James O’Connor’s long road to Wallabies No 10

Wallabies five-eighth James O’Connor admits he is still learning on the run.

Wallabies five-eighth James O'Connor admits he is still learning on the run Picture: Andrew Phan/Wallabies Media

By the time you are 30, have played 53 Tests and are directing operations for the Wallabies from what they call “the playmaker role”, it should all be second nature, but not so for Australian five-eighth James O’Connor who admits he is still learning on the run.

That’s a difficult enough art to master at the best of times, let alone when you are preparing for the third Test in a four-match Bledisloe Cup series against the old foe, the All Blacks, at ANZ Stadium on Saturday. That half-century of internationals counts for little when he will be playing only his seventh Test in nine years in the 10 jersey.

Asked on Monday when he finally felt ready to handle the responsibilities of playing five-eighth for the Wallabies, O’Connor deadpanned: “Oh, two weeks ago!”

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It was Robbie Deans who first used him there, not as everyone thinks in the 2013 series against the British and Irish Lions, but two years earlier, in the tagged-on, money-making exercise that was the Test against Wales in Cardiff on December 2011, when all the Wallabies wanted to do was wipe rugby from their brains after bowing out to the All Blacks in the semi-finals of the World Cup.

The Wallabies won and O’Connor – who to that point had played 35 Tests at fullback, wing or centre – did well enough to convince Deans to turn to him when the Lions did eventually come calling. In reality, it was almost an “anyone but Quade Cooper” selection and while O’Connor did play a major role in the second Test win and even had a shot at goal to win the first Test, the whole experience was one he erased from his memory.

“Not only did I not play my best footy, I didn’t have the understanding I do now of how to control the game,” O’Connor said. “I didn’t quite step up. I went into my shell and didn’t fire my shots as I had.

“So in terms of running away, I just didn’t want to play 10 any more, so I moved to 15 (fullback) and played a bit on the wing. I always knew in the back of my mind that 10 was the goal, but I made 12 (inside centre) a good home for a while.”

O’Connor returned to Australia from the Sale Sharks last year as a centre and in that position he was chosen for the World Cup in Japan. But it was a frustrating experience. He had played in every Test backline position bar halfback, but all his knowledge was scarcely being tapped. So when Isaac Lucas misfired as five-eighth for the Queensland Reds in the opening match of 2020 and coach Brad Thorn turned to O’Connor, this time he embraced the responsibility.

“It was still a big learning curve because I hadn’t played 10 in six years, so I was learning on the run and taking knowledge from different guys,” he said. “The COVID break for me was pretty big in terms of the analysis I put into the game and to my personal game and watching the most efficient 10s in the world.”

The learning continues and some of the lessons learned at Eden Park were painful. There was even talk of O’Connor moving to inside centre and uncapped Brumbies playmaker Noah Lolesio taking over at five-eighth. That might still happen, but certainly O’Connor was not speaking yesterday like a king suddenly demoted to a principal adviser.

In Auckland, with only one player outside him and nothing happening, O’Connor put up a hopeful midfield bomb. There were no chasers and All Black wrecking ball Caleb Clarke had 20m to wind up. In the blink of an eye, NZ number eight Ardie Savea had scored – their second try in four minutes – and the game was as good as gone. Small wonder Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has hammered the lesson into O’Connor: Kick on your own terms.

“Maybe some of the tactical kicking wasn’t that good on my behalf,” said O’Connor. “I’ll put my hand up for that. So kicking on your terms is when you’re on the front foot, not waiting till they have put a dominant hit on and we’re not going anywhere to put a kick up. And a few times last week we didn’t quite get that balance. So it’s literally sticking with your kicking strategy and getting buy-in from everyone. So you can manipulate the backfield, you can find grass, you can find space and you can put contestables on their back three men.”

And will he, this time, be inviting Clarke to join the party only on the Wallabies’ terms, with the ball presented to him along with three ravenous defenders?

“That might be a good idea,” O’Connor said with a smile.