Super Rugby Round 11 review: Wallabies not talented enough to overlook discipline

AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE

Holloway horror should serve big Wallabies warning

Brain explosions: They have the ability to end a Rugby World Cup campaign in an instant.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika must make that abundantly clear, though as one Rugby Australia insider once told ESPN, he also likes his players "to get a shot on" when an opportunity presents.

If that remains the case, Cheika should look closely at just how Waratahs lock Jed Holloway was sent off in Saturday night's loss to the Rebels; very few incidents go unnoticed nowadays with the modern game's every angle so intensely covered by television cameras.

And there will be added scrutiny come World Cup time in Japan.

With the game in the balance at 10-all at Sydney's new Bankwest Stadium, a frustrated Holloway lashed out with a forearm that collected Sharks prop Thomas du Toit in the head; the Waratahs back-rower was being held back and wasn't actually looking at du Toit, but the fact that it was an elbow/forearm to the face left referee Nic Berry with no option but to issue a red card.

From there, the Waratahs were always going to struggle and a 10-minute period where they were down to 13 men following Jack Dempsey's sin-binning certainly didn't help.

Discipline will be huge come the World Cup, and the Wallabies certainly weren't immune to some problems in England four years ago. In their final pool game against Wales, the Wallabies were at one stage reduced to 13 men when two players were sin-binned. Only a herculean seven-minute effort saw them emerge victorious.

Two years later, in the Wallabies' final Test of 2017, veteran prop Sekope Kepu was red-carded in Edinburgh after a shoulder-charge cleanout. The Wallabies were leading 12-10 at the time; they went on to lose 53-24 in what was their worst ever loss to Scotland.

Australia have neither the game-breakers nor a humming team attack that can take them deep in the Rugby World Cup later this year, so discipline will be critical if they are to somehow perform above what are reasonably low expectations.

Incidents like Holloway's on Saturday night, and that which earned Tolu Latu a six-week spell earlier this year, simply cannot be tolerated in knockout tournament rugby.

Rugby's laws are clearly defined when it comes to foul play, and no amount of supporter discontent will force a change into the future.

Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson said as much on Saturday night.

"That was the critical moment of the game; 45 minutes in, 10-all and fairly even to that point; it changed the nature of the game. Red card, it's very clear the law, strike to the head with the forearm or the elbow, sanctions are a red card or a yellow, so no problems with that."

The incident killed off the Waratahs' chances of victory and put a severe dent in their playoffs hopes. Similar incident have the power to do the same to the Wallabies in Japan, where Australia need absolutely everything to go their way if another unlikely trip to the final is to play out.

NEW ZEALAND CONFERENCE

Jordie Barrett retains all of his abilities at 15

It's unclear in which direction Steve Hansen will go with regard to the All Blacks' back three, but Jordie Barrett could have done little more to impress the New Zealand coach in the Hurricanes' 41-19 win over the Chiefs on Saturday night.

With Ben Smith spared a trip to Tokyo with the Highlanders, just as Barrett had been a week prior, the Hurricanes utility took the opportunity not only to produce the standout custodian performance of the weekend but also the strongest Round 11 showing of any All Blacks hopeful.

Playing his first game in the No. 15 jersey since Round 2, Barrett threw himself into the contest from the outset before providing the angled run on a supreme Hurricanes set-move that gave the hosts the perfect start.

Sneaking in from behind the ruck, Barrett ran onto a beautiful ball from Asafo Aumua and burned two Chiefs cover defenders to open the scoring after just four minutes. And he had double just three minutes later when he collected an aimless Chiefs clearing kick, drifted across field and then slid between two defenders to complete another long-range effort.

Barrett finished with a further two try assists, the second of which was started and finished by Ardie Savea in a piece of back-row brilliance that Hansen must also be finding hard to ignore. After winning a turnover from the Chiefs at the breakdown, Savea offloaded to halfback TJ Perenara, screamed at his captain as to where to find a supporting Barrett, then chased hard himself to receive the final pass and bump off two defenders to score.

While Savea has spent part of this year in the No. 8 jersey for the Hurricanes, that position will obviously be filled by All Blacks captain Kieran Read at the World Cup. That leaves Savea in a contest with the still-to-return Sam Cane for the starting No. 7 role; the Hurricanes back-rower has certainly given Cane a marker to chase when he does take to the field for the Chiefs in the coming weeks.

Having played a bit too loose when first introduced to the All Blacks setup, Savea was seen as the ultimate impact player of the bench because of his speed, fend and offload ability that could catch out tiring defenders late in Test matches. But he is doing that in the tight enclaves nowadays, adding a defensive workrate along the way that was reflected by the equal game-high 17 tackles -- with just one miss -- against the Chiefs on Saturday night.

Cane's strength has long been his defensive workrate and ability to get over the ball at the breakdown, but with Savea clearly having grown in those two areas, the veteran All Blacks No. 7 faces a huge challenge if he's to find himself on the side of the scrum come World Cup time.

As for Jordie Barrett, a few more games like that he had at Westpac Stadium will put pressure on Hansen to revert to the back-three that started against the Springboks in Wellington last year.

The All Blacks boss will however be hoping for a different result should that be the case come their World Cup opener on September 21, against the same opposition, in Tokyo; the Springboks triumphed 36-34 at the Cake Tin last year with Jordie enduring a forgettable night.

SOUTH AFRICAN CONFERENCE

Inconsistent South Africans doing better than we credit

Much is made each week about the inconsistency of South Africa's Super Rugby teams -- rightly so -- and there has been truth in those assessments in all publications, including in this column.

Perhaps it's time to take a little step back from the gain line to find a broader context, however; to look at the whole pitch rather than the ball, like the very best playmakers, to spot the space, if you will.

We wrote before the season that there were no outstanding teams in the South African Super Rugby Conference, that the teams would likely take points from each other, and that their positions on the log could prove to be a game of snakes and ladders.

So it has proved to be.

The South African Super Rugby Conference ladder looked like this after Round 10.

One round of matches -- featuring wins for the Sharks, in Australia; the Stormers over the Bulls in Cape Town; and the Jaguares over the Brumbies in Buenos Aires; against a defeat for the Lions against the Crusaders in Christchurch -- and it looks like this.

Fast forward to this time next week, after Round 12, and we'd all likely be hard pressed to conjure an image of the standings, and not because of the fixtures that will see the Sharks play the Crusaders in Christchurch, the Bulls host the Waratahs, and the Jaguares host the Stormers; rather, we simply can't predict each of the teams' level of performance such are their fluctuations from game to game, and the only certainly next week is that the Lions will still be bottom after a bye.

But South African rugby, and rugby fans in South Africa, can perhaps do with taking a look at the other conference standings -- and ignore the Crusaders, who are head and shoulders above every other team in the competition.

For all the lament regarding the South African sides' results and in-and-out performances, not one team in the conference has a losing record and four of the five currently occupy a playoff berth. Of course that possibly (likely) changes next week, but right now only the Crusaders and the Hurricanes in New Zealand, and the Rebels in Australia, also boast a winning record this season, and that indicates the even nature of the competition in 2019.

The competition as a whole, not just in South Africa, is so tight that no team can afford to drop off in intensity and execution, even incrementally, if they hope to claim the points; do so and you're at the mercy of opponents.

The Stormers' Robbie Fleck, who has copped perhaps more stick than any other coach this season, certainly in South Africa, summed things nicely after his side had defeated the Bulls at Newlands once again (the visitors now have not won in Cape Town since 2011) .

'Hopefully this will be another step in the right direction," Fleck said.

"We don't want to take one step forward and then take two steps back. We have to take advantage of this."

Damian Willemse was one player who took a step forward against the Bulls, and he and Fleck will want to repeat the dose against the Jaguares in Buenos Aires next week.

Willemse, whom Fleck described leading in to the game as the "best fullback in South Africa" even though many pundits, and likely the player himself, believe he is a fly-half, starred with 17 runs for a match-high 110 metres, one clean break, six defenders beaten, and one try assist.

His vision in chasing back a Bulls kick into the Stormers' 22, and noting he was being chased by second-row Jannes Kirsten was key in the hosts' second try; he recognised there was space on the touchline, to the lock's right, so he span that way after collecting the ball and accelerated into the space past his outmatched rival, then outstripped Trevor Nyakane before drawing the cover tackle and feeding Seabelo Senatlo; the winger, now in space, still had work to do to beat Handre Pollard and sprint away for the try, but he would not have had the opportunity had the fullback not been so aware of the game circumstances.

Willemse's desperation to collect Pollard in the same corner in the second half similarly played a key part in the Stormers' third try; Pollard, tackled by Willemse as the fly-half tried to run out, shovelled the ball to Manie Libbok, who's poor clearing kick under more pressure was collected and returned by Dillyn Leyds before feeding Herschel Jantjies for what would turn out to be a decisive try.

Again Willemse's role in the movement was not decisive, but it was certainly influential and important in creating something from nothing.

Of course, Willemse was also part of the Stormers' ludicrous decision to run from behind their posts, after the siren, after Pollard had missed a long-range penalty kick to bring the Bulls back within seven points; touch the ball down or kick it into touch and it's game over.

Siya Kolisi said after the game: "We knew we weren't going to lose that game and we really wanted the bonus point. We took that risk and we knew what the consequences could be."

But that seems disingenuous as surely you don't figure on scoring a try from 100 metres when you don't have to; not when it's not in your DNA to attempt the move, and certainly not from the formation in which the Stormers found themselves against a defensive line that was advancing as one.

As it was, two more poor decisions and two mistakes after Willemse had run and passed the ball behind his line, Libbok crossed under the posts for the converted try that secured the Bulls their losing bonus point and limited to just one point the damage to their differentia.

Did the Stormers really assess "what the consequences could be"?

In such a tight conference, that bonus point for the Bulls could prove so vital in the endgame of securing playoffs rugby..