- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
This weekend was meant to be an exercise in the popular phrase ‘saving the furniture’ for the Wallabies, as it was for another group trying to appeal to its constituency on Saturday night.
The losses had been mounting up but this was a chance to return to their Red-based fortress – with some fire in the belly – and remind everyone that though they might be struggling, they’re still a force to be reckoned with.
So, did they save the furniture? Absolutely not. The Wallabies were nowhere near as successful in that regard as their political counterparts on the same evening.
Unfortunately for the Wallabies, their decline is very measureable and continued this weekend.
They are scoring fewer tries, failing to win the forward battle, rely completely on the boot of Christian Leali’ifano, are sliding down the IRB rankings and after this poor loss will now tussle with Argentina for the right to come third in the Rugby Championships.
Here are a few areas where the Wallabies should look to improve:
This Wallabies pack don’t hunt instinctively
An obvious factor in the Wallabies’ inability to punch through the forwards is not supporting their own runners as well as their opponent does. That was true on Saturday as it was against the All Blacks.
The Springbok forwards instinctively follow their ball runner and either push him forward in contact, pick and go quickly or are on point to clean out.
The Wallabies act much slower, as if the ball runner going to ground is actually the cue for them to rush off into support.
I don’t know if this is a product of people being unsure of their jobs or whether Aussie forwards just aren’t drilled in this practice enough from a young age.
In rugby, as in many ball sports, the man without the ball is as important as the one with it. The Wallabies forwards to not play with the kind of urgency suggesting they believe it.
If you aren’t present at the point of contact, as is the job of a forward, you cannot be helpful.
Backs bending the line is so 2001 for these Wallabies
It’s easy to bash Adam Ashley-Cooper for not passing much, but no one else in the backline bends the defensive line like he does.
He always drags a man backwards rather than folding over and makes the opposition pour over the ruck because he’s behind the advantage line handsomely.
Where else can Australia hope to get that impact in the backs? Leali’ifano is smallish, Cooper and O’Connor are smaller and don’t run like that, Cummins can’t hold the ball and was surprisingly light in contact, and Folau never gets the ball on attack.
This Wallabies backline is built mostly to find holes and exploit space. Perhaps that, more than the ‘to run, or not to run’ style schizophrenia engulfing the side, is a major reason we can’t score enough tries.
Watching tapes of successful Wallabies sides of the past few decades will show they could bend the line in contact as often as they attempted to outright break it, destroying the myth we have always been represented by fleet-footed elves dancing their opposition to death.
Folau is still not well utilised in attack
Including Folau at fullback is a start, but how come it’s taken so much longer for the Wallabies to include him in attacking raids in the attacking line?
Folau was rarely the target of a Cooper, Leali’ifano or even Genia pass to create havoc inside the opposition half.
I derided the Waratahs for taking so long to implement the “give it to Folau” move this year and the Wallabies are also taking that attacking power for granted.
Yes, having him catch kicks – safe as houses – and run back past the first tackler is very helpful for turning defence into attack, but he’s normally at least 50 metres from pay dirt in those situations.
Get him the ball nearer to the line so fewer mistakes by the defence are needed to capitalise.
Use it, or lose it
A logical extension of the previous three points, and noting the amount of possession the Wallabies have in their three Rugby Championship Tests, is that they aren’t being effective with the ball.
Watching how the All Blacks, Argentinians and South African forwards powered around the corner of the ruck to maintain forward momentum in comparison to the Wallabies version of this is hard to swallow.
The Wallabies forwards aren’t as good coming round the corner at speed. When they take the short Genia pass onto the ball the defender stops them dead often, whereas the Springboks are able to drive that man backwards, often with support.
Coupling this with the backline’s inability to bend the line on the occasions they aren’t able to make clean breaks mean the Wallabies are often behind the advantage line with slower ball.
The exception that proves this rule is the way the Wallabies were direct, supported strongly and focused on punching through in tight lead to a huge amount of space for a James Slipper run around the 57th minute.
The Wallabies need to watch that sequence and aim to replicate that more often – it even saw Folau ball in hand deep on attack as well.
The right way to punt a football
Look at Morne Steyn’s kicking style to see how he drops the ball low to the ground, allowing his leg to extend further down as he punts. That creates a longer lever and hence longer kicking.
Quade Cooper, Will Genia and other Wallabies drop the ball from higher and make contact with the ball higher, with a bent leg. This shortens the kick, makes it ‘up and down’ while also making a hooked kick a more likely event.
James O’Connor’s kick is marginally better in form, and perhaps why he is the preferred option for taking the penalty kicks at touch.
On the topic of Steyn’s kicking technique, the sound of some in the crowd booing his drop kick for goal in the first half is now very ironic considering Australia’s absolute reliance on kicking penalties to have any shot at winning a Test match in 2013.
Set. Piece. Matters
Another week, another shaky scrum performance by the Wallabies. You can’t even make this up anymore.
Ben Alexander was essentially replaced early in the second half again because the Wallabies scrum was starting to disintegrate on his side of the row again. That after the Springboks had already earned a few penalties on the shove.
Compounding matters was the fact the Aussie lineout was under pressure early, which is a noticeable decline for one of their strengths in the recent past.
I’d add the inability to defend the maul to this equation for Australia because of how reliant it is on a pack effort.
The simple way to evaluate the set piece is this: which way do you back your team to get good possession?
The lack of set pieces in this match was the only reason we didn’t lose more of them.
Short notes
Nic Cummins remove those stone gloves… Wallabies stop turning it over… If you refuse to go to ground making a tackle, you end up tipping runners past the horizontal… Willie le Roux is always worth the price of admission… Sad sight, Coenie Oosthuizen running over Cooper to score while four large gold jerseys trailed the play… 12 tries to three against the Wallabies in the Rugby Championship…
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.