Take the benchmark No.15 performance by Jordie Barrett for the Hurricanes on Saturday for example. Barrett covered a vast amount of distance, frequently stepped into No.10, kicked smartly, distributed well, and was both evasive and physical enough to beat defenders or at least win the contact. Campbell can’t do all of those things, but he can do a higher number of them than Petaia. For mine, Petaia is a No.13, a big man who can cause havoc with his outside breaks.
That’s a special ability not many can match, but Hunter Paisami and Josh Flook are clearly options there, too. It already feels like a big year for the young Wallaby.
4. Round 1 looked the same but different.
Close your eyes and Super Rugby Pacific could be Super Rugby AU for the first nine rounds until the New Zealand sides arrive in Melbourne for the Super Round. The nature of the two Australian derbies on Friday and Saturday also suggested more of the same from 2021 – and that’s not a bad thing.
The derbies look set to be incredibly competitive once again, even though the Reds and Brumbies may again have their noses in front.
There was a lot of energy about both games – if you being critical, the players may have too excitable, with a lot of blokes seeking contact rather than space – and that likely says something about the structure of season, as well as the spread of talent across the five Australian sides.
The eight-team finals format is despised by purists as rewarding mediocrity, but it will keep more teams interested, for longer, and unquestionably produce more watchable content, And, this is the entertainment business.
5. Drua have a foundation.
There looked to be a lot of frustrated Drua players on the field by the second half of the Waratahs loss. I’m guessing the scowls emanated from the fact that they felt comfortable with the physical and conditioning demands of Super Rugby, yet every time they looked up to the scoreboard they were further behind. Had the Drua been physically blown out of every ruck, or conceded a stack of points in the final 20 minutes, you might have really feared for them for the rest of the season.
But that wasn’t the case, and instead they found themselves stuck in a frustrating cycle they would have been desperate to avoid. That being: unforced error, scrum, Waratahs penalty, Waratahs pressure, Waratahs points. The Drua coughed up more than 20 turnovers, many of them unforced, and they were punished for it. But that’s fixable, especially as the conditioning base looked OK.
Donaldson kick-starts Tahs but Reds will provide litmus test for progress
Source: Philippines Alive
