Could we finally be in for a backline treat tomorrow?
Columnist By David Lord, 22 Jun 2012 David Lord is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- robbie deans, Rugby Union, Wales rugby, wallabies
Australia's Will Genia. AAP Image/Dave Hunt
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Stability and depth have been two major aims of Robbie Deans since he took over four years ago almost to the day.
This three-Test series against Wales has given the Wallaby coach both for the first time in his 60 internationals.
Just 17 Wallabies have been chosen in the three starting lineups. The first two Tests were unchanged, something novel in itself, with full-back Kurtley Beale and lock Sitaleki Timani returning from injury the only changes for the third at Allianz Stadium tomorrow afternoon.
That’s significant for obvious reasons.
Forward and back combinations are working better, and Deans has full confidence in whoever he uses with the genuine depth off the bench.
The big play is when he uses them.
Yet to be seen though is the Australian way to play rugby with the ball predominately in the hand. Rod Macqueen did during his illustrious coaching career, and the main reason why he finished with a 79% success rate, so too Alan Jones resulting in 76%. By far the most successful Wallaby coaches in history.
Deans is on 59% and one of the major reasons it’s one of the lowest success rates is the boot dominates the hand.
Fans are longing for sweeping Wallaby backline moves to the wingers, especially with Digby Ioane one of the world’s best finishers. Adam Ashley-Cooper is no slouch either.
The real bonus, and the real danger to the Welsh, is the return of Kurtley Beale to his best position at full-back where he’s at his most dangerous.
Even his opposite number Leigh Halfpenny was full of praise for Beale yesterday. “He’s one of the very best attacking full-backs in world rugby, and we’ll have to keep him in check, or he will cause us some grief”.
That he will, and in the process give centres Pat McCabe and Rob Horne a new dimension. Both have been playing well, far better than most critics care to recognise.
But any Beale success tomorrow will be dictated to by the world’s best half-back Will Genia. Last week at Etihad Stadium Genia was well below that exalted rating. He reminded us of the last five years of George Gregan’s pedestrian service and wrong option-taking.
Genia made it even worse by overplaying the short side that led to constantly losing possession. For Genia, it was a rare bad day at the office.
If the real Genia turns up to play, life will be a lot easier for fly-half Berrick Barnes, playing some of the best rugby of his career, and will give Beale that extra room to move to create his own special brand of havoc.
Skipper David Pocock apart, who somehow manages to fit 100 minutes into his 80, the Wallaby pack will never be spectacular, but it will be competitive and honest.
If they provide good quick ball, and Genia plays like Genia can, we may well be in for a backline treat tomorrow.
Bring it on.
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June 22nd 2012 @ 3:57am
King of the Gorgonites said | June 22nd 2012 @ 3:57am | Report comment
If it stays dry I expect the wallabies to really turn it on.
June 22nd 2012 @ 4:11am
The Werewolf said | June 22nd 2012 @ 4:11am | Report comment
If you read John Eales’ autobiography he mentions how Macqueen had found that by having less possession teams were more likely to win. So we used to kick the ball away deliberately so that we could have less possession than the opposition.
In rugby today the ball is in play a lot longer than before, there are less kicks and less set pieces. One only has to read the IRB reports that come out after each world cup. So sorry the whole back in the golden age we used to see more play with the ball in hand is nothing more than a nostalgic myth.
June 22nd 2012 @ 5:49am
David Lord said | June 22nd 2012 @ 5:49am | Report comment
There’s no myth in these running rugby figures Werewolf:
In four games the 84 Grand Slammers scored 11 tries to 1 – 8 in the backs.
In six games the 99 RWC winners scored 24 tries to 1 – 18 in the backs.
Total – 10 games for 35 tries to 2 – 26 in the backs.
June 22nd 2012 @ 6:14am
The Werewolf said | June 22nd 2012 @ 6:14am | Report comment
I remember these eras as fondly as the next but I remember them responsibly and not nostalgicaly as too many do. I remember them as times when the game was amateur in the case of 84 and I remember 99 as a time when professionalism was still in its infancy.
The game is unrecognisable from 84. The game has tilted into full professionalism since 99 in particular to defence evident by a huge swing to less tries by all top tier nations despite that the ball is now kept in play for longer than ever before.
What I find extremely irresponsible Journalism David is stating that the 99 wallabies scored 24 tries in 6 games but failing to mention that 17 of these tries were scored against Romania and the USA.
In the 4 games against Ireland, Wales, SA and France in 99 the Wallabies score 7 tries. That’s on average less than 2 a game against top tier nations.
June 22nd 2012 @ 6:36am
David Lord said | June 22nd 2012 @ 6:36am | Report comment
What you failed to mention Werewolf, in those games against Ireland, Wales, South Africa, and France they scored NO TRIES to the Wallabies 7.
June 22nd 2012 @ 7:04am
The Werewolf said | June 22nd 2012 @ 7:04am | Report comment
Yes David thats part of my point. Macqueen’s tactics were based more on defence than attacking rugby. We keep nostalgically remembering perceived running rugby glory days when in fact Macqueen was the father of defence oriented rugby.
June 22nd 2012 @ 9:20am
peterlala said | June 22nd 2012 @ 9:20am | Report comment
Werewolf, I admire and respect Rod McQueen, but I hate the league-style defencive patterns he introducted to rugby. And I am not being disparaging of the great game of rugby league.
June 22nd 2012 @ 4:55pm
The Werewolf said | June 22nd 2012 @ 4:55pm | Report comment
Hating the focus on defence brought in the game is like hating the fact that we began to walk upright. It was just an inevitable part of the evolution of the game, after it went professional.
What this means is attack has had to evolve to try and break down this defences. The biggest change has been the smaller numbers at the breakdown and spreading the defence across the width of the field. This is why the traditional looping back-line runs so many reminisce about no longer have the cutting edge they once had.
Let’s not forget Ella and co were scoring their tries against a bunch of lawyers, real estate agents and accountants in the amateur age.
June 22nd 2012 @ 10:56pm
Seiran said | June 22nd 2012 @ 10:56pm | Report comment
And wasn’t the SA test a tri-less test for both teams?
June 22nd 2012 @ 11:22pm
The Werewolf said | June 22nd 2012 @ 11:22pm | Report comment
Indeed it was but it was also a cracking good game.
June 22nd 2012 @ 6:46am
King of the Gorgonites said | June 22nd 2012 @ 6:46am | Report comment
Good point wolf. The 99 rwc was not the attacking spectacle that some people seem to falsely remember. Lord did distort the tries scored by negelecting to say how the bulk of those tries were scored against the minnows.
June 22nd 2012 @ 9:38am
Timo9 said | June 22nd 2012 @ 9:38am | Report comment
Why do we need to judge a game of running rugby by how many tries have been scored (League has more tries than Union but that whole game is based around slowing down the play and rarely has any contested ball other than high kicks)? Defence will always win big matches so there should be less tries scored than in the past! For me rugby is about the contest and at times that means testing the defence with different tactics, mauling up the centre; using the width and depth in attack and also using height (kicking). In my opinion all of these constitute running rugby in some form. A task for you David, I would be interested to see some similar stats on the All Blacks especially amount of tries against Wallabies and Boks. All Blacks play fantastic and exciting running rugby, but I can’t recall them scoring a huge amount ot tries against the Wallabies, especially over the last two years?????
June 22nd 2012 @ 9:04am
Bigbaz said | June 22nd 2012 @ 9:04am | Report comment
It helped in 84 that Ella couldn’t kick to save his life.
June 22nd 2012 @ 9:04am
Hansie said | June 22nd 2012 @ 9:04am | Report comment
Correct, the 99 RWC victory was built on strong defence, not on attack.
June 22nd 2012 @ 5:07am
biltongbek said | June 22nd 2012 @ 5:07am | Report comment
In my humble opinion Wales and Australia have both been playing a style more akin to SA than their “much touted” running game.
Lots of pick and drives, hard runs into the traffic with the odd ball going wide, when you consider Wales have gone past 4 phases 19 times and australia has gone past 4 phases 25 times and even to 19 and 20 phases, with Australia getting as many as 40 quick rucks, they haven’t managed to let the ball really do the talking, where as Wales with only 14 quick rucks have been halting their ability to attack with enough intensity.
So perhaps Pocock is the reason why wales have been playng with slow ball most of the time, and australia is missing Beale, O’Connor and Cooper more than we know.
June 22nd 2012 @ 10:40am
Colin N said | June 22nd 2012 @ 10:40am | Report comment
“In my humble opinion Wales and Australia have both been playing a style more akin to SA than their “much touted” running game.”
Agreed. As I’ve said elsewhere, since Gatland’s taken charge, Wales’ game is based on defence and seemingly using turnover ball as their primary attacking weapon.
I wouldn’t say they’re a kick-chase team as they like to take it through the phases, but they prefer to keep it tight.
June 22nd 2012 @ 5:29am
Sherry said | June 22nd 2012 @ 5:29am | Report comment
Werewolf – I followed the ’84 GS Ws around on their tour. Ella had a spinning leftie up-and-under but he used it very sparingly. In the four tests the Ws ran in eleven or twelve tries. I think that’s what David’s referring to. If you have a great set of forwards and a great set of backs, you don’t need to kick. The 2012 Wallabies will have a great set of backs when all the stars are healthy. They won’t have a great set of forwards no matter who’s healthy. They’re going to have to kick quite a bit.
Incidentally, when that ’84 side kicked it was usually towering punts from Roger Gould. We don’t have anybody who can kick with his accuracy and his amazing hang time. BTW, he used a torpedo spiral as did Ella.
June 22nd 2012 @ 5:42am
The Werewolf said | June 22nd 2012 @ 5:42am | Report comment
There are less tries today because when the game went professional so did defences so its silly to compare eras.
In the first test of this series the wallabies scored as many tries as the Welsh let in during their entire 6 nations campaign. It’s about time we recognised that Dean’s wallabies are playing good rugby against a very good side and stop nostalgically crapping on about yester-year when the game was either amateur or in the first few years of professionalism.
June 22nd 2012 @ 11:25pm
Banger said | June 22nd 2012 @ 11:25pm | Report comment
That is the single biggest problem since professionalism. There has been a massive improvement and focus upon defence while attack has largely stagnated in comparison
June 22nd 2012 @ 5:37am
mania said | June 22nd 2012 @ 5:37am | Report comment
wow werewolf – that totally goes against the adage i always grew up “you cant score without the ball”
June 22nd 2012 @ 6:27am
The Werewolf said | June 22nd 2012 @ 6:27am | Report comment
In 99 we scored a lot from penalties when the opposition had the ball which we deliberately kicked away because at that time the defensive team were being favoured at the breakdown.
The idea was to give the ball away and have a rock solid defence (we were the first team from memory to hire a rugby league defensive coach) and wait for the referee to blow his whistle at which point Burke or Eales would kick 3 pointers. In the semi and the final of 99 Burke kicked 15 penalties from memory many of which came from when they had the ball.
So you can and indeed you do score from not having the ball.
June 22nd 2012 @ 6:31am
Damo said | June 22nd 2012 @ 6:31am | Report comment
Mania, obviously you can’t ‘kick’ a try.
But where would nz be without Carter’s strategic punts and grubbers?
Very tired and at the wrong end of the field.
The issue here is one of ‘choice.’
It’s the kicking that happens because there are no other possible choices – that’s the problem.
A good 10 playing in a well set up team will kick out of strategy, not out of desperation, (such as. Barnes for the Tahs this year)
This desperate type of kicking is more a symptom of other problems, not simply the cause in itself.
June 22nd 2012 @ 6:50am
mania said | June 22nd 2012 @ 6:50am | Report comment
when carter kicks its for the forwards to get it back. the mentality isnt kicking away possession its to attack and retake possession
June 22nd 2012 @ 7:10am
The Werewolf said | June 22nd 2012 @ 7:10am | Report comment
Yes these days you shouldn’t kick away possession as in circa 99. That’s because the law’s now favour the attacking side at the breakdown.
But you do have to kick because all of a sudden due to professionalism opposition forwards and backs have become 105-110-115-120-125kg giants and the amount of energy expended on making 5 or 10 metres and recycling ball is not comparable with booting the thing down town and hoping to get a turnover.
June 22nd 2012 @ 7:26am
Sailosi said | June 22nd 2012 @ 7:26am | Report comment
This whole kicking thing is overrated. In the 6 tests in June involving SANZAR teams there has been an average of 33 kicks in play per test.
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June 22nd 2012 @ 7:56am
Justin2 said | June 22nd 2012 @ 7:56am | Report comment
I fail to see much in the way of combinations and ensemble play from the backs, forwards or the team at the moment.
We essentially are playing one pass rugby league. Now someone like Beale may come in and run a muck but that would be more individual than any combinations changing our style.
There is only one guy who can get this team firing…
June 22nd 2012 @ 8:06am
Fetus said | June 22nd 2012 @ 8:06am | Report comment
I seem to remember larkham kicking tactically a lot. But then we had a line out that could just about guarantee you the ball back
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June 22nd 2012 @ 8:13am
formeropenside said | June 22nd 2012 @ 8:13am | Report comment
I dont see how Horne and McCabe (and AAC) will suddenly learn how to pass. I’d have McCabe at 13, sure, but I still dont think he is a 12.
June 22nd 2012 @ 12:17pm
Cattledog said | June 22nd 2012 @ 12:17pm | Report comment
Horne and McCabe are pretty easy to defend against. 99.9% probability they won’t pass so go hard and low. If one does pass, pretty certain the other won’t. Simple. No wonder Digby spends his time roving. He sees nothing on the wing.