Super Rugby: Waratahs star Kurtley Beale is as close to the measurable pulse of a footy team as you can find

THE stats show Kurtley Beale is crucial to the Waratahs’ finals hopes. And a former captain has identified a key ingredient that makes Beale such an asset to NSW.

Kurtley Beale at Waratahs training on Friday.

KURTLEY Beale, according to a recent review by Michael Hooper, is the “barometer” of any team he’s in.

If Beale is firing, the team is firing. If Beale is laughing, the team is laughing. If Beale is down, the team is, well ... less up.

Ask any of Beale’s NSW or Wallaby teammates about his influence and the answers are variations on the same theme. Beale is as close to the measurable pulse of a footy team as you can find.

But ahead of the Waratahs’ season opener against the Stormers on Saturday night at Allianz Stadium — where Beale will return from an almost two-year Super Rugby absence — the full extent of his influence can be revealed.

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Stats show Beale is not only important to the health of the Waratahs, he’s critical. And as far as finals hopes go, Beale is just about a life support mechanism.

Since Beale debuted for the Waratahs as an 18-year-old in 2007, the Waratahs have won 61.8 per cent of their games with him in the team.

Kurtley Beale at Waratahs training on Friday.

In the games and seasons without Beale, NSW’s win percentage falls all the way back to 37.5 per cent.

To put that in context, even the great Johnathan Thurston doesn’t have the same numbers. Indeed, of the 19 current NRL players with a decade or more in the game, only Storm captain Cameron Smith can boast bigger in-or-out differential with a 71 per cent/37 per cent breakdown.

In three seasons Beale spent away from the Tahs (2012-13 in Melbourne and 2017 in England), they didn’t make the finals.

The other eight? NSW qualified for the playoffs five times, made two finals and won one premiership.

To no-one’s shock, the Waratahs are banking on the “KB effect” lifting them again in 2018, up and out of the mire of the last two seasons.

So the obvious question is: why is Beale is so critical to Waratahs’ success?

“For mine, it’s the energy he brings to the group,” says Wallabies great and current Test backs coach Stephen Larkham.

“It’s very evident, probably not so much when you’re coaching against him, but when you’re with him you can see he brings energy and enthusiasm to the group. That gives confidence to the players around him, that someone wants their hands on the ball.”

Kurtley Beale in action for the Waratahs in the 2014 Super Rugby final win over the Crusaders.

The upbeat enthusiasm of Beale — on and off the field — is cited by all who have played with him. Ex-teammate and good friend Drew Mitchell says it has a “cascading effect” in a team room. Moods are brighter, optimism spreads.

“Early on he was someone who wore all of his emotions on the outside, good and bad, but he has got a lot better at that, as he has matured as a player,” Mitchell said.

“He has learned to control it. He understands his body language and his persona really affects the group.”

Beale’s influence on the field is clear enough to anyone who has seen his exceptional talent, but it’s his unwavering confidence that helps shape the belief of players alongside him, and their talent too.

“He carries that in his confidence of his own ability,” says Waugh’s first Waratahs’ captain Phil Waugh.

“He obviously has talent but he genuinely believes in his ability to impose it in a game. Which is not that common really. A lot of people have natural ability but they don’t actually know how good they are, and so underdeliver.

Waratahs backs Kurtley Beale (l-r), Israel Folau, Curtis Rona and Bernard Foley ahead of Saturday’s match against the Stormers.

“You go through why the All Blacks have been so successful and it’s because they have the ability to score points, and score them from anywhere.

“Kurtley has that ability to turn a pretty nothing opportunity into a chance to score points. “And when he is on the field, the other players think the same way, even if it is subconscious. They lift.

“It’s a bit like Richie McCaw’s impact on the All Blacks, you know? When he was on the field, everyone else lifts and plays a little bit better.”

Waugh first encountered Beale as a skinny year 12 student who’d just been signed by the Tahs, in 2006. Beale trained with the Waratahs that year while still at school.

“He was pretty humble but he just had this air of freedom and confidence, which stood out in someone so young. It was before his time,” Waugh said.

Beale’s first season in 2007 was played on teenage instinct but it’s forgotten how quickly he became an integral piece of the Waratahs’ structures, plans and success.

In 2008 he was the NSW no. 10 through to the final, and it was Beale going off injured at halftime that probably cost the Tahs a title.

Waratahs captain Michael Hooper at training on Friday.

Over the years since, says Mitchell, Beale’s talents have shone time and again but they’re far from crossed-fingers, off-the-cuff moments.

“He brings that instinctive play, and has never been someone who will bring a prescribed kind of ‘we’re in this part of the field so we do this’,” Mitchell said.

“He will do something if he sees the opportunity to do it but it’s never reckless. He has ten years experience now of summing up risk versus reward part of it, and he’s good at weighing up those decisions in a millisecond and then he has the skill to execute if he does go.”

And Beale is returning a different, and arguably much better player, after admitting his stint in England opened his eyes to other ways to apply pressure on rivals.

Beale said this week he sees himself now more as a game manager and leader than designated x-factor supplier.

Larkham said that leadership element “can’t be undervalued”.

“There is the on-field stuff that everyone sees but that meeting space is something I have seen him grow in considerably,” Larkham said.

‘He is very vocal in the meetings and review sessions about identifying space and the opportunities that exist, or the ones that were missed.”

Beale’s communication skill is another area Larkham highlights as an asset, in attack and defence. Foley says Beale is “actually a stickler for detail and everyone doing their jobs”, which in turn helps both do their wizardry out wide.

Beale’s stats probably don’t even reflect his true value, says Mitchell.

The former Wallaby winger says all the data in the world still can’t capture the importance of “clutch plays” that may not even register on a stats page.

“What I am impressed with is the guys who come up with a play when the team needs it most — that one carry that turned the game in your favour, or one support line or one pass or one kick to the corner. The exact play you needed at that time,” Mitchell says.

“Out of everyone’s stats in Australian rugby over the last ten years, Kurtley would be on top of that list easy.”

Think back and it’s a fair point. Picture all the key moments in the big NSW or Wallaby wins of the Past decade and you’ll spot Beale, centre-of-frame, in 80 per cent of them.

“He can turn a match,” Mitchell says.

“And he genuinely craves that. When the game is in the balance, he wants the ball in his hands and he wants to come up with the big play.

“Not all players are built like that.”

Originally published as Super Rugby: Waratahs star Kurtley Beale is as close to the measurable pulse of a footy team as you can find