RWC: Wallabies lacklustre in beating Fiji 55-12
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By Spiro Zavos, 24 Sep 2007 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert
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?