Deans tips titanic Welsh series battle
Relieved Wallabies coach Robbie Deans has predicted a brilliant three-match series which could go down to the wire after an enthralling 27-19 triumph over Wales on Saturday night.
Australia bounced back emphatically from their disastrous 9-6 upset loss to Scotland on Tuesday night in Newcastle by clicking into gear to unlock the strong Welsh defence at Suncorp Stadium.
But despite their three-tries-to-one triumph, to continue the tourists’ 43-year drought Down Under, the Wallabies only escaped after withstanding a spirited second-half comeback by the tourists.
Down 20-6 with half an hour to play, the Red Dragons fired and Australia’s defence tired as they hit back to close the gap to one point with 17 minutes left.
Wales could have hit the lead if not for five-eighth Rhys Priestland uncharacteristically bombing a certain try by dropping a high pass with a three-man overlap outside him, while they also fumbled at other crucial times.
“We just didn’t take those opportunities in the second half,” Welsh coach Rob Howley lamented.
“We probably left two or three tries out on the park to be honest.”
In the end, man of the match Will Genia sent centre Pat McCabe, running a brilliant angle, over for the match-clincher.
Deans admitted he was nervous when the ultra-fit Six Nations champions stormed back and expects them to keep coming in the second Test in Melbourne.
Wales must turnaround their poor record in Australia on Saturday night under the Etihad Stadium roof to keep the series alive but both teams know there is little between them.
“It’s do or die next week,” Deans said.
“It will be another dry ball so I imagine it will be edge of the seat stuff which will good.
“They (Wales) are a fit side, it’s going to be a great series, for sure.”
Deans praised under-pressure playmaker Berrick Barnes who produced a fine all-round game and showed good vision to help orchestrate his first win in eight matches.
But it was Genia who was the stand-out, highlighted by a solo 35m try after halftime where he split two tight-forwards and then stepped around fullback James Hook to score.
“The credit has to go to the guys up front; they won us quick ball,” the halfback said.
“The wingers worked off the edges … so I was lucky because the other guys just made my job so much easier.”
Wales have winger George North (deep cork) in some doubt for the second Test while centre Scott Williams suffered from a head clash.
© AAP 2013The Crowd Says (18) | Page 1 of Comments
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June 10th 2012 @ 8:56am
slaggerknocker said | June 10th 2012 @ 8:56am | Report comment
Keep the kiwi beak inside the Wallaby’s pouch a while yet.
June 10th 2012 @ 2:15pm
Misha said | June 10th 2012 @ 2:15pm | Report comment
Refs have to be aware of Genias running at them technique which helps shield himself from tacklers – hes done it quite a few times over the last few years..
June 10th 2012 @ 2:44pm
ohtani's jacket said | June 10th 2012 @ 2:44pm | Report comment
Genia does run at the ref, but in last night’s case the defenders simply fell for his dummy.
June 10th 2012 @ 4:11pm
El Gamba said | June 10th 2012 @ 4:11pm | Report comment
Strange comment… Who doesn’t run at the ref?!
June 10th 2012 @ 7:15pm
wallaby fan said | June 10th 2012 @ 7:15pm | Report comment
why its an old trick and good luck to him. the opposition can do the same thing!
June 10th 2012 @ 3:41pm
bluerose said | June 10th 2012 @ 3:41pm | Report comment
will Cooper and Beale be available for selection?…………a dry pitch like Etihad Stadium is the ideal place for running rugby, Cooper coming off the bench will be able to use his magic footwork to great effect in the 2ndhalf,
June 10th 2012 @ 7:16pm
wallaby fan said | June 10th 2012 @ 7:16pm | Report comment
cooper and beale don’t do ‘dry’ anything
June 10th 2012 @ 4:35pm
Tigranes said | June 10th 2012 @ 4:35pm | Report comment
This will not be a close test series – Wallabies were not troubled by the Welsh too much and they will have too much firepower for the next two games – Wallabies to win series 3-0 and the remaining games by margins of 20+.
If Wales cant knock over a tired Wallaby side who are rusty, then they will never beat them. The reality is the scoreline flattered Wales immensely they were never in the game and were always playing catchup. They couldnt perform under pressure in the Wallaby 22
June 10th 2012 @ 4:53pm
justsaying said | June 10th 2012 @ 4:53pm | Report comment
You better hope the players don’t read that…
June 10th 2012 @ 7:24pm
wallaby fan said | June 10th 2012 @ 7:24pm | Report comment
wales let in as many tries in one game as they did in the whole of the 6 nations tournament.
It won’t happen again. This series will be won 2-1 not 3 nil and the games are only going to get closer as the welsh get used to the pace of the southern style.
ps it is sad to hear that Dan Lydiate is playing injured. He is scheduled for an ankle athroscope but has delayed the operation for this series. Davies as well but a hernia. Wales need to go with only fresh players and send these two home. They are great players but is it really worth the risk and niether looked at their best. I’d be going with Tupuric and warburton at 6 and 7… two opensides as the scots did. as for who might replace Davies at 13 I’m not sure but they must have someone. One thing Wales have over us is depth.
June 10th 2012 @ 10:19pm
Blues said | June 10th 2012 @ 10:19pm | Report comment
Mate, I think Wales were the tired side who were rusty and lacked match fitness. We play about 4x more matches than you guys. You have to factor in the emotion and impact the critcism had on the Wallabies to conjure up a quality performance. Australia just had the mindset that they couldn’t lose for obvious reasons with coach sackings, rep places and kaos in the ARU. Will they be able to replicate that next week and so forth?
Wales were always going to drop at least one test and Wales did trouble you guys alot, it was just the final pass and handling which screwed it up. For example, at 20-16, we had a 5 on 2 overlap and had we handled better we would have scored and probably won despite playing only 10 minutes of decent footy. Also there were various breaks from Halfpenny, Cuthbert and Davies.
It will be a great test series though.
June 10th 2012 @ 8:03pm
Pirjas said | June 10th 2012 @ 8:03pm | Report comment
Why wasn’t gatland coaching them?
June 10th 2012 @ 8:47pm
wallaby fan said | June 10th 2012 @ 8:47pm | Report comment
he had some kind of foot surgery i think.
June 10th 2012 @ 9:09pm
sph45 said | June 10th 2012 @ 9:09pm | Report comment
Broke both his heals in a DIY ladder accident. Will be arriving this week and coaching this weekend I understand
June 10th 2012 @ 10:51pm
Cattledog said | June 10th 2012 @ 10:51pm | Report comment
Wallabies and Deans dodged a bullet this time round. Was not an emphatic win, but showed better signs than Tuesday’s farce. Can only hope some of the injured return sooner rather than later. Wales will get even better and with the consistency Australia has shown, would have to be a good chance for the next two matches.
The Wallabies needed to put Wales away leading 20-6, but 13 unanswered points by Wales should be ringing alarm bells. I hope I’m wrong but I’ve seen nothing that would have me exude any form of confidence.
I agree with the poster above, if Cooper can play Super 15, he can play test rugby and would be a great sub at about the 50 minute mark, as long as the horse hadn’t bolted by then. Whilst Barnes was solid, he’s not an international fly half and 12 is a better option for him. Be interesting to see the 22 Deans selects. Horne bombing that certain try by not passing should have seen him subbed immediately. About time we invoked Newtons 3rd Law
June 10th 2012 @ 11:44pm
wallaby fan said | June 10th 2012 @ 11:44pm | Report comment
I think cooper playing super rugby is yet another example of mckenzie allowing his players to run the show just to keep them happy. I can say from experience a knee reconstruction is a very hard thing to recover from and some never recover fully. Just looking at quades legs one is certainly less muscular than the other so he is not fully recovered.
Lucky Deans is there to stop the rot, including making Higginbotham actually play int he middle of the field although I noticed in both matches last week higgers kept on creeping out to the wing as the game went on. None of that thankyou young man. You play in the middle of the park like a good flanker son!
June 10th 2012 @ 11:44pm
Cattledog said | June 10th 2012 @ 11:44pm | Report comment
‘Deans tips titanic Welsh series battle’.
Seems to me that Deans is already softening the blow. It could read… ‘we’ll do our darn-est to win, but it’s likely Wales will come up trumps and we’ll fall just short…again’. ‘However, we’ll learn from this, be better for the experience and move on’.
No we won’t and time will tell if we’ve learnt anything over the last four years or so. I certainly hope so, but I’m not bursting with confidence that we have.
Quite frankly, Deans would have to win this series and the Four Nations to restore any credibility in his leadership.
June 12th 2012 @ 5:28am
Bozo Gummo-Zeppo said | June 12th 2012 @ 5:28am | Report comment
Very true, it would be like a headline saying:
“Deans says: Don’t underestimate Namibia!”
Setting us up for another lackluster performance – at home
The bar has been lowered