League: Awen lose situation

Awen Guttenbeil was dropped by the Kiwis. Dean Treml / Getty Images

It's a thankless task - the grafter who works his guts off and does things most observers can't see but takes the flak when things go wrong because they don't seem to contribute anything.

Awen Guttenbeil, like his close friend Monty Betham, falls into that category and was omitted from the squad that beat France 38-22 yesterday morning. He's often been derided for the fact he seems to have little impact on a game, yet the 29-year-old is a Warriors regular (he played in 23 of 24 games last season, second only behind Wairangi Koopu who played 24) and has now racked up 10 tests for the Kiwis since his debut in 2002. It would suggest he must be doing something right.

New Zealand coach Brian McClennan was unequivocal about the value Guttenbeil adds to the team. "Awen makes very good decisions in ruck play, he gets in behind the ruck well when things are tough and keeps us moving forward," he said before last week's disastrous 38-12 loss to Great Britain. "He does a lot of work the average punter might not appreciate. He's the glue to our team."

Guttenbeil might find himself in an all-too-familiar sticky situation but he's certainly a solid performer and a trawl through the NRL stats backs this up. He was one of only three Warriors to average more than 20 tackles and 100m a game over the course of the 2005 season - the others being standouts Steve Price and Ruben Wiki - and rated better even than 'Mr Consistency' Koopu.

His error rate of only seven throughout the season (0.3 a game) is top drawer while his number of offloads and hit-ups, while not spectacular, measure up well with some of his contemporaries.

The Australian trio of Craig Fitzgibbon, Ben Kennedy and Luke O'Donnell have similar stats to Guttenbeil from their 2005 NRL seasons.

Fitzgibbon is busier on defence with 36 tackles a game to Guttenbeil's 23.3 and dishes out more offloads (2.3 to Guttenbeil's 1.4) but is almost identical in everything else, although more prone to making errors (0.8 a game).

Likewise, Kennedy and O'Donnell are comparable in terms of tackles made (both 24.1) and make more ground (132m and 126.3m respectively to Guttenbeil's 100.5m) but are prone to missing more tackles (2.2 and 3.2 to Guttenbeil's 1.7).

Perhaps counting against Guttenbeil is the lack of impact he makes when his side is chasing a game - he rarely produces the spectacular offload and doesn't often make the bullocking runs or devastating tackles fans love to see. He's also too similar to some of his cohorts. Louis Anderson is another workaholic, while Frank Pritchard and David Kidwell both tender relatively similar NRL statistics to Guttenbeil.

He certainly didn't help his cause in the past two tests against Great Britain, however. While he gained the most metreage of any player on the park in the 42-26 defeat of Great Britain three weeks ago (133m), he also missed 12 tackles in the two games, including seven in last week's loss. He wasn't the only culprit but in a sport that is becoming increas-ingly governed by stats, the numbers on this occasion don't lie.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY