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Why no Australian side can beat a Kiwi team

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It’s now been 687 days since an Australian side beat a Kiwi side in Super Rugby. After two contests in 2018, it doesn’t look promising. The rejuvenated Rebels, who started the season well, put up a spirited first half before being blown away 50-19 by the Hurricanes. The Brumbies were a similar story last night.

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Brumbies head coach Dan McKellar claimed leading up to the clash against the Highlanders “Australian teams are not respected in New Zealand”.

He is right.

There isn’t the respect the way that the New Zealand teams would look at each other. Australian sides aren’t clinical, aren’t creative, aren’t fit enough and lack basic fundamental skills. Many of the sides run the same systems as the New Zealand sides, for example, the Brumbies and Hurricanes both use a 1-3-3-1, but that’s where the similarities end.

Here is the same situation for both sides that will highlight the differences between the Australian and New Zealand sides.

The ball has been spread to sideline through the backs and both sides are looking to reset their 1-3-3-1 pattern, playing back to the open side.

The first three forwards in the Hurricanes 1-3-3-1 take a hit up.

Here we see the first Hurricanes pod of three with Barrett as a backdoor option. Fifita decides to truck it up to set a ruck on the 15 metre tramline.

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The second phase setup in the Hurricanes 1-3-3-1.

The next phase Barrett moves into first receiver and has the second line of three forwards outside him, with Laumape (12) the back-door option on the swivel pass.

As the play unfolds, we can see a distinct separation between the three forwards on the first level and Laumape as a back-door option on the second level. The Hurricanes forwards are running onto the ball at speed and move together.

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Umaga-Allen engages the Chiefs defender into contact and his outside option has also done enough to hold the next man. The Hurricanes are direct and moving forward which holds the space on the outside. Laumape is able to time his run to hit the swivel pass at speed.

Now let’s look at the Brumbies in the same situation. The ball has moved wide left and the Brumbies are setting up to come right.

The Brumbies 1-3-3-1 is far less ordered, with players at all sorts of depth.

We see less separation between each first level of three forwards and the back-door option. Each pod of three appears jumbled, with uneven triangle formations with players at different depths.

In both pods, the backdoor options, Tom Banks (15) and Harewa Wharenui (10) appear to line up behind the first forward, and in Banks case, actually inside him.

These are all minor details but are important, as we will see. The Brumbies use the swivel pass on the first pod instead of taking a hit up. As Wharenui looks to pass onwards we can see problems already with the next pod.

The third Brumbies runner is out of position, which is going to mess up the movement.

The third forward is not in a position to be a tip option on the first level. He is almost side-by-side with Banks in the second level, which is going to mess the whole movement up. He was too deep to begin with and can’t catch up.

Poor catch-and-pass. The Brumbies lock is not a playmaker.

Secondly, the lead runner Arnold unnecessarily jumps in the air to catch a perfectly catchable ball, which throws off the timing of everyone. He lands and becomes stationary, swivels around in the opposite direction around loops a terrible pass to Banks.

Momentum lost – the play has already stalled.

Arnold doesn’t have a second outside option on his right and hasn’t engaged any Reds defenders into contact, allowing all of them to slide. The third runner is also now in the way of Banks and risks being called for obstruction, as Banks hasn’t got past his outside shoulder.

Disjointed – the third runner now ends up in the way, risking obstruction.

Banks is not able to get outside Reds centre Chris Feauai-Sautia (2), which the play is supposed to create. The third runner is supposed to pull his attention in, while Banks coming around the back at pace is able to get around him. Even still, quick ball could get the ball to the edge to take easy metres but Banks cuts back into the sliding defence.

In contrast, Laumape gets outside his man as the play is designed, draws the next one into contact (Damian McKenzie) and pops a brilliant offload to Lam into the lane that just opened up. Each player in the movement doing their job properly creates the space.

Everyone plays direct, understands their role and has the necessary skills to do so.

The Brumbies, by contrast, are the opposite. The players either don’t know what their jobs are, are too lazy or aren’t good enough to perform them. It’s sloppy from start to finish with a lack of timing and decent passing. It’s this lack of attention to detail that plagues all the Australian sides and why their attack struggles when they play New Zealand sides.

We don’t sit in on the coaches review each week so we have no idea what kind of details get brought up in film review, however, it doesn’t take long to find constant examples of poor execution like this.

The Reds under their previous coaches were deplorable, they have taken big strides under Thorn but have also simplified a lot of what they do keep things basic. Their attack is very one-dimensional and will get blown off the park when they play the New Zealand teams.

The Rebels have improved markedly under Wessels and the ex-Force movement. Their set-piece attack has become the best in Australia, strategically. They deserve credit for the way they use the platform to strike the opposition with elaborate back play, usually with Will Genia involved heavily. Other areas are a concern and yesterday’s loss to the Jaguares proved so.

Australia’s top side is the Waratahs, they now sit atop of the Aussie conference with five wins from seven and are yet to play a Kiwi side. They will get their chance during May when they play four New Zealand sides in a row. They present the best chance to end the streak, perhaps when they play the Blues in Sydney.

If the Waratahs don’t beat the Blues, it will likely be another winless year for Australian sides against the New Zealand conference.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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