By Spiro Zavos
September 24th 2007 @ 8:48am
RWC: Wallabies lacklustre in beating Fiji 55-12
I decided to leave the ground at Montpellier about five minutes before the end of the Australia-Fiji match. I wanted to be back in my hotel room to see the start of the All Blacks match against Scotland. As I moved past Wayne Smith, the rugby writer for The Australian, he called: ‘It’s not that bad, Spiro, is it?’
Only partly in jest, I replied: ‘I think it is.’
In truth, the Wallabies were always going to win this match against a Fiji side that was holding back players for the crucial match next weekend against Wales at Nantes. But they did make heavy weather of putting the Fijians away. In the end the scoreline of 55 – 12 was flattering to the Wallabies, who missed Stirling Mortlock’s power in attack and defence. There was too much running across the field by George Gregan which didn’t give the backs much space and time to set up their moves.
There will be disappointment, too, that Fiji scored two tries which is double the tries scored against the Wallabies in the entire tournament in 1999. Perhaps the fact that the Wallaby pack won a number of tight heads unsettled the team. Those who play golf will know the syndrome that when your driving is going badly and you’re putting well, your putting will always go bad when your driving improves.
It’s hard to know what to make of the Scotland-NZ match at Murrayfield as both teams seemed to be wearing the same jerseys. How the RWC officials could allow this to happen is beyond me. I think the team playing from the NZ end of the field won the game but who would know?
On the tram coming from the Australia-Fiji match there was a group of Scotland supporters dressed in their kilts. I heard them chatting about the outrageous prices being charged for tickets to the Scotland-NZ match. One of the kilted men said that he was so outraged by the high prices and the fact that Scotland were playing a second XV that he wanted NZ to win: ‘C’mon the All Blacks!’ he bellowed, startling a baby and her mother, and the rest of us in the same carriage.
Which All Blacks did he mean? The All Blacks playing in the Scotland colours, or Scotland playing in the All Blacks touring jerseys?
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vincent said | September 24th 2007 @ 9:46am | Report comment
Not a very entertaining game I think. The wallabies are not as clinical as we’d like…yet..There were some standout plays. Good to seee Palu having rampaging runs and Elsom getting a fair bir of space. Barnes kicking was pretty good too. The centres missed some spark, I agree with Spiro that Stirling Mortklock is the key to this back line. As for the wingers, I think I’m on a crusade here, I actually have put a bet on that Lote will not score a try in this tournament. It continually irks me that players like Drew Mitchell (who actually score tries) are being made to fight for their positions while a player like Lote Tiquiri’s ego keeps being massaged. I read some incredulous interview where he blamed his getting the ball on being the slow service he was getting. What about the ‘give me time’ line? If a world class winger cannot score against weaker teams what hope does he have in the bigger games? Yes, I probably sound obsessive and I am clearly becoming so. He had a few good runs in the Fiji game and set up some tries with strong running but as much as some people say he has a great work rate, I always contend that from rugby league to rugby union, a wingers currency is tries. It just gets tougher from here, the knives should have been out a long time ago. Mine are.
Terry Kidd said | September 24th 2007 @ 9:49am | Report comment
Thanks Spiro, I would have to agree with your comments. I thought that the Wallabies were very disjointed however I was quite happy with Tuqiri’s game …. he did all the right things and nothing wrong, tis not his fault he did not get to score a try
. He certainly made himself available and did quite a lot of ‘heavy’ work.
I continue to like Berrick Barnes at 10. I’d like to see him take on the line a little more often but one big plus …. we do not seem to be missing Bernie, and do we actually want him back for the quarters?
Sam Taulelei said | September 24th 2007 @ 10:20am | Report comment
Those new jerseys made it damn hard to distinguish between the two sides. Traditionally Scotland and NZ have worn white jerseys when they are the home team so as to avoid the clash between navy blue and black but the new strips from Canterbury and Adidas made a mockery of that concern. NZ would have been better off playing in their original jerseys.
An exercise in frustration best sums up the All Blacks performance against Scotland. Good points were an improved lineout, the scrum returning to its best form to date, Doug Howlett setting a new tryscoring record, improved defensive performance, no forward injuries although the jury is still out on Leon MacDonald and a man of the match performance by Chris Masoe. A lot of unforced handling errors, a below par goalkicking performance from Dan Carter, missed try scoring opportunities and general rustiness will give them plenty to work on for Romania and the quarterfinals.
On a weekend when all the Tri Nations teams were expected to put their opponents to the sword, neither team covered themselves with any glory.
gforce said | September 24th 2007 @ 11:03am | Report comment
A win is a win, but if we are going to win ithe RWC, you would have liked it to be a bit more clinical and structured.
But Fiji (and Tonga and Samoa) can be difficult to play because the are good at disrupting the flow with big hits and an agressive game plan.
The forwards went well and the scrum was strong. How good could Fiji ( and Tonga and Samoa) be if they had a serious coaching program with the same amount of time and money spent on them that the tier 1’s spend. Surely there is a strong case to devote some serious resources to bring the next 4 ( T, S, F, A) up to teir one level.
I thought Gregan had an average game. He was up to his usual trick of not picking up the ball, looking everywhere else except at the ball at the back of the ruck and giving up the turnover. His slowness in getting the ball away also led to a classic turnover when it was kicked out of his hand.
Tquiri has lost pace and struggles to get around or away from anyone now. He is busy, gets involved and contributes ,but it would be nice for him to score more tries ( or even one try) . Barnes continues to blossom – a real team player with all the skills. Compare his performances against say Kurtly Beale , who tends to play for himself rather than moving the team around the field. BB has had the experience and benefit of 2 S14 seasons and it shows.
I think we are still in it with a chance to win the whole thing. NZ must crying out for a hard game – they haven’t played a game in anger since the TN.
How good were Tonga – a great game and they almost got away with a draw or a win right on the bell.
Curl said | September 24th 2007 @ 11:39am | Report comment
The scoreline probably looks OK, except for the points against, all of which came from poor play by the Wallabies. ‘Lackluster’ sums it up, and it hardly helps with the crucial momentum required to win the tournament. The only real highlight I thought was some individual performances – dare I say it – Tuqiri looked energetic, now hopefully he can regain some touch to make him more effective.
I thought Palu looked like he was starting to regain some confidence, Giteau was sharp and I thought Mitchell read the game well. The forwards also looked better, but against a Fijian pack, I don’t think we can take too much away from that. The coach didn’t look happy at the end of the game. Hopefully, they can reignite the momentum next week against Canada and the following week against either England or Tonga, before they if their first major challenge of the tournament. Go the Wallabies.
Curl
Peter L said | September 24th 2007 @ 11:48am | Report comment
It was ironic looking at the trans-tasman takes on the respective games today. Rugbyheave NZ declared that “Rusty ABs defeat creaky Scotland” and “Wallabies thrash Fiji” while Rugbyheaven Aus said “NZ thump Scotland (qualified with comments about the high error rate)” and “Giteau too hot for Fiji (qualified by comments about an overall lacklustre performance).”
Reality check. Scotland are a 6N team albeit not a regular in the top slots, but a good journeyman team none the less. certainly a top 10 in the world team – and NZ held them scoreless while placing the pill on the crowd side of the Scottish ultimate defensive line on 6 occasions. Regardless of concentration lapses and white line fever, that, my friends, is a thrashing.
Fiji have been almost as much of a gift to this RWC as Tonga, refreshingly competative along with their usual sevens-style verve and pizzaz. While they have harldy been what you would call prime contentders for a QF spot, none the less they are no easy-beats, so a 37 point margin makes this, too, a thrashing.
Both the Wallabies and the ABs set enormously high standards for themselves, and their fans expect even higher, but sirs, expressing that either team did not play well in executing two thrashings early this morning is to serve them a rich injustice. In fact both games were even (relatively) entertaining because of the errors, and because of the fairly high work rates of all four teams involved.
Credit where it’s due.
Now, ont it – go the ABs, 100 points + over Romania, then smack the French clear into Algeria in the QF – 20 points would be OK, 30 would be justice. Hurl the Wallabies back to Australia in the semi and show SA up for the chest-beaters they are in the final.
David said | September 24th 2007 @ 1:01pm | Report comment
I agree with gforce about GG’s slow service against Fiji. Too lateral. Everyone was a bit off though. Maybe the humidity had something to do with it. It was a pretty scrappy affair.
Re the turnover at the scrum base…is it legal to kick the ball out of a player’s hand as he’s in the act of passing, as happened to Gregan? I thought the Fijian half should have been penalised.
Andrew B said | September 24th 2007 @ 2:40pm | Report comment
Vincent,
Lets sum up LT’s performance.
* Set up the first try (yes, he didn’t outrun the Fijian winger, but they aren’t exactly slow!)
* Would have scored if Git’s wasn’t selfish/confidant/brilliant
* Would have scored it Latham would have popped it to him when he was brought down 3m out
* Set up Mitchells first try (maybe could have tried a step and gone himself, but chose the better, safer option)
* Had a big part in the final try
I’m pretty happen with that report card. I’ve said it before, and will say it again – LT is a tool, but he is still a decent player!
Hugh Dillon said | September 24th 2007 @ 3:01pm | Report comment
I watched the Fox Sports version of the game with an English commentator (who is it?) and Simon Mannix calling the game. They were both far more impressed by the Wallabies in the first half than I was. Of course, the Wals were on a hiding to n nothing playing Fiji A, but the impressive moves mostly seemed to falter with the line almost within reach. With all those turnovers I was thinking that the All Blacks might have scored a couple of 14 point tries. Yet, the encouraging thing is that ht Wallabies are making mistakes trying to keep the ball alive, off-loading. This is why the All Black forwards dominate the rest of the world and why the All Blacks are able to be beaten — Australians can off-load too and so can the French and South Africans. Having learned this but having given away their trade secret a couple of years ago, the Blacks have given everyone time to catch them up. Can they stay ahead for the rest of the tournament? It looks like it but they are beatable if someone else puts together a perfect game. Thank God Eddie Jones is advising Sth Africa and not the Wallabies!!
vincent said | September 24th 2007 @ 3:02pm | Report comment
Andrew, I totally agree with your appraisal of LT’s game (at one point I was almost thinking conspiracy that he never got the last touch to score), and I agree that he had a realtively good game and he can be ’sometimes’ be a decent player. However my problems is that how can a world class winger claim to be such when he is not able to score tries in these sort of group matches? I may be old school about this, but like I said before, a wingers currency is speed (which he has) and scoring tries (which he hasn’t been). He is at the somewhere in the bottom of the triy scoring ladder on all wingers in the tri nations in the world cup as well as domestic tests as well as the Super 14. The question then is, are we satisfied with a winger who does not score tries and has a high work rate in other areas? Does this make him a bad winger? I’m sure he would be right at home with his workrate and involvment in a few other positions but the way things are going for him, for 6 million dollars I might have been a tad overenthusiastic, hoping for the whole package he used to have of some scintillating try scoring feats, some ‘finishing nous’. Guess for now, while we wait for that, I have to watch Habana, Rockococo, Howlett and thank god one for the wallabies in Mitchell. I am just wondering if at the end of the tournament he remains tryless, then it’ll be ok because he has other qualities he brings to the table? or maybe he”ll show his full arsenal at the bigger games?
Maggie said | September 24th 2007 @ 3:44pm | Report comment
I have watched every match so far. My favourite has been Sth Africa vs Tonga. I think the best try to date has been scored by the Japanese player (Wales vs Japan 20/9/07?) stealing the ball and making a dash from his own 22.
I do have a question. I am currently reading “Watching the Rugby World Cup” by Spiro Zavos. Great book! On page 130 Zavos reminds us of a story in Peter FitzSimon’s biography of John Eales, regarding John O’Neill being wise to Vernon Pugh’s trechery during the 1999 quarter final. Apparently a team can be disqualified if they bring a player back on after he has been replaced. The only time this can be done is if it is for a blood bin.
During the New Zealand vs Scotland match played early this morning (AEST), they were going to bring on a player that had already been replaced. Has the law changed?
de Villiers said | September 24th 2007 @ 4:23pm | Report comment
You have uncovered a gem in Barnes, with Gitts on his shoulder the aussies will create havoc in future, watch out opposite backlines.
Unfortunately, I must disagree with you on Lote – he is totally overrated bad news, the sooner you see the back of him the better. As for Gregan – this may be one WC too many.
It’s difficult too measure a team’s progress against the lesser teams, the aussies picked up maximum points, couldn’t ask for more. Same for the ABs and the Boks, although I am a bit concerned about the Boks, White did not show the Tongans enough respect who in turn played wonderful rugby.
Dexter William said | September 24th 2007 @ 6:27pm | Report comment
Thanks Spiro. As usual your article stirred quite a few good comments. Here’s mine:
GG – played well against the Welsh. In fact it was the best game that I have seen him play for a long while, but a week later he was absolutely crap. The habit of yapping (probably being captain) is annoying to see from a spectator’s point of view, even though it may be effective for the Wallabies at times. He talks so much to the point that his ball playing losses momentum. I shouted several times at the TV “get on with it already.” Totally frustrating. Slowed down the whole team’s attack. In my opinion he was the reason why the back line did not fire as it should. Too slow and too distracted to do a good job. What do we do with him?
LT – Even though he did not score, he intimidates the opponents. He does suck in the opposition’s defenders. No opposition would dare to ignore his presence – AB included. I would like to see the coaches giving him set moves so that he could be brought into the game a bit more. Another thing is that (this is my observation) those around him does not like him very much, and do not like passing to him.
DM – Even though he scores several tries in this comp, he appears very weak in the tackle and lacks strength and toughness to be a good test player. Seems to shy away from the hard and tough work (similarly my biggest problem with Huxley). This is where LT is so much more superior to DM. DM needs to toughen up mentally. I would rather see AAC plaing on the wing in DM position.
AAC – As can be seen in this game, is nowhere near SM standard. Play him in the wing instead of DM.
Defence in general – One thing that was amazing in the France Argentina game was the ability of the Argies to prevent tries being scored from 1 metre out. I am not sure if John Muggleton noticed that the Argies dip their head and shoulder right under the charging drives from the French attack at close range. They held out at least twenty of those low and hard drives by wedging their head and shoulders under the drives of the French at half a metre from the try line. Very committed and fearless defense. Really amazing how they did it without getting their heads knocked off, but it was very effective.
Against Wales, the Wallabies defence on the try line was weak compared to what the Argies did. I hope John Muggleton pick-up on the method the Argies defends. It would be useful to analyse this before the QF.
Cheers
Spiro Zavos said | September 24th 2007 @ 8:30pm | Report comment
Maggie
Thanks for liking my book Watching The Rugby World Cup (Allen and Unwin). The laws on replacing players, like most of the laws of rugby, are quite complex. As I understand it, and if I’m wrong there must be a referee or a coach or tragic out there to put me right, but if a player goes into the blood bin, he can be replaced by a reserve until he comes ak on to the field. If a player is replaced, he cannot come back on to the field UNLESS he is used as a blood bin replacement.
On his winning RWC 2003 campaign, Clive Woodward employed a top QC to be full time with his England squad. The QC was needed when through total arrogance on the part of the England coaching staff they shoved a player on the field at Sydney (was in the quarter-final against Wales?) before an injured player had left the field. England had 16 men on the field while the ball was in play. The QC was able to earn his keep by getting England off the legal hook they’d hung themselves up on.
Bob McGregor said | September 25th 2007 @ 5:00am | Report comment
Have been at all the Oz games at RWC 2007 and think Wallabies are doing all that is necessary to win comfortably but the 16th man is creating problems for them and the 17th and 18th are also ineffective in “policing” the laws and it is “showing” on the field..
Oz had two tries scored against them in Wales. First was touch and go while second contained 2 knock ons and should have been brought back. So overall effort in defense was quite good. Wales only started looking really good when playing 13 men. Drew Mitchell having bombed 2 tries in as many minutes let his frustration show and his discipline got the better of him and was yellow carded. He is going to be a great winger when he learns to keep his frustrations to himself and concentrates on watching the ball into his hands instead of having a “bo peep” at the defense. He also needs to use a sliding kick and chase when confronted at the final line of defense. His speed shud see him regather and score more often than not.
In the Fiji game very poor defense by Tiquri let the Winger in before half time. He shud have put him in touch but this shows he is very suspect in defence. Early in the second half Fiji scored from a blatant crooked throw to the lineout which virtually ended up in the Half’s hand who fed short pass to their No. 7 who went through the gap all the way to the tryline. A wakeup call to the Wallabies to play the whistle. The Welsh referee Owen had a shocker and the linesmen were little better. Fiji were losing every straight lineout so reverted to throwing to the outside hands while interferring with the Wallaby jumpers at the same time. Such was the dominance of our lineout and scrum it appeared the laws were being flouted to “even” up the game. The try Fiji should haved scored was negated by their replacement inside centre having white line fever in second half. Late in second half with Cordingly and Huxley moving into space they looked very dangerous every time and good TEAM tries resulted. I was quite satisfied with the result – mindful one can only play within the parameters laid down by the game officials.
Although Tiquri played his best game todate he has a tendency to “over run” the ball carrier. Good players “position” themselves for the final pass and don’t put themselves into such a situation. Once his “timing” improves he will start scoring tries. He also must not let the kick off ball bounce, and team mates MUST let their nearest player know who should catch the high ball. Come the finals this weakness will be exploited.
I saw many positives and few negatives and believe the Wallabies are on course for a semi final spot probably against Les Bleau! yes les Bleau – PROVIDED the AB’s are made to adhere to the laws of the game.
jools-usa said | September 25th 2007 @ 5:28am | Report comment
Spiro,
Maybe I’m clutching “at what broke the camel ’s back”, but after first few minutes I like the new effort to pass out of the tackle, especially against Fiji who tackle hard & allover you..
Rocky, Wycliff & Latho had solid games but Geo G looked slower than usua. That’s probably due to the shambles of the rucks & mauls & tap-backs at the lineout.
It has to be hard to rise up in “non-must” games, (witness the worry that NZ writers have), & hopefuly they can surge
when they meet Poms (if!) or whomever at the quarters.
Regards
Jools-USA
Harry said | September 25th 2007 @ 5:55am | Report comment
Spot on Spiro. Gregan was very poor on the weekend, running sideways not forward and doing the old thre step shuffle before passing, slowing everything down. But thats 100% deliberate by him and we’ve seen countless other examples of this in the last four years. His only goal on the weekend was to get through this match without injuring himself or taking too many knocks. The guy is 34 and with his size its a phenomenal effort to be still matching it with the modern young giants like the Fijian hard-hitters.
He’ll sharpen up for the finals and put it all on the line for one last massive effort. He might even try and run at the line!
Overall we are travelling pretty well, good news on Staniforth’s injury not being tournament ending.
Fairplay said | September 25th 2007 @ 7:55am | Report comment
Have enjoyed the varied comments on the article; it certainly is an improvement on the past when one had to accept the reporters report which like a lot of G.Growden’s can be a waste of time. Gregan had a poor game, most likely a result of allowing him to captain the side- he was lucky not to be sinbinned for giving the ref so much advice. The ref was obvioulsy “Pissed Off” when he told him he made the decisions not George. Another point when they are scoring tries will they stop trying to be showmen- Mitchell was lucky to get away with the one scored under the posts-it was bounced ,not put down properly.
Julian Evans said | September 25th 2007 @ 11:32am | Report comment
Spiro,
I was happy enough with the performance. Palu is reminding more and more of Toti Kefu, and Elsom has come a long way . Together they allow Smith and on saturday Waugh, to avoid being used as battering rams and utilise their speed around the park to get to the breakdown and provide good cover for the inside backs. I actually think Gregan has played as well as he possibly can. His service is of course not as good as it was in 99, but he is much more involved with the attack and getting to the breakdown very smartly.
The pity with the RWC is that for half the tournament it is very difficult to get a gauge on the performance of top teams because there are very few contests between the elite nations. For the ABs they won’t run into a credible team until the QF and then its death or glory, likely as not against the French. Meanwhile, England can be pathetic, but if they put it all together on the day could upset Australia. Neither of these is likely given the way the four teams are playing but the RWC does tend to underreward strong performances in the pool games and over reward teams just doing enough to win through the QFs. The tournament would be much improved if there were 12 teams and pools of 4, with each nation playing each other twice (6 games) and then only the top team in the pool going straight to a SF. This would make all games more competitive and all results more important. It would add one week to the tournament but reduce the lopsided results. In return the weaker nations should have a separate qualifying tournament nations, for the two positions outside the 6 nations, and 4 southern hemsipheres teams.
Zac Zavos said | September 25th 2007 @ 12:14pm | Report comment
Some great photos of this match have just been posted:
http://www.theroar.com.au/2007/09/25/your-photos-from-australia-v-fiji/
Cheers, Zac
fulbak said | September 27th 2007 @ 9:48pm | Report comment
If the WALLABIES are to win a game in the finals – they have to have quick phase ball and with that the backs need room to work moves or at least be on the front foot when confronting the defense. For that to happen they cannot have a halfback who RUNS BACK 2 STEPS AND SIDEWAYS UP TO 3 STEPS! This crazy play defeats the fundamentals of intelligent backline play. When will Knuckles work this out? – When it’s too late of course. The score against Fiji should have been 55 nil in the first half. They were woeful, intimidated and awol at the breakdowns but were given so much time to defend in the backs – they had enough sense to simply move up and get in the way of simple passing.
Costa Lote is not performing as he hasn’t all year on the wing – so use him as impact when the defense is tired. The ARU has to justify it’s overspending. Get real & get smart or go home early. Staniforth or even Gits on the wing would at least know where to be. You’d think they’d have learned their lesson when during the RWC Final in 2003 the Wallabies had 3 “leaguies” at the back. Rogers, Sailor and Tiquiri – with the finest fullback/wing combination on the bench – Burke and Roff. The Poms were rubbing their hands and found them all out of position the entire game.
If they beat the Tongans – beware the Poms in a quarter final……..remember ‘95.