David Pocock of Australia during the Australia v Italy Rugby Union game at the Ethiad Stadium in Melbourne, Saturday, June 20, 2009. Australia beat Italy 34-12. AAP Image/Martin Philbey
The Wallaby side that scored five tries in defeating Italy 34-12 was deemed to be an experimental selection. The experiment worked in that it told coach Robbie Deans a lot about some of his young guns. The problem is that the information was bad news.
The young guns didn’t really fire.
The French with their penchant for the telling phrase call the front row the ‘orchestra pit’. It’s where the basis for the rugby music is laid. As the British and Irish Lions showed in their Test against the Springboks, a team can’t be on song around the park when the front row is off-key.
The young Wallaby front row was out-played at scrum time, although all three of the youngsters were excellent around the field. Tatafu Polota-Nau’s lineout throwing was, as usual, often off target.
Summary: Deans will want his Test front row of Al Baxter, Stephen Moore and Benn Robinson to stay intact for this season’s tough matches in the Tri-Nation tournament and the Grand Slam tour at the end of the year.
The same sort of comment about the front row can be applied to the second row. Dean Mumm does not seem to have the bulk, although his statistics are impressive (1.96m, 109kg), for the second row. Peter Kimlin (1.98m, 114kg) seems better suited for the second row, rather than the side of the scrum.
Bob Dwyer used to make the point that if a player had a special talent that was rare for his position coaches should resist the temptation to play him in the more obvious position. Kimlin is very mobile for a second-rower so perhaps this is where he should be left, as the successor in due course to Nathan Sharpe as the number 4 jumper in the lineout.
David Pocock showed touches of the brutal, hard-shouldered play that is a feature of his play. But it was George Smith, playing at number 8, who got the majority of the Wallabies turnovers.
Summary: With Rocky Elsom coming back soon and Wycliff Palu and Richard Brown out injured, there is some depth in the middle and backrow positions for the next couple of years, or at least until the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
It was noticeable that Luke Burgess ran a lot more than he did in the Super 14 tournament. He is a strong runner and his breaks opened up the Italian defences. But his passing remains poor, harbour bridge floaters mainly that put his inside backs under pressure.
Advice: Do what David Kirk, a halfback of similar style to Burgess, did the summer before the 1987 Rugby World Cup tournament and practice your passing. Kirk found a big shed and set up a tyre hanging from a rope tied to the rafters and passed, passed, passed and passed balls through the tyre for hours on end.
Quade Cooper represents Australia’s version of Carlos Spencer. He is extremely gifted with his passing and running skills and his vision in setting up tries. Two of the Wallaby tries came from slick passing, one a long floater and the other a little pop-up after he snaffled a ruck ball. But, like Spencer, his defence is awful. The Italians went through Cooper’s channel as if he wasn’t actually there.
James O’Connor dropped his first ball and played most of the game without the sparkle and step of the first two games. He also cramped a bit. Is this why he wore what looked to be dress socks instead of the usual full-calf Wallaby kit socks?
I’m sure that Deans can read the signs that because he is so young and physically still immature, O’Connor needs to be handled carefully.
I noticed, for instance, that towards the end of the Super 14 season Matt Giteau’s play tended to fall away as his body began to react to all the hits and pressures imposed on it for weeks on end. O’Connor seems to be in a similar sort of position as far as his energy levels are concerned.
O’Connor is a special talent and needs to be (and will be) nurtured through the long Test season, probably coming off the bench for the most part in the tough Tri-Nations matches.
I expect Deans to pick what he expects to be his number 1 side for the Test against France in Sydney on Saturday night. The thing about experiments is that they sometimes reveal ‘known knowns’ and ‘known unknowns,’ to steal some phrases from Donald Rumsfeld.
Deans now knows, too, where his young guns stand in terms of Test play. With the exception of O’Connor, and perhaps Mumm as a flanker, none of them can be rated starter material at this stage of their careers.
But as Cooper showed against Italy last year and Ben Alexander in several Tests, they have the talent to play important cameo roles, when the big stars have made their impact.
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Jason said | June 22nd 2009 @ 8:45am | Report comment
Moore is clearly superior to Polotu-Nau. If you a hooker and you struggle to find your jumpers, you’ve got a problem. I feel like I’ve taken crazy pills when I hear pundits, coaches and commentors say about props. “they struggled in the scrums but they were good around the field so where happy”. If a prop can’t scrum well he should never be picked. Full stop. Surely anyone with any knowledge of recent Australian rugby history would say Pek Cowan should not be in the Australian team. His scrummaging was ordinairy.
Tom said | June 22nd 2009 @ 9:13am | Report comment
Who says the hooker has to throw the lineout? Gowden in the paper today suggested TPN move to tighthead or flanker, which could work, although I’d probably rather see Phil Waugh have a go at hooker.
Blinky Bill of Bellingen said | June 22nd 2009 @ 9:15am | Report comment
” Tatafu Polota-Nau’s lineout throwing was, as usual, often off target.” Is this a case of ‘give a dog a bad name’?
I ask because there are several Roarers writing elsewhere that maybe one of TPN’s throws was not straight but that the rest was actually the fault of the lifters & jumpers.
Also as a former winger I used to throw into the lineout. Maybe there are better options?
Against the Froggies I am hoping that Robbie doesn’t risk too much as we build towards AB’s, Boks & Grand Slam, and starts his strongest team before introducing the better back-ups off the bench. No more of this ‘Tahu in the High Velt’ stuff, thank you very much. Been there, done that.
bennalong said | June 22nd 2009 @ 10:03am | Report comment
There’s no reason why the hooker throws into the lineout and plenty why they shouldn’t.
Different skill sets!
The obvious thrower for the Wallabies is Ben Robinson. Vertically challenged but with exceptional ball skills!
Having said that, the problem was in part with the lifters and in part throwing long.
And if you throw to the back the last man should NOT be a lifter !
MikeN said | June 22nd 2009 @ 10:15am | Report comment
I agree with the Kimlin comment. I think he played well and got around the park well, got to the breakdown and turned the oponent on the ground to assist in setting up one of the tries. But he should be in the second row and Mumm does not have the power for the second row.
As I stated last week, I still think we are weak on confrontational power in the forwards. Good runners with good ball skills but if Smith does not get in there and steal the pill, we wait for the next phase. Did you see the bodies literally being picked up and cast aside by both the AB’s and French, in both matches? We do not have the equivalent. That why we need to have Will Caldwell, a tough, tight no nonsense player but a scrapper, at least in the squad.
Also, did you see the ABs hitting the rucks and mauls, the were usually airborn and rarely ever on their feet. That ref let that go, but in the SA/Lions match players were penalised for not staying on their feet. There is inconsistency in the refereeing at the moment.
Jason, if Pek keeps improving at the speed he has this year he definintely needs to be in the squad. Saw him last year and earlier this year and thought he should be paying the Force rather than they pay him. But as the season went on his play improved and so did the Force scrum. I agree he was outplayed Saturday, but gave away huge amounts in experience. Not to many young props come in to test level games and smash to opposotion. They generally need to be nursed in as no other position required the level of experience a prop needs to really reach their potential.
Even looser said | June 22nd 2009 @ 10:26am | Report comment
Any word yet on Noriega’s role with the Wallabies? I am hoping to see the scrum continue to improve but just as importantly I want see some tough mongrel fowards supporting Smith & Waugh and cleaning out.
We really need to develop that ‘pack mentality’ and smash opposition packs. I’m kind of wary of too many coaches but maybe Owen Finnegin’s (sp?) services should be used as a guest coach from time to time.
matta said | June 22nd 2009 @ 10:51am | Report comment
my lord people talk some rubbish on this site sometimes.
onside said | June 22nd 2009 @ 11:05am | Report comment
As a team ,what scoreline needed to posted for the new players to get a tick.
They won easily.32 -12 .Should they have won by forty or fifty points.This
test was unusual because of wholesale changes.Normally a new player is
blooded alonside experienced canpaigners.I dont see how too much can be
drawn from this match.
bennalong said | June 22nd 2009 @ 11:07am | Report comment
While I agree with a lot of he content Spiro, I think you’re coming from the wrong direction.
So many commentators/Roarers have misread the significance of player selection in the last three games. Ignoring the statements of Deans that all members of the squad were chosen, so all were in contention, they have taken great glee, it seems, in what is perceived as the passing over of Phil Waugh and Lote Tuquiri.
The first three games of the season have all been easy, so Robbie has used them as warm-ups. In the first two he seemed to have been concentrating on coordinating his two pivots in kicking for field position and turning the opposition around.
In the third and last, even though Cooper could be seen as having the same role as Gits and Barnes, Deans pursued the running game.
All of them were hit-outs in the lead up to the Tri nations and the Deans ideology involves the team, above all, being able to adapt to anything it encounters, including changes of personel. Having played REAL footy with each other is particularly valuable for the new blokes and Deans was able to boost their confidence by throwing them in the deep end without a drowning
In your article Spiro, you’ve talked about what he’s learned. I suspect it went pretty much the way he expected and IMO he’d be pretty happy.
His main aim would be to consolidate the lessons of the training field – and he said as much – and he’s proved that his alternative front row can deliver.
The Italians are, if nothing else, good scrummagers. They didn’t dominate.
We’re now approaching the first real Test of the season. The team he chooses will answer a lot of questions.
Lets hope they’ve got the answers
retired rucker said | June 22nd 2009 @ 11:31am | Report comment
Matta, At least there contributing to the discussion.
For me that was an extremely disapointing preformance as a group. I wanted to see the young forwards exert controlled agreession on the game and they failed. This was Horwills opportunity to lead by example and get agressive(as I’ve seen glimses of in the past). As the most experienced of the “young guns” it was a pefrect opportunity he let slip by. Mumm was no where to be seen and Pocock underperformed. Kimlin showed he might have some potential.
The wallabies need some fire in the belly. I rate GS as a standout wallaby but I’m not sure that he works as a captain.
Deans gave some players an opportunity that is pretty special and I feel he will be privately be seething with the way those players repaid him for the opportunity.
As a whole not a good use of 2 hours on saturday, the other 2 games where much more interesting. I thought Brad Thorn had a blinder, we better harden up for the AB’s in a few weeks!
I agree bring back melon! SA and NZ both have the Melon mongrel at the moment and we need some, Rocky?