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The reports of the Wallabies’ death after the defeat at Twickenham are greatly exaggerated. An unexpectedly massive (in terms of points and tries scored) victory over Italy has ensured that any shrouds at Turin stay within the city’s cathedral.
Before Australia played their Test against Italy at Turin, Rod Kafer described it as a “treacherous” encounter.
Treacherous, because there was a high possibility that the Wallabies, dispirited and battered with penalties in the scrums against England last week, could be defeated and with such a defeat begin a downward spiral towards mediocrity.
The start was ominous for the Wallabies. In as many minutes, Italy put on 10 points.
The try was a breakaway that was kick-started from a pathetic punt from Will Genia and was completed after a splendid Italian back attack that exposed two front rowers defending a wide channel, or trying to defend the wide channel.
To their credit, the Wallabies came back and started to put phases together and, more importantly, put runners into gaps. The result, in the end, was a seven-try victory to three tries, 50-20.
Italy won two Six Nations matches at home in 2013, beating Ireland (who monstered Samoa at Dublin this weekend, a team that was actually ranked above them) and France (who gave the All Blacks a fright by coming within a converted try of a draw and forcing the All Blacks to a goal-line defence to hold out).
During the Six Nations tournament, too, Italy won plaudits from its opponents and the rugby community for its strong lineout and outstanding scrum.
This gets us to the issue of Ewen McKenzie writing to the IRB complaining about the refereeing of the scrums (hostile to the Wallabies most of the time) in the England – Australia Test at Twickenham.
I was surprised that some senior rugby writers were critical of McKenzie for alerting the IRB to what he considered (and I agree with him) were scrum decisions that did not match-up (according to him) with what was happening on the field.
The IRB is silent about how they reacted to the McKenzie letter. But it seemed to me that some notice must have been taken of it because the referee, New Zealander Glen Jackson, was at pains during the preliminaries before the early scrums actually engaged to get the Italian front row to come closer to their Wallaby counterparts.
On the first scrum, for instance, Jackson insisted that the Italians keep the scrum up. There were three sets before the Wallabies were awarded a short-arm penalty, with Italy penalised for going early.
Ironically, the Wallabies took a quick tap and a minute or so later Italy made their breakout and Luca Morisi scored a fabulous try.
With the second scrum, Jackson once again spoke to the Italians telling them, “I want you closer and higher”. Something must have worked for them because they won a short-arm penalty.
On the third scrum, Jackson was at Italy again. “I want you closer,” he told the Italian front row. This was the first Wallaby scrum feed of the Test and following a strong shove the Wallabies were awarded a penalty.
Shortly after this, Israel Folau made a break and put Tevita Kuridrani in for a try. This try, which was converted by Quade Cooper, gave the Wallabies the lead in the Test for the first time, a lead that they increased as the Test progressed.
It was noticeable, too, that the Wallabies were not prepared to allow Italy to get up to their tricks without some sort of complaint. Ben Alexander complained to the referee about the ‘boring in’ tactics of the Italians, a complaint that was made again during the next scrum set-up by Stephen Moore.
A couple of scrums later, Jackson could be heard saying to his assistant referees, the same assistant referees as at Twickenham for the England-Australia Test, after a very solid Italian scrum win on their own ball, “Italian ball, not too bad, eh!”
I am not going to go through more of the scrums, except to make the point that towards the end of the Test, when it was well won by the Wallabies, for various reasons Italy was awarded several scrum penalties in succession. The Wallabies scrum did seem to disintegrate rather than hold steady, as if it were made of sand rather than cement.
The conclusion to all of this is that the Wallaby scrum is still (as they say) ‘a work in progress.’ It is not as bad, in my opinion, as the referee seemed to think it was in the Twickenham Test. But it is not anyway near as good as it should be.
And I believe there needs to be serious consideration of Alexander’s position in the side if the desired scrumming improvements are to come about.
I don’t know if the addition of Rob Simmons as a third lock in the second row had any influence. I would doubt this. But I suppose that the experiment of the three locks will be continued against Ireland next weekend. In my view, Simmons lacks any pace or agility to play at number six.
And the necessary mongrel, something that is lacking in Ben Mowen’s game, too.
The outanding Wallaby back was Nick Cummins, who set up a try and scored two himself. He presents defenders with the awful prospect of having to try to tackle a moving ensemble of elbows, knees and an angry, intense force that will not settle for anything but a do-or-die (for both parties in the collision) encounter with opponents.
Cummins is an example, often disregarded in Australian rugby (Rob Egerton in an early era is another similar type), of a player who gives 110 per cent in everything he does which makes him far more valuable to his side than more obviously talented players who perform below the level of their talents in hard matches.
I would put in the latter category, Will Genia. Here is a player who for a time was the best halfback in world rugby and destined to rank among the greatest of Wallaby halfbacks.
Now he is a shadow of that glittering, shining star of the past. He hesitates over the ball. He often passes behind runners. He hardly ever runs successfully. And his kicking is woeful.
One mark of a great coach is that good players become very good players under his control, and very good players become great players.
So what are we to make of a coach who seems to be turning a potentially great player into a poor player?
My guess about all this is that McKenzie has taken the decision-making away from Genia (along with the vice-captaincy) and given both to Quade Cooper.
Cooper has now presided over two big blowouts for the Wallabies, the romp at Rosario and the turnaround at Turin. Against Italy, he made a beautiful pass to put Ben Mowen into for the crucial first try which brought the Wallabies into the Test for the first time.
But he hardly is in the same category of class as Genia was? And is he the long term answer for the Wallabies?
In my view, sometime next year McKenzie could select a Matt Toomua, Kyle Godwin, Kuridrani set-up in the backs. This would give the Wallabies the size in the middle of the field that now seems to be imperative in the modern game.
Bringing Genia back into the fold, too, by re-appointing him vice-captain could do a lot for his confidence and perhaps enable/encourage him to come back to his best.
However, in suggesting this I don’t for a second believe that this will happen on this tour.
It should happen next year, however. I rate Genia more highly as a match-winner in Test rugby than Cooper. And because of this, Genia playing as well as we know he can is more crucial to the Wallabies in the 2015 Rugby World Cup tournament than Cooper, even at his best.
So the situation on this already grand-slammed tour is that the Wallabies have lost narrowly and unluckily to England (a side, admittedly, on the up) and they have thrashed Italy.
Ahead of them are Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The problem for the Wallabies in these tough Tests is that they have run out of their get out-of-jail cards. They need to win all of these Tests to entrench their standing as a top-tier rugby nation.
All three of Ireland, Scotland and Wales (just) were ranked below the Wallabies on the IRB table before the weekend. Losses to them will impact severely on the Wallabies IRB rankings.
The win over Italy is a welcome victory but Italy were ranked 12th in the world on the IRB table, below Tonga (11), Argentina (10), Scotland (9), Ireland (8) and Wales (6).
So let’s accept the victory for what it was, a comfortable and necessary win over a side that has never beaten the Wallabies in 16 Tests, and a side that is ranked in roughly the same cohort of strength on the IRB standings, as Fiji, Canada, and Japan.
The Test next week against Ireland will put on a real marker for the Wallabies. You have the feeling that the Wallabies will have to be better all over the field, in set pieces, defence and attack to knock off a confident Irish side.
There was enough evidence, too, it must be said, from Turin that this Wallabies side is capable of playing better than it has in the last two weeks. Scoring seven tries against a Six Nations team that is playing in front of its home crowd is a tremendous achievement.
So, for now anyway, the motto is: keep the faith.