Wallaby young guns really didn’t fire

 
Spiro Zavos Columnist

By , 22 Jun 2009 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert

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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

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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