high-performance manager Ben Whitaker are re-inventing Queensland rugby. The days of the closed-fist forward packs and five-eighths who kicked incessantly are gone. The enforcers are being morphed into the entertainers.
And this brings us to an issue that has been dogging the Waratahs for a couple of years - their entertainment factor. The paradox about rugby in the professional era as opposed to the amateur era is that results justified the way a team played, even when that play was boring.
But in the professional era, teams have to win and be entertaining to draw in the crowds. And being entertaining is almost as important in the equation as winning. When winning attractively is achieved, as it was in the glory days of the Brumbies under foundation coach Rod Macqueen, the franchise has the win-win situation. Great results stimulate the development of a strong and passionate supporter base.
So the mantra that "winning ugly is better than losing pretty" is only partially correct. Last season, coach Ewen McKenzie, with his job under threat, determined that winning trumped entertaining as the driving-force ambition of the Waratahs. He succeeded in getting the Waratahs into the finals but the supporters did not like what they were seeing. Many thousands of them stayed away.
On Friday night, with the Waratahs playing at home after an away and home victory to start the season, fewer than 20,000 turned up at the Sydney Football Stadium.
From what we saw on Friday night, the Waratahs are not too far off turning the ugly aspects of their play into more pleasing play. The team is solid in its set pieces, which is a tribute to Michael Foley. You can't play entertaining rugby effectively, something that the Reds are starting to understand, without a strong set piece. The Reds' scrum almost melted in the extreme heat on Sunday and the pressure from the massive Cheetahs pack.
All the dominant and entertaining teams in Super rugby - the Blues in the first three years, the Brumbies and the Crusaders in all their triumphs - have had strong, hard-working and effective packs. One reason the Sharks and the Bulls have stood out so far this season as likely champions and are unbeaten - with the Waratahs - the tournament is that their brilliant backs are being given room and time to run by their rampaging, dominant packs.
NSW have the backs to play the ensemble game that is effective and attractive. The test will be how many times the gifted centre Rob Horne gets a chance to run the ball. If Kurtley Beale can release Horne you'd expect the Waratahs to beat the Reds comfortably - and at their own new running game.
spiro@theroar.com.au
http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/n...e#contentSwap1
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Originally Posted by jargan83
