It’s time for the Wallabies to really lift their game

 
David Lord Columnist

By , 1 Oct 2011 David Lord is a Roar Expert

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Wallabies hooker Stephen Moore (left) and captain James Horwill (right) sit out the Australian team training session (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

Wallaby coach Robbie Deans has a far bigger problem to overcome than Russia at Nelson early this afternoon. Kiwi referee Bryce Lawrence.

Of the many pedantic referees who have surfaced in this Rugby World Cup, Lawrence has emerged as the most aggravating, just ahead of Welshman Nigel Owens, South African Jonathan Kaplan, and Frenchman Romain Poite.

So far Lawrence has refereed England 13 – Argentina 9, Ireland 15 – Wallabies 6, and Samoa 27 – Fiji 7.

All three have featured controversial decisions, missed forward passes, and knock-ons, hard-to-fathom penalties, and allowing the leading side to deliberately slow down play by being late to scrums and lineouts.

But not including scrum resets, one of the banes of the tournament, and the code, Lawrence has blown his whistle 197 times in 240 minutes of rugby.

That doesn’t include the time wasted in preparation for lineouts, scrums, and kicking for goal.

Russian roulette refereeing from Lawrence, and no surer way to kill the momentum of a game from everyone’s point of view – players, coaches, spectators, television viewers, commentators, and writers.

Yawnsville.

To a more positive note now the RWC is about to reach the business end, some interesting stats have emerged after three games each for the 20 countries involved.

* The All Blacks have scored the most points with 161, from the Boks 153, England 121, Wales 114, France 110, the Wallabies 105, and Ireland 99.

* The All Blacks have also scored the most tries with 24, the Boks 20, England 17, Wallabies 15, Wales 14, Italy 13, with France and Ireland sharing 12.

* But the Boks have the best try conversion percentage with 19 conversions of 20 tries for 95%.

* France has converted 10 of 12 tries for 83.33%.

* Ireland 9 of 12 – 75%.

* Wales 10 of 14 – 71.43%

* England 12 of 17 – 70.59%.

* All Blacks 16 of 24 – 66.67 – the most staggering stat of them all.

* Leaving the Wallabies dragging the chain with 9 of 15 for 60%.

But there is a plus for Robbie Deans.

Russia is the worst performed of the 20 competing nations with just 35 points from three games, and 2 conversions of 5 tries for 40%.

That should translate to the Wallabies thumping Russia by at least 60 points.

Anything less and the men-in-gold didn’t try hard enough and will be the underdogs against the Boks in the quarters, despite beating them in four of the last five meetings.

It’s overtime for the Wallabies, and Robbie Deans, to stand up and be counted.

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