Welcome to this week’s edition of The Tip-On!
If you want to get a sense of how Richie Mo'unga’s career in touch rugby has shaped his game in the 15-player code, you can watch a pair of highlights videos put together by 7th Touch here and here.
If you want to read my latest piece of analysis for The XV, you can find it — an examination of how teams have altered their red-zone attack so far in Super Rugby Aotearoa 2021 — here.
All in-game data per ESPNScrum unless otherwise stated.
Calling the shots
Jordie Barrett’s selection on the right wing for the All Blacks last year was a point of contention for many fans and pundits. If the Hurricane can keep producing performances at the level he reached on Friday night in Dunedin, however, it may be difficult for Ian Foster to play him anywhere other than fullback in international rugby later this season.
His older brother Beauden will be “returning to New Zealand for the 2021 international season” after his sabbatical in Japan, according to allblacks.com, but so far this year Jordie has certainly shown signs of making the improvements necessary to challenge Foster’s incumbent in the black 15 shirt.
During his time at fullback for the Hurricanes since his debut in 2017, the younger Barrett has been constantly involved in the game as a link player — but he has not yet been completely trusted as a second playmaker at international level.
According to reporting by the NZ Herald at the end of last year, “[t]he All Blacks have been clear that one of the reasons they largely stationed Jordie Barrett on the right wing this season is they feel he does not yet possess the same playmaking abilities his older brother has from fullback.”
Given that Jordie has always been a superb passer of the ball, this judgement is more likely to relate to tactical aspects of the playmaker role than technical ones.
As Foster himself stated, taking on those duties from fullback involves more than just ball skills: the player must “run the other side of the ruck and create running and kicking options that help defuse defences”. In essence, awareness of space and the ability to communicate that space to other players appears to be just as important as the ability to hit the line square and play accurate passes.
It’s worth noting that on-field communication is one of those individual skills that coaches and teammates are far better placed to judge than spectators. While a journalist or fan can get a fair idea of a player’s ability to beat defenders with footwork, for example, it’s generally difficult for them to pick up on all of the verbal and non-verbal messages that players send to one another during games — and far harder still to assess whether those messages are accurate and effective.
With all of that being said, it’s been fairly clear that Jordie Barrett has taken on a more active role as a communicator since Jackson Garden-Bachop, the Hurricanes’ primary fly-half, was ruled out for the remainder of the season with injury earlier this month. Jason Holland mentioned to the media after last Friday’s game that Barrett and replacement 10 Orbyn Leger have been “running the game together”, while Barrett himself emphasised this further in the post-match press conference:
Their 4th try against the Chiefs in Round 4 was a case in point. Camped in their opponent’s 22, it is Barrett who is barking orders behind the ruck and orchestrating an intricate attacking play — and Leger who is stationed on the periphery of the attack.
In addition to these bits of evidence, on-ball data provides more proof of the Hurricanes’ playmaking pecking order.
Leger had only 7 touches of the ball at Forsyth Barr Stadium (the lowest number by any starting 10 in a Super Rugby Aotearoa match since the beginning of last year’s competition) compared to Barrett’s 15. In total across Leger’s two starts so far this year, Barrett has 41 touches in 160 minutes played — compared to Leger’s 28 in 155 minutes:
Having Barrett take on so much responsibility is far from ideal if the Wellington franchise are looking to make a real run in this year’s competition, but it may give the versatile All Black the experience running the game he needs to cement himself as a regular starter in his preferred position at test level.
Foreign fields
Last weekend, there were 109 Kiwis playing in top-level competition overseas:
France vs. Scotland
Uini Atonio (18) vs. Simon Berghan (18)
Gloucester vs. Exeter
Willi Heinz (9) vs. -
Bristol vs. Harlequins
John Afoa (3), Chris Vui (5), Steven Luatua (6), Alapati Leiua (23) vs. -
London Irish vs. Bath
Blair Cowan (7) vs. -
Worcester vs. Northampton
- vs. Teimana Harrison (8)
Wasps vs. Sale
Brad Shields (6), Jimmy Gopperth (10), Malakai Fekitoa (13), Jeff Toomaga-Allen (18) vs. -
Saracens vs. Harlequins
- vs. Amy Cokayne (2)
Wasps vs. Sale
Sammy Wong (21) vs. -
Glasgow vs. Benetton
Aki Seiuli (1), TJ Ioane (8), Nick Grigg (13) vs. Jayden Hayward (22)
Leinster vs. Munster
Jamison Gibson-Park (21), James Lowe (23) vs. -
Dragons vs. Edinburgh
- vs. Angus Williams (18)
Stade Français vs. Clermont Auvergne
Telusa Veainu (11) vs. Fritz Lee (8), George Moala (13), Tim Nanai-Williams (21)
Bayonne vs. Racing 92
Michael Ruru (9), Mat Luamanu (18) vs. Dominic Bird (5)
Bordeaux vs. La Rochelle
Ben Botica (10), Ben Lam (11), Ben Tameifuna (23) vs. Victor Vito (8), Tawera Kerr-Barlow (9), Ihaia West (10)
Castres vs. Pau
Maama Vaipulu (8), Paula Ngauamo (16) vs. Siegfried Fisiihoi (3), Daniel Ramsay (5), Luke Whitelock (8), Jale Vatubua (12)
Brive vs. Agen
So'otala Fa'aso'o (8) vs. Jordan Puletua (13), Sam Vaka (21)
Toulouse vs. Montpellier
Charlie Faumuina (3), Pita Ahki (12), Iosefa Tekori (18) vs. -
Lyon vs. Toulon
Alex Tulou (8), Charlie Ngatai (19), Toby Arnold (22) vs. Brian Alainu'uese (5), Rudi Wulf (11), Ma'a Nonu (12), Tane Takulua (22)
Brumbies vs. Force
Jahrome Brown (7), Irae Simone (12), Sosefo Kautai (18), James Tucker (19) vs. -
Waratahs vs. Reds
- vs. Taniela Tupou (3), Hunter Paisami (12), Suliasi Vunivalu (14)
Toshiba Brave Lupus vs. NTT Communications Shining Arcs
Matt Todd (7), Jack Stratton (10), Tom Taylor (12), Johnny Fa'auli (13), Seta Tamanivalu (22) vs. Anaru Rangi (2), Sekonaia Pole (16)
Ricoh Black Rams vs. Canon Eagles
Daymon Leasuasu (5), Jacob Skeen (6), Michael Broadhurst (7), Ben Funnell (8), Keagan Faria (11), Matt McGahan (15), Elliot Dixon (20) vs. -
Yamaha Jubilo vs. Kobe Kobelco Steelers
Uwe Helu (5) vs. Brodie Retallick (5), Tom Franklin (6), Hayden Parker (10), Tim Lafaele (13), Ben Smith (14), Brodi McCurran (19)
Toyota Verblitz vs. Suntory Sungoliath
Michael Allardice (5), Jamie Henry (11), Male Sa'u (12), Rob Thompson (13), Charlie Lawrence (23) vs. Beauden Barrett (10), Tevita Li (12)
Kubota Spears vs. Mitsubishi Sagamihara DynaBoars
Sione Vatuvei (8), Ryan Crotty (12) vs. Jackson Hemopo (6), Heiden Bedwell-Curtis (8), Colin Slade (10), Michael Little (12), James Wilson (23)
Honda Heat vs. Munakata Sanix Blues
Shaun Treeby (12), Matt Duffie (15) vs. Mark Abbott (5), Dan Pryor (6), Jarred Adams (17)
Panasonic Wild Knights vs. NEC Green Rockets
Hadleigh Parkes (12) vs. Maretino Nemani (12)
Hino Red Dolphins vs. NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes
Liaki Moli (4), Ash Parker (6), Nili Latu (8), Augustine Pulu (9), Hayden Cripps (10) vs. TJ Perenara (9)
Loose threads
In case you missed it on Twitter this week
An innovative phase-play shape the Crusaders could borrow from one of their rivals
A dive into how the Blues have altered their approach to the game since 2020
Quick hits
There was lots of exciting news for the elite women’s game in New Zealand this week. Firstly, the Blues and Chiefs announced on Monday that they would put together women’s teams to play a one-off fixture at Eden Park in May — and that they were committed to developing a more comprehensive Super Women’s programme in the future. From a commercial perspective, it is also positive that both franchises have also already been able to secure primary sponsors for their teams: nib for the Blues, and Waitomo for the Chiefs. After that announcement, reports soon followed on the shape that a Super Women’s competition might take: New Zealand Rugby’s Head of Women’s Rugby Cate Sexton indicated that 2022 was a real possibility for the launch of a “semi-professional” competition, while chief executive Mark Robinson reinforced that commitment — with the caveat that funding from Silver Lake might be necessary to be make it happen. Robinson also laid out a possible 4-team structure for the competition, with the Crusaders and Highlanders amalgamating to create a single women’s team on the South Island. From a Black Ferns perspective, former test player and Blues assistant coach Anna Richards spoke to Stuff about the benefits such a competition could have for the team:
After the positive news that World Rugby would provide financial backing to the Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika franchises hoping to enter Super Rugby in 2022, the NZ Herald’s Gregor Paul fleshed out some of the detail on how Moana Pasifika — which is likely to be based in South Auckland — will coexist alongside New Zealand Rugby’s existing high-performance systems:
There was further competition news at provincial level this week, with NZR admitting that it was too late to restructure the men’s National Provincial Championship along geographical lines. Nonetheless, Mark Robinson maintained that “there is strong consideration for that change to be made in 2022 onwards”.
As Robinson noted in relation to the Super Women’s competition, so much of the future of rugby in New Zealand is contingent on the outcome of the union’s negotiations with Silver Lake over its possible investment into NZR’s commercial assets. And it was a big week on that front too: the NZ Herald reported that the New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association — who have an effective veto over the deal — had concluded at the end of January that it would not support it, with one of its specific concerns the fact that “there is no business plan detailing precisely how the new investor plans to achieve its aggressive revenue growth targets”. Mediation between NZR and the NZRPA is set to start today, with Robinson in front of the press earlier this week at pains to make clear that “there’s been a whole range of developments in this space since that time” a couple of months ago.
Across the Tasman, Dave Rennie named his first Wallabies squad of 2021 ahead of a training camp on the Gold Coast in April. While former St Kentigern College, Blues U18 and Melbourne Storm wing Suliasi Vunivalu is the most high-profile uncapped player included, Rebels second row Trevor Hosea — who was involved with the team last year, but did not take the field — is another possible test debutant to keep an eye over the rest of the year. Nick Bishop of The Roar broke down Hosea’s game earlier this season in an article you can find here.
The Blues are the latest franchise to announce their playing group for the upcoming Super Rugby Aotearoa Under 20 tournament. The release of the official squad provided confirmation that they had been able to recruit a couple of players from outside their catchment area — namely, hooker Hanz Leota and fly-half Christian Stenhouse, who were both part of the Hurricanes U18 and New Zealand Schools programmes in 2020 — and bring back to the region 2 players who completed their schooling elsewhere: Northlanders Josh Beehre of Hastings BHS and Jordan Hutchings of Rotorua BHS. Other notable names included are lock Allan Craig (already contracted to the Taniwha in his first year out of St Kentigern College), openside flanker Cam Church (winner of the New Zealand Schools side’s Bronze Boot in 2019), fly-half Jock McKenzie (a former New Zealand U19 cricketer) and outside back Caleb Tangitau (another 2020 NZSS representative, who has also been in camp with the All Blacks Sevens team this year).
Quinn Tupaea was in blistering ball-carrying form for the Chiefs in Hamilton at the weekend. It’s been a feature of his game since his Super Rugby debut last year: among Kiwi centres with more than 50 carries in the competition since the start of 2020, no one has beaten defenders more frequently than Tupaea, who does so once every 2.5 carries. The next step for the 21-year-old midfielder will be translating the handling skills he showed in age-grade rugby to this level of the game, and looking after possession better: he has passed less frequently (once every 3.0 carries) than anyone else in that group of players, and turned the ball over the most (once every 9.2 attacking touches).
One midfielder who has been considerably more quiet with ball in hand this season is the Crusaders’ Jack Goodhue. While the All Black has taken on more of a distributing role in 2021, the effectiveness of his carrying also appears to be down: he has no clean breaks, 2 defenders beaten and 2 offloads on his 21 carries so far this year, after making 5, 14 and 8 respectively on 64 carries during Super Rugby Aotearoa 2020.
Former All Blacks coach Wayne Smith was full of praise for the way the Highlanders play the game in a recent appearance on The Breakdown:
They’ve certainly looked to attack with ambition so far this season: they complete 1.42 passes per carry, compared to an average of 1.37 for all teams in Super Rugby Aotearoa 2021. Those parts of the game that aren’t working for Tony Brown’s side? They are mostly on the other side of the ball, where they have conceded clean breaks to their opponents on 11.4% of carries and allowed offloads on 8.5% of carries — both competition highs.
The Hurricanes won in Dunedin last Friday with a limited amount of possession: they made only 30.5% of the game’s total carries, a mark that is comfortably the lowest for any victorious team in Super Rugby Aotearoa this season. While playing without the ball can be an effective tactic, the team’s inability to retain possession may be a slight concern for head coach Jason Holland, who likes his team to get their attack rolling. In their 5 wins in Super Rugby Aotearoa 2020, they made 51.9% of all carries; in 4 matches so far this year, they’ve managed only 41.3%.