LOTE TUQIRI took the ball and placed it just inside the 50-metre mark for a kick at goal on Saturday night against the Sharks at the Sydney Football Stadium. I leant across to a friend and murmured: "It won't even reach."
It will become part of the folklore of the Waratahs' charge to the 2008 Super 14 finals that the kick soared through the posts. It was such a massive kick that towards the end of the match, when the Waratahs won a penalty on their own 10m mark, I felt compelled to yell out: "Have a shot, Lote!"
Earlier in the second half, the Sharks were given a penalty just inside their own half. The ball was given to the wonderboot of South African rugby, Francois Steyn. The youngster, who specialises in kicking field goals up to 60m from the posts, booted the penalty over.
In the old days, only Don Clarke, the massive-kicking All Black, could boot penalties with the leather ball consistently from 50m and more. Now we have a player, admittedly a powerful man, converting a penalty from a Clarke-like distance with his first attempt in Super rugby.
It is all about the technology of the rugby ball. The modern, aerodynamic, synthetic ball travels greater distances than the old, leather ball (aside from those kicked by Clarke), provided it is kicked in the sweet spot.
Coaches are beginning to adjust their game plans and their style of play, and players are honing their kicking skills to take into account the fact that the modern rugby ball is a livelier object than the old balls. Some of the adjustments are wrong, most of them are right.
Wrong: Michael O'Connor, a Wallaby, a Kangaroo and a deep thinker on rugby, argues that modern players and coaches have become so obsessed with the length they can get from their cut-out passes with the modern ball that they have given up on the better, through-the-hands method of back-line attack.
There are two teams, though, that play a lot of through-the-hands passing in the manner of the Mark Ella era at Randwick and the Wallabies. They are the Crusaders and the Chiefs. These teams do have cut-out passing options, especially when counter-attacking from downfield kicks, but they also launch many of their attacks with through-the-hands passing rushes, drawing defenders before the pass is made.
Right: The necessity of having a strong kicking game. Clive Woodward developed the tactic of kicking the ball long and straight down the middle of the field and attacking the defensive side either with a quick throw-in from a resultant clearing kick or with the wingers and the fullback running the ball back into the outside spaces. Again, the Crusaders and the Chiefs have developed this aspect of play very well.
And the Waratahs? At the beginning of the season, they tended to kick away most of their turnover ball. The kicking was generally short (especially the box kicks from the halfback). The reason for this was that Kurtley Beale was forced to stand deep in the pocket to give himself time (which was not always possible) because of the slow service from his halfback, Brett Sheehan.
All this has changed with Luke Burgess coming in as starting halfback. The once robotic Waratahs have become a more challenging side offensively, and victories over strong sides such as the Blues and the Sharks have followed.
Burgess has energy and a fast pass. He gives Beale time to thump the ball into strong field positions. On Saturday night, the big, powerful runners such as Wycliff Palu, Tom Carter and Tuqiri were able to smash through the defensive line and set up try-scoring situations from deep inside the Sharks territory.
The Waratahs play the Bulls in Pretoria on Saturday night. The thin air at altitude makes a strong kicking game essential. Tuqiri could probably kick a goal from his own 10m mark. But these heroics shouldn't be needed if Burgess and Beale continue to click.
