Neither league nor rugby covered itself in glory this week as Zac Lomax switched codes.
Some league types displayed glass jaws in response to three little words – “truly international sport” – while rugby’s red carpet treatment for the newcomer indicated that, at some level, the game still requires validation from the NRL, despite hosting a World Cup next year.
The juxtaposition of Lomax’s signing with Sid Harvey’s promotion into the Waratahs starting side against the Reds in Brisbane on Saturday – and to a lesser extent Jimmy Hendren’s return to the No.15 jersey – was unavoidable.
Somewhere in Australia, those involved in identifying and developing Harvey, 21, and Hendren, 23, likely rolled their eyes at Lomax’s recruitment. They don’t do it for the fanfare or money, but a little bit of recognition might be nice.
In fact, Lomax very much looks like a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, with rugby churning out Max Jorgensen and now Harvey and Hendren in recent years, not to mention the Pritchard brothers at the Brumbies and Reds – Kadin, the eldest, already looks like an embryonic Tevita Kuridrani Mk II, while Trayvon’s ability to keep the ball alive before he bundled into touch was pivotal to the Reds’ win in Canberra last weekend.
It could be argued that these are parallel topics, allowing rugby to develop its own while selectively and strategically recruiting NRL players, with neither affecting the other.
Zac Lomax is off to the Western Force.Credit: Ben Symons
But the subtlety of that argument can be lost when the Rugby Australia chief executive holds a press conference with Lomax, who, by his own admission, is at the bottom of the mountain when it comes to making the switch.
That statement may have been the truest words spoken all week.
Whenever someone makes the switch, judging whether they will succeed involves an enormous amount of guesswork.
The sports’ differences outweigh their similarities. This becomes apparent if you follow a simple, somewhat boring process that removes emotion from the assessment.
If you watch a lot of rugby – more than is healthy – and then watch some rugby league, the contrast between the two sharpens, highlighting differences that can become pixelated if you are frequently watching both codes.
For example, observing a high volume of rugby followed by a replay of State of Origin I last year, in which Lomax was the first try scorer, immediately reveals the comparatively vast acres of space in league that do not exist in rugby.
This is not a “one is better than the other” argument; it’s a statement of fact that reflects rugby’s constant contest for possession and the vastly different approaches to the offside lines.
And in sport, space equals time – the time to make good decisions and the time to execute skills. That is why it is almost pointless to get too granular when looking at NRL players as potential rugby successes.
The conditions under which they operated do not exist in rugby – not in Super Rugby, let alone at Test level.
Player X might be able to A, B, and C in league and look like they are relearning the alphabet in rugby, through no fault of their own.
Coincidentally, “time” was the word Waratahs coach Dan McKellar used when asked about Harvey’s qualities. The goalkicking youngster certainly looked far from daunted on debut against the Hurricanes last week. A better performance from the Waratahs pack this week should give him a platform to get into the game.
The same goes with Hendren, who had a disappointing game against the Fijian Drua but is another talent on the rise – he has been compared to Tom Trbojevic, but perhaps he has more in common with George Hendy, the tall Northampton fullback/winger on the fringe of the England squad who could offer the English a much-needed point of difference.
Harvey has been identified as a player of significant potential, winning a place in the Australia A squad last year. His rapid rise shows the rugby talent pipeline has no issues, although finding room to celebrate these successes under the shadow of the NRL is often the hardest part.
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