Reds fullback Campbell an unassuming Jock of all trades

Reds fullback Jock Campbell may not look like a prospective Wallaby but he certainly plays it.

Reds fullback Jock Campbell is unobstrusive but effective. Picture: Getty Images

Trust your eyes.

It seems an odd thing to say to Dave Rennie and Scott Johnson who, at least in the first instance, will choose the Wallabies squad to meet the All Blacks in less than five weeks’ time. That is why they have been appointed national selectors, to watch the games and evaluate players. Easy enough.

But sometimes your brain can refuse to accept the evidence your eyes accumulate and submit. You have seen a lot of rugby over the years, and you are able to size up player with barely a glance. Then there are all manner of boxes to tick on your back-up checklist. But there is always the big unknown: How will a player perform at Test level? It’s a primary law of being a selector, that you never pick a player for the next level – especially when the next level is a Test against the All Blacks – without a very good understanding of how he will perform. Still, that’s knowledge that’s unknowable. A good measure of guesswork also comes into the equation.

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Which brings us to Jock Campbell. I have no doubt that Rennie and Johnson are both aware of who I am discussing but for most people the reaction would be “who?” Campbell is the Queensland Reds fullback and about as inconspicuous a player as there is in the Australian rugby. He looks like his greatest concern are the overdue library books he forgot to return. He seems totally inoffensive, no sense of swagger and his jersey is usually tucked into his shorts, just like Pete Samu.

But where the Brumbies number still manages to project a fair degree of “cool”, that’s not a word one associates with Campbell.

Yet he is one of those rare footballers who just does everything neatly. No fuss, no theatrics, a player whose full value is only appreciated on replay. Hey, how did he get through that tackle? Or who threw that pass? And belatedly the camera will swivel to pick up Campbell walking back into his position, his hair, recently-tousled by his teammates, being the only thing out of place.

I’m struggling to find another Australian player who had the same attributes but I find myself coming back to Bruce Cooke, another Queensland fullback. A wonderful, unpretentious player and I hope I’m not doing Campbell a disservice by comparing the two of them because Cooke only played one Test for Australia – against Ireland at Ballymore on 1979. Probably no other fullback was ever subjected to such a storm of garryowens as Cooke that day, ironically from another Campbell – Ollie – and where he made his reputation as being so secure under the high ball, this was one day he wasn’t. He never played Test football again.

I don’t want to jinx Campbell, so I’m extending my search to other Test sides. And it seems to me he has a lot of the Smiths about him, Conrad and Ben, All Blacks both of them. Conrad Smith was a dual World Cup winner and, if you pay any attention to Kiwis, formed with Ma’a Nonu the greatest midfield pairing of all time. Now there was a player who looked the part, Ma’a Nonu.

He looked exactly like he was supposed to do, menacing, scary and unstoppable.

Smith, you wondered if he was going to pull out an umbrella if it began to rain. But then, unexpectedly, he demonstrated he was the brains of the outfit.

So too Ben Smith, neat, precise, equally at home on the wing as at fullback.

Still, he was the only fullback picked in NZ’s squad for the 2015 World Cup, starting in the final against Australia. His footwork and speed were electric. Everything else about him looked like it hadn’t been properly plugged in.

There are without question, any number of candidates for the Wallabies No.15 jersey who look the part. Dane Haylett-Petty always carries that unmistakeable sense of authority about him, Tom Banks has the explosive speed, that booming kick, Jack Maddocks has the air of a man who at any moment might do something mesmerising. Even the Force’s Jack McGregor, though probably not a contender just yet, moves so silkily that he invariably draws the eye.

Campbell doesn’t do any of these things. It seems his one purpose in life is to make everyone else around him look good. Maybe that comes from never having been a starting member of The Southport School’s First XV. He was a bit player there, too.

Rennie and Johnson, they know how to work the rewind button. They would have seen the decisive but widely overlooked role Campbell played in the Reds’ first two tries against the Brumbies at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night. The closest he came to scoring a try himself was when he ran a perfectly judged line to put himself in an excellent position for an inside ball from James O’Connor in the 26th minute. But O’Connor didn’t see him. Instead he passed it – way forward, incidentally – to the most visible man on the field, Taniela Tupou. Had he passed to Campbell, who was onside but running into the same yawning hole, it could well have been a try.

The selectors will caution themselves that the match didn’t really count for anything and that may have had a subtle influence on how Banks and a number of other Brumbies players approached their work. There was no question they were trying hard but sometimes when the “edge” isn’t there, a performance can be blunted.

The true test will come on Saturday in the qualifying final against the Rebels. And if the Reds clear that hurdle, then in the rematch against the Brumbies in Canberra the following week with the Super Rugby AU title on the line.

Sensibly, then, Rennie and Johnson will bide their time. Assess the performance when it really counts. They could even take the view that, with so many other young rookies putting their hands up, it probably makes sense to select experienced players whenever possible.

All anyone asks is that they trust their eyes. Campbell may not look like a Wallaby, may not give them any encouragement that he can stand up to the rigours of Test football. But assess his performances, not his appearance. There may just be another Conrad Smith lurking there, hiding behind that stack of overdue library books.