Have you been watching the autumn internationals?

They have been outstanding. Dramatic. Nail-biting. Intense. Close. Hard-fought. All of the standard clichés. And all true.

I’ve just watched Australia and Ireland. Can a more dramatic, close, intense match be imagined? Rob Kearney’s drop-goal attempt has to be the metaphor for the entire series of autumn internations: massive, brilliant, audacious and oh so close! Just off the right upright from something like 45-50 meters.

The majority of the games have been like that. France-Australia. Italy-Argentina. Wales-Australia. All matches that still hung in the balance at the final whistle.

And, you’ve got to love it on television. The close-ups of the players. The emotions and drama displayed. Real joy, pain, determination and chagrin. Is this not a fabulous spectator sport?

What’s not to love?

It bodes well for the upcoming World Cup!

Wow! I just watched the game last night. All I can say is:

COMPREHENSIVE!

It’s not like they were playing the Boks’ B-Side either. The Boks did look flat, but it was truly Ireland that rose to the occasion. It was an impeccable performance.

I particularly liked the NO ENGAGE lineout defense. The announcers went on about it being offsides… If there is no defender engaged, then no maul. Perfectly legal. I think we’ll be seeing more of this one.

I’m a little disappointed in Sexton being named Man-of-the-Match. I’m not saying he didn’t play well. But, let’s give credit to the guys doing the hard work, like McGrath, or Ruddock.

For the Boks, the moment that epitomized the match for me was le Roux’s knock-on. He had Serfontein coming on a beautiful switch move… then he hesitated. Instead of releasing the ball, he double clutched and it ended up being a knock-on. You don’t expect that of a man of le Roux’s class and ability. They were close to the try-line. No telling what might have happened had he connected with Serfontein.

This was the match for the Boks. Hesitancy throughout and very little of their usual determination and will. Poite didn’t help them any.

Look out, England! The Boks won’t be flat two times in a row.

Tame-i-phenomenon!

Ben Tameifuna. What a monster! He plays for the Chiefs and Waikato. He’s been around for about 3 years, having his debut in 2012. We can’t really claim that he is up-and-coming any longer. But, he’s one of the inspirations for this site. He is impressive.

He is strong in attack and destructive in defense. He has scored 35 points for the Chiefs. That works out to 7 tries, (I don’t think he’s been doing any kicking), a pretty impressive strike rate for a prop. Dave Rennie, the Chiefs’ coach, calls him, “explosive and destructive with an excellent skill set.”

Here’s an example of Tameifuna’s powerful fend. He rejects Solomona Sakalia of Bay of Plenty.

Here’s a link to the RugbyDump.com video of the fend.

Ben has been on the All Blacks’ short list since 2012. He hasn’t had a game yet and seems to be in disfavor. In October, he had committed to play for Tonga on their Autumn tour. PlanetRugby.com reports that, as of 31-Oct-2014, he has pulled out of that tour and is still holding out for the All Blacks. “I want to play the World Cup next year,” Ben said, “Whether it’s the black jersey or red jersey.” An understandable sentiment from a young up-and-coming player.

Maybe his current status is due to slight tendency for indiscipline. Ben is just back from suspension for pushing referee Glen Jackson in a game against North Harbor. Here’s the video from RugbyDump.com. That earned him 5 weeks suspension. He is just back playing again.

We hope to see the RoundMound in the World Cup next year, running, fending and tackling, not to mention scrummaging.

Good Luck, Ben!

Here’s a YouTube piece by RugbyRecon highlighting some of Ben’s skills.

 

The giant still sleeps…

We already knew that the Eagles weren’t up to the All Blacks level. We had hoped that they would be a little closer to that standard. It was not to be.

Here are three essential points for development to close the gap.

Vision
Attack the gap
Support

1. Vision

Acquire the vision, or rugby IQ, to know what is going to happen on the pitch. This isn’t just knowing the possibilities of what might happen. It is knowing what is going to happen. This can only be achieved through experience. The All Blacks have it. The Eagles aren’t there yet.

Let me illustrate by two examples from the game:

At 38:20 into the game, the Eagles are attacking about 25 meters from the line. Kelly takes the ball out wide near the touch line. He turns and off-loads the ball inside to Clever coming up in support. Before Clever gets the ball, Cane begins to move to tackle Clever. This is in no way illegal. He just positions himself to make the tackle. He knows what is going to happen. (The legality may have been slightly different if the pass didn’t come, but it did, and Cane knew it would.) Because of the tackle, Cane and the All Blacks have shut down a promising break. Savea and Read were also covering. That’s four All Blacks covering two Eagles with Scully coming up behind them. Attacking move snuffed.

In the second half, 48:20 gone on the game clock, the All Blacks are attacking in a very similar position on the field and a similar situation. The ball comes wide to Mealamu near the touch-line. He is covered by Tuisamoa and Wyles is deeper moving towards the All Blacks hooker. Tuisamoa makes contact. Mealamu turns in and feeds to Cruden coming up in support. Wyles has overrun the play and the rest of the Eagles’ defense are late arriving. The Eagles haven’t had the vision to see what would happen. There were two players committed to Mealamu and none covering the supporting attackers. The rest of the Eagles didn’t anticipate the need to be there so they were not in position. Cruden runs through with 2 or 3 teammates in support. Try scored.

This scenario repeated itself time and again throughout the game. The All Blacks have the vision to see what will happen and then be in position to support or stop the action.

This is a tough one for Mr. Tolkin and the Eagles. It is a little late for the current team to acquire the necessary experience. What we need to do is to continue to develop younger and younger players, then provide them with more opportunities to play at higher and higher levels.

USA Rugby is working towards this. We need to continue to raise the profile of rugby union to make it effective. The Eagles versus All Blacks was a good start at doing that. Let’s follow up with more of the same.

2. Attack the gap

There is a tendency for the Eagles players to go straight to contact rather than seek out the gaps. Smith, Suniula and yes, Clever are particularly guilty of this. The All Blacks, and most of the international sides the Eagles play, are up to the tackling. (See the stats on this.) Running into contact just slows the ball down, and increases the chances of losing possession.

I admire Clever as a player. As Captain, however, he is setting an example that the other players follow. Let’s move forward and make the example to be running to space. We are playing Union, after all, not League.

I suggest looking to basketball. Basketball players know well the benefit of moving the ball into space. Perhaps we can encourage current players to spend time on the basketball court where they can learn the merits of moving away from contact. After all, basketball is a game that most American athletes understand. It should be easy, and helpful, to try to translate those thought processes to the pitch.

3. Support

The Eagles need to provide better support for their teammates. Too many times we see a situation where a ball carrier is alone with no one available for the off-load. Or, the defender is alone facing multiple attackers. Either way, it is an untenable situation.

This comes from either the lack of vision, as in point 1, or from a lack of fitness, or both. I suspect fitness to be the major culprit. Even if an athlete has the vision, without the fitness, there can’t be effective support.

USA Rugby needs to demand a higher level of fitness from our athletes. I understand that the All Blacks are fully professional. They have time to develop every aspect of their fitness. Any player that aspires to play with the Eagles, should make a priority of developing fitness for the game. Selection should be based on fitness to play the Union game and perform the supporting roles that will be required.

If these points can be addressed, the Eagles should be ready to step up a level in the international competition.

Miscellaneous Ramblings on the Stats (from ESPNScrum.com)

There are a few things that stick out. The first is passes: 125(USA) to 221(NZ). Even with 52% possession, the Eagles still only have half the number of passes. The Eagles are obviously holding the ball too long.

Then there are the tackling stats. The US made 92 and missed 42. Not a good percentage, is it? What is more startling to me is the Kiwis made 110 and missed 10. They are not missing their tackles. I mentioned about running into contact. At some point you have to realize it’s not working and change your tactic.

Everything else is fairly even, with the exception of scrummages. I don’t think lost scrummages cost the Eagles this game. The running meters discrepancy is a direct result of my pet peeve, running into contact instead of space. If you run to space, you will run farther.

Saturday is a rugby day!

Here we are in Chicago, waiting for the big game… #USAvAllBlacks. Some of my Kiwi friends say that the Eagles shouldn’t even be on the same pitch as the All Blacks. From a playing perspective, that’s probably true.

But, from the perspective of the Game (with the capital-G) it is a different thing. Sure, there has been a lot of talk about this game just being a marketing ploy. What’s wrong with that? 61,500 U.S. rugby fans packed in to Soldier Field to see a rugby game… That has to be a good thing for the sport.

Imagine if we can bring the sports mad U.S. population on board to support Rugby Union. What are the implications of that? It has to mean additional global growth. And, I think, domestic development of the game. With an interested population and the concomitant financial investment the Eagles will flourish.

It’s been said before, and I say it again, beware of waking the sleeping giant. Look out world!

What say you?