Wallabies find a reason to win

 
Andrew Logan Columnist

By , 6 Sep 2009 Andrew Logan is a Roar Expert

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On Friday night I tuned into the big league match of the round – the Dragons playing the Eels, with the winner to boast some serious claims to premiership favouritism.

The Eels have been running hotter than hot, whilst the Dragons have endured some tough weeks after a strong start to the season. Notwithstanding recent form, it was no contest. Despite many fans wondering if they still had their mojo working, the Dragons were never headed and on the few occasions they had the ball, the Parramatta attack was shut down in by a Dragons defence that could only be described as a brick wall.

What chance the Wallabies of turning in a similar performance, I wondered? Well, I soon found out. Like many of the non-St-George league fans who were deathriding the Dragons, I found that it just doesn’t pay to write a team off too early.

On Saturday night I tuned into the big rugby match of the weekend, the Springboks vs the Wallabies. The Springboks had been running hotter than hot, whilst the Wallabies had endured some tough weeks after an adequate start to the season. Despite many fans wondering if they even had any mojo left, the Wallabies were never headed.

How could this be? How does a team whose last couple of starts have been so error ridden that your head could explode just watching them, overnight become a clinical machine in control of a match from beginning to end?

To be fair to the Springboks, the turnaround is not as great as it might appear at first glance. The Tri-Nations is an inherently close competition. With only 3 teams who consistently sit at the top of the world rankings, how could it be otherwise?

Not only is the overall competition close, but the Springboks and the Wallabies historically don’t travel well to each other’s countries. The Springboks are better than the Wallabies in this regard, but not by much, and both teams have had shockers playing away in the last couple of years.

Although the Springboks are over-endowed with world XV players (Matfield, Botha, Habana, de Villiers, Fourie, du Preez, du Plessis would all press for selection), at the end of the day it is still also just fifteen on fifteen and when one fifteen fires, anything can happen.

The fans perhaps shouldn’t be surprised anyway. The Wallabies camp has consistently said that they were building to something, and Boks skipper John Smit presciently reminded anyone who’d listen that there wasn’t much between a 46-0 flogging at Suncorp in 2006 and the 2007 World Cup.

Of course, all of this only explains the opportunity that existed, the fact that circumstance would allow a win. It doesn’t explain the execution of the turnaround itself. So, how did it happen?

For a start, and for the first time in ages, the Wallabies showed clear and apparent desire in everything they did. The focus in their approach was obvious as was the urgency and the desire to set the pace of the match.
Desire isn’t something you can manufacture out of nothing. Within a rugby team, desire comes from wanting something for those around you as much as you want it for yourself. It comes from being down and realizing that you want to get up. It comes from self respect and the desire to show others, and show yourself that you are worthy.

These wounded Wallabies seemed to suddenly realize that the only way out of the hole they were in, was to play their way out. And so they did.

Like the Dragons on Friday night, the Wallabies muscled up in numbers and hit hard when they got there. Tatafu Polota-Nau tackled strongly and made two telling hits on Brussow and du Preez which jolted the ball free and turned the flow of the match. When Jacques Fourie was storming toward the Wallaby line after a de Villiers break, there were 5 or 6 Wallabies on hand to drag him down, immediately form up into a defensive line and force the turnover on the next phase.

These were the inches the Wallabies had struggled to find in previous matches, but their desire to earn respect from each other and from the fans pushed them to greater efforts. Rocky Elsom’s hands may not be the best, but his heart is without peer, and it was as though his teammates had finally followed his example.

The lineout redeemed itself, again through the reliability of Elsom jumping at 2. The throw was also largely predictable which ensured the Wallabies a regular flow of possession. At the other set piece, the scrum battle was even enough, although the Wallabies may have shaded the Boks towards the end of the match with the South African front row twice popping up like startled meerkats as the pressure came on.

The highball, which had also been an achilles heel for the Wallabies in recent weeks, was solid as you like with Lachie Turner particularly taking his own advice, and working hard to position well and take the ball on his chest.

Each of these facets – the defence, the set piece and the surety in fielding the kicked ball, invariably meant that halfback Will Genia had a stable platform from which to distribute ball and he was a joy to watch. Low to the ground, marshalling his troops, barking orders and sweeping the ball off the deck with a fluent and accurate pass, Genia’s decision making was also first rate, and he was unlucky to not score on debut with a swift and correct decision to take a quick tap from a penalty in front of the posts.

He was not the only Wallaby to be denied. Lachie Turner was prevented from scoring by an utterly brilliant piece of cover defence from Bryan Habana, and Matt Giteau narrowly missed capitalizing on Adi Jacobs brain-snap inside pass, when his foot slipped inches into touch as he grounded the ball.

The Wallabies could have had 5 tries with a little luck, but more gratifying than that was the fact that they kept working and pressuring the Springboks even though things weren’t always going their way. Eventually the pressure worked in their favour and something did go their way, with Adam Ashley-Cooper running a transcendent unders line to slice through the Boks defence and swan dive over the chalk virtually untouched.

The try illustrated all that was good about the Wallaby backline on the night, with the players working together, Berrick Barnes taking the pressure off Matt Giteau and freeing him up to threaten the line from further out, and finally Ashley-Cooper hitting the gap with intent, speed and angle.

His post try celebration spoke volumes about the pressure the Wallabies have been under lately. It was almost as though Ashley-Cooper was apologizing to the fans for the recent run of horror rugby, and the players and fans embraced like lovers who had found each other again after a bad breakup and a year or so apart.

Are we all friends again? Well, Australian fans are not nasty or bloody minded, but they are very unforgiving of teams which don’t value the jersey, or who look like they are not really interested. On tonight’s form, the Wallabies probably would have played themselves back into favour even if they didn’t win, because it was clear that they were trying their guts out. More than that, they finally played some smart and composed rugby.

Unlike the Dragons in the NRL, the Wallabies chances to pick up some silverware in this year’s Tri Nations are long gone. They won’t want to help out the All Blacks either, because the only way for the All Blacks to win the Tri-Nations, is for them to beat both the Wallabies and Springboks in their remaining two games. From a trophy perspective, it’s all over.

There’s nothing for the Wallabies to play for now, except pride. And if Saturday night is any indication, that might be the best reason of all.

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