As I was going to bed on Saturday night, 5 minutes before the end of the Wallabies v Springbok debacle, I couldn’t but help thinking, if this was a horse race they would probably be having a Steward’s inquiry.
How is it that a team that was so dominant last week was so submissive this week?
A thought begins to take root – yeah, there’s something in this … maybe they slipped a mickey into the sandwiches or the drinks in the dressing shed that would make the boys just a bit lethargic – just enough to be off the pace. Yeah, that’s it. Everyone else will have seen it.
Hopefully by the time I wake up from my Sunday sleep-in the websites and the news articles will be running hot, as the local cops have been called in to take swabs and some notorious local criminal has been caught up in a betting scandal (I did have a few wines during the evening!).
So I got up this morning, ready to see the headlines touting the scandal and there weren’t any. Can’t these people see the obvious? The boys must have been nobbled.
Nuh!
Plan B (fall back position) – what’s our excuse?
Well, here is where I think we fell down.
1. Vickerman wasn’t there
2. George Smith should have been the “horses for courses” pick, rotation or not
3. Polota-Nau is a great hooker but a lousy thrower
4. Tahu’s debut was premature – he was lost in the traffic (with the benefit of hindsight and no disrespect to Timana)
5. Mortlock at 12 and Cross at 13 was a better option on the day (with the benefit of hindsight)
6. Giteau was expected to do too much
7. We kicked way too much
8. We were thin on the edges
9. The Wallabies did not seem capable of adjusting their game plan
10. They didn’t handle the altitude as well as the Boks, and, of course…
11. A loss for the Boks would have meant that they all might as well have started looking for other jobs, overseas, especially the coach!
Sure, it’s a kicking game nowadays, but what is wrong with holding the ball and playing the phases?
Putting the ball through the hands gives you options, because you can keep the structure in your game. When you kick, you have less structure.
When you are that many points down, you don’t dig a hole and crawl into it, you run over the top of the trenches with bayonets fixed and CHARGE!
All of those things combined, not counting the massive home ground advantage, and maybe in the back of the guys’ minds was the fact that a) they had climbed their mountain the week before; and b) it was a dead rubber. These combined to make it all too hard. I bet that is what Robbie comes up with.
Can they regroup in two weeks? This is Robbie’s first real big test. Talk about peaks and troughs – he has had a few peaks from day one, and now he has this trough that not many other Australian coaches have been through. They’ve had a complete shocker. Poor guy.
It’s nothing if not interesting.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
Unfortunately, the only criteria for this Dream XV are that you had to have passed away. During my research, I thought of potential players…
Rassie Erasmus will coach champions South Africa to the 2027 Rugby World Cup, with former Ireland hooker Jerry Flannery added to the technical team…
What goes up must come down, right? As the kicking game in rugby has continued to progress and progress over the last few years,…
South Africa's director of rugby Rassie Erasmus has been admitted to hospital after a freak accident left him with chemical burns. Erasmus, who has…
Rugby has had some ridiculous kickers. The ability and skill with the boot can turn the course of a play, a scoreline, or a…
Thieves have touched the William Webb Ellis trophy during a break-in at South African Rugby Union's HQ but thankfully decided against swiping the World…
