Never mind matching New Zealand, Australia has to accelerate its own Super Rugby evolution

The Queensland Reds breaking the Australian teams’ duck in Super Rugby trans-Tasman was a welcome relief, but it won’t count for much if more wins don’t come in this weekend’s penultimate round four. 

The Reds built a completely dominant platform with a 33-3 half-time lead, but then conceded a 31-7 second half as the Chiefs roared back to life after flyhalf Damien McKenzie’s first-half red card.

“If we had another five minutes, we might have got them,” Chiefs skipper Brad Weber pondered post-match.

Much has been made of the apparent gulf between the Australian and New Zealand sides and, on scorelines alone, it’s hard to argue with that view when nine of the 15 games played have been decided by 21 points (three converted tries) or more.

Worryingly, the five Australian teams all have negative points differentials, and all of them are considerable. The Reds, Western Force and Brumbies have the least-worst records, but all three sit around the -50 mark.

Only the Reds and NSW Waratahs have scored more than 10 tries in three trans-Tasman games and none of the Kiwi sides have conceded more than the Chiefs’ 12.

It’s been a sobering return to earth after the highs of Super Rugby AU, and it’s given plenty of Australian rugby fans and pundits pause for consideration, around whether going all-in on a full-blown trans-Tasman competition in 2022 is as good an idea as first thought.

But interestingly, the five Australian teams themselves are all of the belief that not only is it a good idea, but that it’s essential to their development. That playing against stronger opposition from across the ditch week-to-week will force them into urgently-needed improvements both on and off the field.

“I’d be confident in a trans-Tasman competition next year that the Aussie sides would be very competitive. We need to be playing against that standard of opposition week-in, week-out, and we’ll be up to it,” veteran Brumbies assistant coach Laurie Fisher said after his side returned to Canberra with three losses from a New Zealand tour on which they were widely expected to do very well.

“Look, it’s a 38-10 scoreline on the weekend [against the Blues in Auckland], but as a coach and a player, you think that you’re not that far away. The gulf might appear big in some of those scorelines, but I’ll tell you what, it’s not massive and it doesn’t take much.”

Fisher has been in and around the Brumbies in various capacities for more than two decades, albeit over a couple of stints, and with coaching appointments in Ireland and England in between. He’s experienced and has prepared teams to face the New Zealand sides more than any current Australian coach.

“What the Kiwis do well is that they’re always threatening you, they can go side-to-side in an instant,” he says.

“We’re a much more traditional side, a more structured side and we need to better balance that with the ability to play, because when you play them, and traditionally against New Zealand sides we’d look to try and slow them down and make it a set piece battle, make it a bit more of a war of attrition.

“That might get you a win on a stormy night somewhere, but on a normal day, you’ve got to be able to play with pace, power, skill, and we’re just off the pace at the moment.

“And just off the pace has big effects on scorelines. You don’t need to reinvent the game, you don’t need to make incredible changes, you’ve got to find the little increments.”

Fisher says the biggest challenge confronting Australian rugby at the moment is not to try and match the latest evolution of the Kiwis, but rather that the next Australian evolution needs to accelerate.

And he believes the way to accelerate that evolution is to play more trans-Tasman rugby, not less.

“We now need to be more instinctive, more reactive, and be able to take opportunities as they are presented, rather than trying to play the game of chess,” Fisher said.

“It’s a lot harder to do that when defences now are too hard and too high, too strong. But then if somebody shoots out of the line, that’s what provided the opportunity.

“That’s where our game needs to evolve, and I know that we will have some good discussion around what that looks like.

“If we’re playing in a trans-Tasman comp next year, then we will learn a lot about ourselves in this period of time.

“What we delivered in Super Rugby AU is not as successful now.”

The Brumbies finish their trans-Tasman campaign with a pair of games back in the Nation’s Capital, starting with the Hurricanes this weekend.

Fisher says the Brumbies will “take our hits this year” in relation to the deficiencies that have emerged over the last three weeks, and they now know the traditional strengths of their game aren’t good enough at the moment.

But that doesn’t mean the slate needs to be wiped clean. The Brumbies remain confident they can finish the series strongly and achieve a result closer to initial expectations, rather than worst fears realised.

“We’ve already identified some areas to change and they aren’t earth-shattering differences. Small things make big differences, not big things,” he says.

“A metre here, two metres there. Tighten up that bit. That’s how you make great gains, and you can be competitive all of a sudden.”