Australian rugby needs a good kick

What has happened to the superb tactical kickers of bygone days?

Bernard Foley clears under pressure from the Waratahs.

What has happened to the superb tactical kickers of bygone days? The Paul McLeans, Michael Lynaghs, Roger Goulds and Matt Burkes? Australian teams are being kicked off the park by Super Rugby opponents who have a greater apppreciation of space and how to find it?

It is not just New Zealand sides that are exposing Australia in this regard, although when the two heartland states of NSW and Queensland both were outkicked on the weekend by Kiwi rivals, the Chiefs and the Highlanders, it does become apparent that this is yet another area where Australians are totally outskilled.

“We were disappointed with the kick duelling area tonight,” said Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson following his side’s painful 39-27 loss to the Waikato side. “We felt like the Chiefs won that area, finding space, and our backfield not being in position. There is plenty there to work on.”

In the same breath, Gibson praised his side’s ability to score tries with regularity – they and the Rebels are the highest-scoring non-Kiwi teams in Super Rugby, with 46 apiece – yet the same men who so readily identify and exploit running possibilities, Bernard Foley, Kurtley Beale and Israel Folau, are being found out repeatedly with their kicking. Certainly Damian McKenzie and Charles Ngatai found lots of empty grass to exploit where the NSW playmakers picked out the man.

Similarly, Reds coach Brad Thorn was at wits’ end explaining the aimless and generally awful kicking of his two principal game controllers, halves Ben Lucas and Jono Lance. Lucas’s constant box kicks must have presented the Highlanders backfield with at least 10 pieces of free possession, including one ball that was kicked over the top when the Reds were on the attack just outside their 22.

And the failure of the kickers to find touch meant the Queensland forwards, who had to do a mountain of defending in the second half, were given little respite.

“I just thought they controlled the game better,” said Thorn. “There is lots of good things going on. Guys are showing lots of effort but it’s in our smarts. Sometimes we could have used the ball too, instead of kicking it.”

There seemed to be a marked lack of communication in the back three for the Reds. Individually, fullback Hamish Stewart and wingers Izaia Perese and Jordan Petaia, who made a good fist of marking All Black Waisake Naholo, made nonsense of their callow youthfulness to put in commanding games for the Reds but as a unit it seemed at times that they barely spoke. Indeed, they were often caught out when their own halves kick away possession.

Time and again Lima Sopoaga, the Highlanders and All Black five-eighth, received the kick and then drilled it 60m up the field and into touch where the Reds had inadvertently left their backfield undefended. No one dropped back to cover if a winger or fullback ventured forward. “It’s frustrating, but it’s where we’re at,” said Thorn.

One wonders, as well, what has become of Stewart’s almost legendary length of kick. When he first came into the Reds side, flanker George Smith remarked that he had “a kick like a mule” but there have been no signs of it in the four full matches he has played so far – the first against the Lions at five-eighth and then against the Sunwolves, Hurricanes and Highlanders at fullback.

But with the Reds now effectively out of the running in terms of winning the Australian conference, it’s to be hoped Thorn now has his eye on next season and bites the bullet and switches positions for Stewart and Lance. It was at fullback where Lance played when the Reds defeated the Crusaders in the 2011 Super Rugby grand final and certainly he showed against the Highlanders that his covering defence is as good as ever. This time, too, he shouldn’t try to protect Stewart by selecting a veteran like Lucas at halfback. Moses Sorovi – who admittedly also fell into the wayward kicking trap against the Highlanders – certainly has the speed at the ruckbase to ignite the Reds’ backline.

The Waratahs and the Reds will have ample opportunity to explore their kicking options in their next match, given that they will play each other at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night. The Waratahs have scored four tries or more in seven of their 12 games this season, something the Reds have managed only three times in 2018. Indeed, take away the driving maul and moments of individual brilliance and the Queensland side has been exposed this campaign for their appalling lack of pointsscoring ability.