Larkham clone’s chance to shine as Lolesio lost to Rennie

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has lost rising Brumbies star Noah Lolesio but the Larkham-like figure of Bayley Kuenzle gets a chance to impress.

Brumbies back-up five-eighth Bayley Kuenzle gets his chance with Noah Lolesio out

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie flew into Sydney on Tuesday and took some bad news with him into his fortnight’s quarantine when he learned that Noah Lolesio, the young Brumbies five-eighth who was shaping as his Test playmaker, will be out of action for at least eight weeks.

From the moment he clutched his left leg during the Brumbies’ clash against the Waratahs last Saturday, Lolesio’s body language betrayed the fact he had suffered a serious injury. The scans were unforgiving, highlighting a severe hamstring strain.

With the Test season unlikely to get underway before October 10, almost certainly with a Bledisloe Cup Test at Optus Stadium in Perth against the All Blacks, Lolesio won’t miss any Wallabies matches. There is a chance he could be right for the Super Rugby AU final on September 19 should the Brumbies make it.

What it will mean, is that the 20-year-old will miss half a season of his rugby education. It opens the door at the Brumbies – and, who knows, possibly at the Wallabies as well – for the Larkham-like figure of Bayley Kuenzle.

At 186cm, the former Australian Under 20 player is only three centimetres shorter than Steve Larkham but moves in much the same manner, with his weight seemingly going in one direction while his legs go in another. He was dangerous against the Waratahs at ANZ Stadium when he replaced Lolesio and he will be watched carefully by the Force when they clash at Leichhardt Oval on Saturday.

Noah Lolesio’s hamstring injury could see him miss the rest of the season

There was some good news for the Brumbies with Wallabies halfback Nic White completing his first day of training in Canberra for five years. He does not expect to be rushed back into the side, nor should he given the form of Joe Powell and the game-breaking ability of Issak Fines, but indications are he will figure in Rennie’s plans later this year.

The Force has had a setback of its own, with Test prop Greg Holmes suffering a broken thumb during their narrow loss against Queensland Reds last Friday.

Meanwhile, the official Rugby Australia refereeing stats have produced an unexpected statistic.

There is more ball in play time in the Australian competition than there is across the Tasman.

The figures are counterintuitive, with Australia registering 36.222 minutes of ball-in-play time, compared to 34.386 minutes in New Zealand while the abandoned Super Rugby competition was seeing, on average, 33.584 minutes of live action.

Aside from the fact that the Australian sample is quite small, only six games to date, the best explanation is that the tryline drop-out – which is not being trialled in NZ – might account for the extra time.

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Equally surprising is the fact that there are more penalties in the Australian competition (24.667) compared to Super Rugby Aotearoa (23.182), although both figures are appreciably up on the Super Rugby figure of 20.630.

“Everyone assumed that the NZ games were being penalised more but the stats are proving otherwise,” said the boss of the Australian referees, Scott Young. “That may be that they initially came down quite hard on the early rounds in NZ, averaging 30 penalties a match, but look to have eased off a little in recent weeks.”

Most encouragingly, Australian referees and their assistants are cracking down on offside infringements, which has been identified by former Wallaby Barry Honan’s law reform committee as being the main crime inhibiting the flow of the game. They are giving, on average, 6.3 offside penalties per match, compared with 4.6 for NZ and just three and a half in Super Rugby.

What is giving officials pause, however, is the 30-70 percentage breakdown of penalties to the side on attack compared to the one defending. Previously in Super Rugby, the breakdown was more along the lines of 20-80. And what is particularly troubling is the fact that referees appear to be making ruling in the last few minutes of play that are inconsistent with how they have controlled the rest of the match.