What the Wallabies really needed...young No.10s Noah Lolesio and Carter Gordon duelling at their best in a fast, flowing, hard-edged, high-quality game.
There were nine tries in all and the Melbourne Rebels pressed all the way before going down 33-26 to the ACT Brumbies at Melbourne’s AAMI Park.
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There’s a big case to say it was a battle between the two most watchable teams in Australian rugby.
What exactly did we learn?
1 EDDIE’S MIND GAMES WORKING A TREAT
Eddie Jones didn’t leave Brumbies No.10 Noah Lolesio and Queensland Reds halfback Tate McDermott out of his first Wallabies training squad because they couldn’t play.
He left the out to see how they responded.
McDermott had his three best games of the season straight after his omission.
Lolesio’s effort in Melbourne was top shelf. He took the game by the scruff of the neck much more and was clearly irked and energised by all the talk about rookie Gordon.
When he scored his second try, he mouthed “Carter Gordon” to the TV cameras with outstretched arms as if adding “what about me?”
This is the sort of game you want to see from Lolesio when the flyhalf is bossing the game not his halfback. He did play flatter at the line.
Taking a flat Nic White pass and punching through the line for his first try was only part of that first statement from Lolesio. He’d put his shoulder to two rucks earlier in that passage of play and really worked hard off the ball to get in position to take that pass.
For his second try, he positioned himself beautifully to take the pass of standout Tom Wright after the fullback’s great kick return.
Gordon stood tall for the full 80 minutes. Admirably, being absolutely flattened by a huge Tamati Tua tackle took no edge off him at all.
His flattening at the line and the bullet-like cutout ball to put winger Lachie Anderson over was one of his highlights. The reason he could swoop on the loose ball for his own try was because he defends in the frontline unlike many flyhalves.
He was very positive and precise with his distribution. In the final minutes, he still had the gas to have a dart at the line himself. Only a try-saving tackle from Len Ikitau cut him down.
2 WRIGHT MAN
Tom Wright is building a strong case as a plausible Wallabies fullback for the World Cup.
Why? His top form has come with counter-attacking nous backed by speed and footwork. He made 127m off 11 runs in this game according to the Stan Sport stats. Kicking? It's definitely improving.
Most persuasive is the fact he has been able to play the whole season at No.15 and get a rhythm others have not.
The Reds have had Jordan Petaia and Jock Campbell at fullback. Andrew Kellaway has played a variety of positions as well.
3 VALETINI DOUBLE
The Valetini brothers both played big roles in strong wins.
Kemu kicked the Fijian Drua to a fine upset of the Hurricanes on Saturday. Rob blasted over for the try that took the Brumbies to 33-19 and did plenty of the physical forward work.
Rugby chats must be fun in the family right now.
4 TRYLINE DEFENCE
The Brumbies tryline defence was exceptional.
Halfback Nic White led the way with putting his body on the line to get under Rebels ball-carriers Louwrens and Alex Mafi, who were both unsuccessful when trying to plant the ball for five-pointers.
Defence like that wins big finals matches.
5 UP-THE-JUMPER TRICK
It’s about time we saw a modern take on the famous up-the-jumper move pulled by the NSW Country side in the 1970s.
It was a mini-version with Brumbies hooker Lachy Lonergan having his jersey hauled off his body. Undeterred, when he found the ball wrapped in the jumper, he dummied Rebels halfback Ryan Louwrens and took off bare-chested.
Referee James Doleman plucked one of rugby’s more obscure laws to halt the comical play. You can’t run without a jersey? Who knew that one.
Players from both sides thought it was a great laugh as did fans.
