Mortlock on his Rebels connection
Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:59
Rebel rouser: Veteran Brumbies midfielder Stirling Mortlock
Don't bet against the Melbourne Rebels' next big signing being iconic Wallaby Stirling Mortlock.
Asked by rugby365.com on Wednesday, ahead of the Brumbies' game against the Stormers at Newlands on Friday, to comment on speculation that he was a primary recruitment target for the Rebels, Mortlock said: "It's an opportunity I never thought would [occur] but given where I am in my career it may be a great opportunity."
After what appeared a battle to contract their first player, the Rebels recently signed England flyhalf Danny Cipriani. The next good news for them was the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) announcing that they would now be free from March 15 to sign Australian players - and no longer 31 May.
Commenting on whether he thought it a good idea for Australian rugby for the date allowing the Rebels to approach Australian players to have been brought forward by the ARU, Mortlock said: "Yes, I think definitely. It's very tough for a new franchise to try to secure players. In my situation, currently entertaining offers overseas...and yet the Melbourne franchise couldn't make a formal offer, so it's common sense basically. It's a real good thing."
Mortlock said he was looking forward to playing against the Stormers at Newlands: "I've got good memories of this place."
He said Bryan Habana and Jaque Fourie added a lot of fire power to an already quality Stormers backline, but added: "It's as a group that we try to nullify their threat and as a group that we try to challenge the Stormers.
"As a backline we're focusing on being more cohesive as a unit and having better ability to take advantage of opportunities than we did last week.
"The Stormers at Newlands is a significant challenge and one we have to be up for. We have to improve if we are to compete with this great outfit on Friday."
He felt that discipline and errors hadn't help the Brumbies last weekend against the Bulls.
"A lot of that is mental," he said, adding: "Last week for half to two-thirds of the game we played quite well but at this level that's not good enough. The competition is such that you've got to be up for the entire 80 minutes, probably even more so with the interpretation of the laws this year.
"Teams can put you to bed, score two or three tries in five minutes. So you've really got to be on your game for the full 80 minutes and unfortunately we weren't last week. Hopefully we will be this week."
Mortlock was enthusiastic about the return of Matt Giteau to the Brumbies.
"It's good to have him back on board. He's a world-class player and I've been lucky to play a lot of football outside him."
It was great to have Rocky Elsom back in the team too.
"It was really pleasing to see how well he went in his first outing last week. He's a dynamic player. He loves to get his hands on the ball and when he does that he can be very damaging," Mortlock commented.
He said it was the first season that he and Christian Lealiifano were playing together as a 12-13 and they are looking to build on their combination. He said Lealiifano was benefiting from playing outside a flyhalf of Giteau's class and he hoped that he (Mortlock) would also help speed up Lealiifano's development as a 12 while playing at 13 outside him.
"We hope to be a dominant combination down the track," said Mortlock.
Asked about the threat of Stormers stand-in skipper Andries Bekker at the line-out, Mortlock said: "He's an incredibly tall athlete and a very dominating figure at the line-out."
He added: "The line-out is a facet of the game which each year seems to be even more of a contest than the year before and it's extremly difficult to get possession from that source. The forwards have been working tirelessly this week to hopefully do that."
Not being captain of either the Wallabies or the Brumbies, didn't worry him at all. "It's pretty chilled!" he quipped.
With the current Australian captain plus two former captains plus the Brumbies captain and players like Giteau and others, the leadership of the Brumbies team was strong. He felt there were a lot of players able to make sure the team does things well, that they were as effective in their communications and as efficient as possible on the field.
Matt Toomua, the 20-year-old Brumbies back-up flyhalf to Giteau, who played four matches for Western Province in the 2009 Currie Cup, was enjoying his return to the Western Cape.
"I love Cape Town," he said. "It's good to be back. I very much enjoyed my stay here; the set-up was very professional."
He felt he had learnt a lot while with Western Province.
"The different style of footy that thay play here just added to my kit-bag in terms of different styles of how to play. It adds to whatever I can offer any team I play for."
On his role as understudy to Giteau, Toomua commented: "He's one of the premier tens in the world so there's definitely a lot I can learn from him."
By Len Kaplan