Sopoaga thrives on Brown’s creativity
Tony Brown is hosting another party in Dunedin only this time he’s letting someone else have all the fun.
Lima Sopoaga was late arriving at the Highlanders’ training base on Wednesday, but you get the feeling it would take a bit more than a once in a century Dunedin downpour to stop him getting to work this season.
‘‘Sorry I’m late mate, but you could go swimming in my backyard right now,’’ he said after driving through the deluge to Forsyth Barr Stadium. ‘‘Other than that, life’s good.’’ It’s good because Sopoaga is in the midst of a Super Rugby season that’s transformed him from talented, but inconsistent, to consistently talented. So much so that he’s being touted as a bolter for the All Blacks’ wider World Cup squad.
The way Sopoaga tells it his form has a lot to do with his Highlanders backs coach, an 18-test All Black and Highlanders legend who played the game like a fearless loose forward, but thinks about it like a mad scientist.
‘‘All three coaches here have had big influence, but me and Browny’s relationship is a bit more personal,’’ Sopoaga said.
‘‘Obviously he’s played in the No 10 jersey and we sat down before the season started and had a pretty in depth conversation about where he thought my game could go. How he thought I could grow it, and what he thought I needed to do.
‘‘Browny is a student of the game. He’s always thinking of ways to outsmart people. Even though he played like that [very physical], his coaching style doesn’t reflect that. He’s a very smart coach.’’
Much of that pre-season conversation was private, but Sopoaga said it focused on some of the ‘‘bad habits’’ he’d developed as a schoolboy and taken with him into Super Rugby.
Two years ago the former Wellington College star struck a frustrated figure as he cancelled out moments of brilliance with over ambitious ideas that often ended in calamity.
This year the moments are still there, but it’s the bits in between that have changed.
‘‘A lot of it has been focusing on the things I didn’t like so much . . . It’s playing a smarter brand of rugby as a 10.’’
In essence, Brown has added the missing pieces to Sopoaga’s game without interfering with his attacking mentality.
Rather than telling him to pull back his running game, he’s empowered him with a short kicking option, emboldened him to forget where he is on the field and trust his instincts.
‘‘We have some sharp outside backs with some wheels. Browny is all about the three point attack,’’ Sopoaga said. ‘‘You can go through them, around them or behind them and that’s what we’re trying to do.
‘‘We try to have those three options and it doesn’t matter where we are on the field we feel like all three are always available to us.’’
What’s impressed about Sopoaga is he has run, thrown long, quick, flat and accurate passes, and kicked to space in equal portions, and done so without fear.
‘‘Browny always talks about having the confidence to pull the trigger, back your skillset and that’s what we do,’’ he said.
‘‘We have the two Fijians [Patrick Osborne and Waisake Naholo] who will pretty much do whatever they like, then you have Malakai [Fekitoa] who is a freakish athlete, then at the back you have The Oracle [Ben Smith] who can’t do anything wrong.
‘‘Browny comes up with plays that really excite us all. That’s what I think is coming out in our game. Players are excited because we want to do these cool moves and we are challenging ourselves to execute them as best we can.
‘‘I guess that creativity can disappear in professional rugby, but it doesn’t disappear from Browny. He’s always dreaming up new ways to score tries or new moves. It’s good fun.’’
And that’s how Sopoaga hopes to keep things ahead of the Super Rugby playoffs. He’s heard the rumblings about the All Blacks, but said his focus is only on getting the Highlanders to the Super Rugby final.
‘‘I can’t control selection, but I can control how I prepare and how I play and I want to get this team to the playoffs and the promised land, which is a shot at that final . . . if all that happens then one day hopefully that door [to the All Blacks] opens.’’
It was under Brown’s guidance at first five-eighth that the Highlanders last reached a Super Rugby final in 1999, a match that was dubbed ‘‘the party at Tony Brown’s house’’. There is every likelihood of another playoff match in Dunedin in coming weeks, perhaps it should be dubbed ‘‘the party at Lima Sopoaga’s house’’.