Sizing up Muirhead: Brumbies star’s chance to take giant step towards Wallabies

The Brumbies-Reds game on Saturday night has several good subplots but the man wearing the No.14 jersey will be the one to watch.

But it’s not the player you are thinking about. While most eyes will be on the Reds’ Suliasi Vunivalu on account of his NRL history and obvious pedigree, in Super Rugby AU’s First Nations round, mine will be focused on Brumby Andy Muirhead.

If Andy Muirhead can produce the goods on Saturday, his potential pathway to a gold jersey becomes clearer.Credit:Getty

Muirhead was the best back in Australia not to have been involved in last year’s big Wallabies squad. With all due respect to a few others picked ahead of him, it was hard to see how they had been playing better than the 28-year-old.

Let’s address the elephant in the room: Muirhead isn’t the biggest unit in the world. He’s listed in the mid-80kg range and doesn’t have the power through the hips of Tom Wright or Vunivalu’s sheer size.

But then again Japan’s Kotaro Matsushima isn’t a giant and lit up the World Cup. Cheslin Kolbe is probably smaller, and he won it.

World Cup winner Cheslin Kolbe.Credit:Getty

Across the ditch, the best two All Blacks No.14s in recent memory, Nehe Milner-Skudder and Cory Jane, were also smallish by professional rugby standards, yet both made the necessary adaptations to their game to thrive rather than just survive.

Muirhead’s path to the Brumbies is a familiar one in that it started in another state. By rights, he should be wearing a Reds jersey on Saturday night but his career in Queensland got no further than a few appearances for Brisbane City in the NRC.

It is untrue to say the Reds are blindly wedded to power wingers and outside backs – Jock Campbell’s presence at fullback is proof of that – but the Brumbies must have been quietly thrilled when Muirhead made his way to the ACT: smart players with a point to prove are a resource they have expertly mined for decades.

That’s not to say it’s been easy for Muirhead in Canberra. The presence of Solomone Kata and the rise of Tom Wright meant a scrap for places on the wing. He has had to nail his chances when they arrived and, by and large, he has.

Perhaps there has also been a lack of an absolute standout performance, the sort of game that Highlander Jona Nareki produced last week that can change a player from “good Super Rugby wing” to “potential Test player”.

Saturday night would be a good time to do that when you consider the quality of the opposition. Vunivalu and Filipo Daugunu aren’t just Wallabies (or a Wallaby-in-waiting in Vunivalu’s case) they are the sort of physically impressive wings that tend to dominate the international arena.

If Muirhead can produce the goods against the Fijians, his potential pathway to a gold jersey becomes a bit clearer.

In the meantime, there is so much to admire in his game. For a start, he is fearless. He’s one of those players who accelerates into contact. He sees the space beyond the defensive line and tries to reach it, rather than seeing a wall of defenders to whom he must necessarily submit.

The velocity he generates as a result of that mindset is probably worth a few kilograms, if we are still looking for some.

But perhaps instead we should be asking what sort of game rugby has become if there are too many barriers for a player of Muirhead’s build to play at the very top.

Eddie Jones wants genuine fatigue reintroduced into the game so picking a squad of giants becomes a risk for coaches, not a comfort blanket. He’s right. We should all look at Ryan Papenhuyzen and say, ‘That’s the sort of athlete we want in our code, too’.

But back to the Brumbies-Reds match, because it should be tasty. The Brumbies remain my favourites to win Super Rugby AU but they know they will lose on Saturday if they are not at their best.

Allan Alaalatoa’s loss strips them of a leader and a power carrier. Instead, their littler men – Muirhead, Nic White, Noah Lolesio and even Mack Hansen – must step up to show rugby still really is the game for all sizes.

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