Super Rugby 2018: Brumbies going backwards to move forwards

After three matches the Brumbies find themselves third from the bottom but coach Dan McKellar is not for turning.

Aidan Toua takes the ball under pressure from Rebels’ pair Semisi Tupou (centre) and Ross Haylett-Petty.

It’s a risky business coaching a Super Rugby team, especially one that is attempting to change what has been a moderately successful approach in the ambitious hope of eventually winning a title, but Brumbies coach Dan McKellar is not for turning.

The Brumbies emerged as ­Australian conference champions under Steve Larkham, before he was seconded to the Wallabies as assistant coach, and while the brand of football played under him was at times almost the ­antithesis of the traditional ACT style, it got the Brumbies into the playoffs every single year that he was head coach (2014-17) and to the final in 2013, when he was ­assistant coach.

McKellar is in his debut year and trying to change the Brumbies’ style away from its heavy set-piece orientation and back to how it was when the club was founded in 1996 and attacked everything with an almost “we’ll show ’em” disdain.

It’s a noble task he has set ­himself and so far it’s not quite working out as he would have hoped. After three matches, the Brumbies find themselves third from the bottom, having beaten the Sunwolves but then losing narrowly to the Reds and comprehensively to the Rebels.

“It is risky,” McKellar told The Australian yesterday. “I’m not going to sit here and do what others think I should do or that sort of thing. We’ve been reasonably successful over the last few years but we haven’t won any trophies. And people need to understand that. Keep doing what you’ve been doing and you’ll keep getting the same result. If we want to win the Australian conference and come in fourth, fifth, sixth, whatever it might be, and you’re happy doing that, then so be it.

“I’m not happy doing that and we have to make some change. The disappointing thing on Friday night was that none of that change was really useful. We were outworked and we now have to show up at home on Saturday night against a dangerous Sharks team and deliver.”

Getting “outworked” — with McKellar conceding the Brumbies game review had revealed how excellent Rebels lock Ross Haylett-Petty had been in this ­regard — is about as serious a ­criticism as is to be made in ­Canberra rugby circles.

“It’s disappointing because it’s one of our pillars, hard work, and we were outworked,” said McKellar, who promised changes in the light of the 33-10 result, which ­catapulted the Rebels from 2017 wooden-spooners to the overall leaders in Super Rugby.

Sadly, one of the Brumbies’ hardest workers, hooker Josh Mann-Rea, will be out for as long as six weeks with a hamstring ­injury, while co-captain Sam ­Carter is having to go through the return-to-play protocols after being forced out of the Rebels match early with a head knock.

Both injured players are key components in the Brumbies’ driving maul, one of the main planks of Larkham’s game but an ingredient McKellar wants to ­incorporate into his more ambitious plan. Yet on the evidence of the Rebels’ game, even the rolling maul has ceased to be reliable.

The Waratahs, meanwhile, are on their way home from Argentina less than impressed with how they performed in their first visit to Buenos Aires, having conceding one of the fastest tries in ­professional rugby history — just 17 seconds after the kick-off — on their way to a comprehensive 38-28 defeat to the Jaguares.

Two tries in the final three minutes allowed the Tahs to deny the Jaguares a bonus point, which, frankly, they more than deserved after they poured on five tries in a blistering first-quarter display.

After losses to the Stormers, Lions and Hurricanes, the win provided some welcome validation of Mario Ledesma’s decision to quit as Wallabies scrum coach to return to his native ­Argentina to coach the Jaguares. The irony was that although his set pieces dominated the Tahs at almost every engagement, they played little role in the overall ­victory. In the end, an eye for an opportunity, sure hands and ­nimble feet were the real keys to the Jaguares’ success.

“The Jaguares were very impressive at the start of the game there,” said NSW captain Michael Hooper, “They capitalised on opportunities and points on us very easily. Too easily for our liking.”

Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson said Ledesma’s inside knowledge of Australian rugby would have contributed to the rout although it’s fair to say that few sides could have lived with the Jaguares during that first, frenetic 20 minutes.

“They were strong upfront, moved the ball well, took opportunities when they arose, They’ve got some really classy players. They’re probably doing what they should be doing,” Gibson said.