Plenty of questions for Ireland and England

 
Brett McKay Columnist

By , 15 Jun 2010 Brett McKay is a Roar Expert

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The first weekend of international rugby on both sides of the Tasman for 2010 has resulted in a massive win for New Zealand, an impressive win for Australia, and plenty of questions for both Ireland and England.

With both nations coming south on the back of respective second and third placings in the Six Nations, it would turn out a disappointing night for both.

The All Blacks opened their 2010 account in empathic fashion in the regional city of New Plymouth, recording a 66-28 demolition of the Irish, and extending their unbeaten run to 25 Tests dating back for 105 years.

No doubt, Ireland were cornered from the moment they lost No.8 Jamie Heaslip for the remainder of the game for a couple of loose knees in the ruck, and their defence was stretched even further when flyhalf Ronan O’Gara was sin-binned.

Forced to defend for ten minutes of the first half with only 13 men, there is little wonder Ireland were little match for the All Blacks’ onslaught. 38-7 at halftime was a fair indication of the one-sidedness.

For the All Blacks, while outside centre Conrad Smith was back to his best, the young brigade really stood out. Prop Ben Franks was great upfront, alongside older brother and fellow prop Owen, inside centre Benson Stanley was outstanding in midfield, and fullback Israel Dagg was rock solid at the back (no pun intended, honestly). Young lock Sam Whitelock capped the perfect debut with two second half tries, his first coming from his first touch of the ball.

In fact, the All Blacks gave us a real glimpse of the future during the last half hour, with young superstar flyhalf Aaron Cruden coming on for Dan Carter, and winger Zac Guildford joining the fray and dropping the average age even further. It’s fair to say the future still looks bloody good for New Zealanders. Dammit…

For Ireland though, it must be concerning the way the All Blacks opened up their defence so regularly, and will no doubt be a huge focus as they head to Australia for their June 26 showdown with the Wallabies.

On a positive note, the Irish were able to stem the flow in the second half, finishing with three tries to New Zealand’s four. Ireland Captain and outside centre Brian O’Driscoll showed why he’s still considered one of the best no.13s in world rugby with a superb individual try, and had a hand in another too.

Actually, Ireland’s backs all showed glimpses in the second half, but by then the damage was well and truly done. Of course, the question remains why it took so long. They have plenty to work on over the next week and a bit.

On this side of the ditch, the Wallabies put aside the demolition of their inexperienced scrum to comfortably account for the motherland 27-17.

England will undoubtedly point to their scrum as being a major point of attack in this game, but the fact is their scrum was their only point of attack. The closest they came to scoring an actual try was when Wallaby No.8 Richard Brown and winger Drew Mitchell brilliantly held up flanker Tom Croft over the line.

Shortly after that, England received two penalty tries from continual scrum infringements from the at times hapless Australian pack.

You had to feel for the inexperienced Wallaby front row, who famously went into the match with less Test minutes between them than their opposites’ number of Tests. When tighthead prop Salesi Ma’afu was sin-binned in the second half – and probably 20 minutes later than he should have been – the Wallabies’ front row comprised three guys with just two bench appearances between them.

Yet for all the scrum troubles, the Wallabies were outstanding in this match, and scrumhalf Luke Burgess and flyhalf Quade Cooper gave displays that would test any decent superlative dictionary. Burgess particularly played possibly his best game in Gold and was in everything in a dominant first forty.

Most pleasing was that the one area I was critical of him last week, standing over the ball at the back of the ruck, was non-existent and his service to Cooper was first class all night. I see Burgess won a flood of praise on The Roar on Sunday too, and with a nice spattering of apologies and “I was wrong” comments among them. Just as I said of Josh Valentine last week, it was telling that Robbie Deans left Will Genia on the bench.

Cooper was directing play with aplomb, no doubt wanting to take on more of a lead role in the absence of Matt Giteau. Cooper used the inside ball to great success most of the night, to the point that centres Berrick Barnes and Rob Horne had quite nights in attack.

James O’Connor continued his dangerous form from last week’s mid-week Australian Barbarians game (now ingeniously relabelled the “Australian Shackledraggers” by those on The Roar protective of the Barbarians name and traditions. Well played, Viscount).

The Wallabies dominated the ruck contest I thought, and it was worth noting in the second half that they were able to pick and choose when to hold back and when to contest. That nearly a third of England’s ruck ball was slow illustrates this beautifully, and while England Captain Lewis Moody seemed a lone hand in the ruck at times, the Wallabies were well-served by Captain Rocky Elsom, David Pocock, Brown and lock Nathan Sharpe.

England looked clueless in attack, save for outside centre Mike Tindall, who was surprisingly benched late in the game. More surprising was that the man who replaced him, Jonny Wilkinson, didn’t come on after halftime for flyhalf Toby Flood.

Perth was the June danger game for the Wallabies, for mine, and I’d now expect them to have few troubles in Sydney next weekend.

My lovely wife probably best summed up England’s showing. Despite battling a failing voice for the last week, she proclaimed in the post-match, “go home, two penalty tries, you can’t even score you big fatties!”

Exactly my sentiments.

If perhaps not in those words.

Follow Brett McKay on Twitter: @BMcSport
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