NZ Breakers smash holes in Bullets At a glance NZ in step with World Rugby on high tackles

The Breakers are now within touching distance of the Cairns Taipans for the allimportant second spot on the Australian NBL table as the end of the regular season comes into focus.

With a runaway 99-71 victory over the Brisbane Bullets at Nissan Arena on Thursday night, Mody Maor’s men improved to 15-10 for the season, with three regular season games remaining. They have now won two straight after dropping four on the bounce prior to that, and are 9-3 on the road.

The Kiwis sit third on the standings, but with the Wednesday night loss by the Taipans dropping them to

16-9, the Breakers are not without hope of catching the Queenslanders, and earning one of the two automatic semifinal spots. Aiding their cause is the fact the New Zealand outfit hold the tie-breaker with the superior points percentage.

The Breakers have three games remaining, with tonight’s pivotal matchup against finals-chasing Melbourne United in Auckland the toughest of them. They finish with final-round visits to the Illawarra Hawks and Bullets (again) to round out the regular season, and may need to win all three to grab second spot.

The Taipans conclude with games at home to the Bullets and Adelaide and then a challenging visit to the Perth Wildcats to wrap things up.

The Breakers were paced on Thursday night by another standout display by import power forward Jarrell Brantley who finished with 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting in just 22 minutes. Centre Dererk Pardon added 17 points and 9 rebounds for the Kiwis and Barry Brown Jr showcased his class in his return from injury to chip

At Nissan Arena, Brisbane: NZ Breakers 99 (Jarrell Brantley 22, Dererk Pardon 17, Barry Brown Jr 14),Brisbane Bullets 71 (Tyler Johnson 20, Aron Baynes 13, Nathan Sobey 13, DJ Mitchell 12). 22-20; HT: 55-40; 74-54.

in with 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting in just 15 minutes off the pine.

The Kiwi club also got 9 points apiece from Will McDowell-White. Tom Abercrombie (on just 3 shots), French teen Rayan Rupert and Cam Gliddon off the bench as they shot 55% from the floor, 42 from beyond the arc and kept Brisbane to just a 41% clip for their 71 points. The visitors led by just two (22-20) after the first period, but stretched their advantage to 15 by halftime, 20 at the three-quarter mark and a game-high 28 at the finish. The Bullets were paced by 20 points from in-form import Tyler Johnson and got 13 apiece from Aussie stars Aron Baynes and Nathan Sobey, but badly missed the playmaking abilities of injured point guard Jason Cadee.

Brantley, who is hitting prime form at the business end of the season, said the return of Brown (groin) and Le’afa (back) had provided crucial impetus for the Kiwi club as they looked to continue their standout form on the road.

‘‘It felt good having all our guys,’’ he said. ‘‘We could get back to defending and playing good, team basketball. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction.’’

Brantley felt the Breakers had been able to get back to their true identity with a full quota of players.

‘‘If we play to the scout and trust each other. I think we can be a very special defensive team – and that’s what we hang our hats on,’’ he added. The Kiwi club flew back to Auckland yesterday.

Had World Rugby’s proposal to lower the tackle height – which has arrived years too late – been embedded by 2022, Portia Woodman might be able to remember the World Cup final.

Instead, Woodman was knocked out in exactly the sort of tackle that World Rugby wants to eradicate from the game. England winger Lydia Thompson, upright as a pole, came across to tackle Woodman and the pair’s heads inevitably collided at pace. Sickening and avoidable.

Retain the image of a prone Woodman on the Eden Park turf in your head when you come across the inevitable howls of complaint from those who say lowering the tackle height will turn the game soft.

The truth is it’s never been more brutal, turning off parents at the amateur level and robbing the game of continuity at the elite level, the very quality that allows New Zealand rugby to be so compelling when it is played at its best.

If this rule is implemented well it will unshackle the Jordie Barretts and Ruahei Demants, the players who can take the ball to the line and produce an offload without fear of a tackler taking off their heads.

New Zealand Rugby knows which way the wind is blowing.

Last year it introduced a trial to reduce the tackle height in the community game to below the sternum, and it did so without outrage because of an open communications strategy that made the RFU’s own tackle-reduction announcement look amateurish.

NZ Rugby offered up community game boss Steve Lancaster to explain the thinking, and he came armed with a vision of a game that offered greater safety to its participants and the promise of a better spectacle.

Just as importantly, Lancaster came with some nuance in his explanation – of course tacklers who are trying to stop a pick and go close to the line would be offered some leeway. And, the second tackler would be governed by the existing tackle height laws (shoulder line).

He did not envisage a game suddenly free of risk or grey areas from referees, but he did envisage one in which, over time, the tacklers would be conditioned to lowering their sights. Aim for the shoulder and you’ll inevitably hit the head. Aim for the sternum and even if you get it wrong the damage won’t be as severe.

The breakdown was next on his list in terms of player safety. He knew the game had to change.

And don’t believe for a second that players can’t be coached to change. Everyone in New Zealand rugby knew that former Otago and Highlanders midfielder Sio Tomkinson was a repeat offender with high tackles.

But, when it finally dawned on him that he was becoming a liability, he managed to drop his tackle height significantly. By the end of his Highlanders career he was still their hardest hitter, but legal. If a player can’t drop their tackle height in six months, it’s because their coaches aren’t good enough.

World Rugby’s changes aren’t going to happen overnight. You would imagine that New Zealand’s trial is going to be watched with great interest.

New Zealanders should hope it is a success. It may be the start of the country reclaiming its mantle as a rugby innovator.