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It is impossible to please some critics of the Wallabies, especially if they are British rugby writers.
The Wallabies defeated Ireland 32-15, in Dublin, and scored four tries to none. And experts who should know better made the analysis that Ireland lost, rather than acknowledging the fact that the Wallabies forced a handsome, total and convincing victory.
The Wallabies thumped a side that many experts and some of the Irish players (Rob Kearney, go to the naughty boy corner!) had talked up as the team that was going to thrash the Wallabies.
Here is Eddie Butler in The Observer:
“On the stillest of wind-free Dublin days Ireland fell flat. This was a performance without spirit, urgency or accuracy and Australia thumped them, scoring four tries and winning every point of contact, including the scrummage, which is a first for them – if not for a decade.”
Butler is a former captain of Wales. He is one of the British clique of journalists (I will refrain from naming the usual suspects) who are forever bagging southern hemisphere rugby.
When the Wallabies (or the All Blacks) win it is invariably because they are ‘cheaters’ or their northern hemisphere opponents were somehow totally off their game and handed the Test to their opponents.
So in the case of the Wallabies ‘thumping’ Ireland, the reason was because Ireland did not turn up to play.
“There was something wrong,” as Butler pointed out to his readers, “from the moment Quade Cooper put in a raking kick behind Ireland’s defence in the opening minutes.”
Let me put another point of view. The Wallaby scrum, even though it was penalised a number of times, was far too strong and organised for the Irish eight.
The Wallaby lineout was dominant, too. The forwards were strong off the ball and very strong (as Butler concedes) at the ruck and maul.
In other words, the Wallaby pack did was dominant packs do, they dominated Ireland. Notice the wordings. I didn’t say that Ireland were dominated. That implies (as Butler did) that it was basically Ireland’s weakness in the forwards that was the problem.
No, the Wallabies dominated Ireland.
Because of this domination, by being faster and stronger on the ball and more efficient in the set pieces, the Wallaby forwards reduced the Ireland pack (and backs, for that matter) to mediocrity that allowed the unexpected blow-out.
Now readers of The Roar will know that I am not a great admirer of Quade Cooper’s play. But, credit where credit is due. Cooper’s hands and feet, the vision with the ball, either with marvellous passes or telling kicks, played an important part in setting up several of the Wallabies tries.
I can see what Ewen McKenzie is thinking in his promotion of Cooper as the Wallabies play-maker. At his best, when he is not dropping back in the pocket like a gridiron quarterback, he has a bag of tricks that can undo the tightest of defensive systems.
Matt Toomua provides a lot of concrete on the inside channel when playing beside Cooper.
Cooper needs a tackler playing outside him to cover up for his own tendency not to be an enthusiastic defender. Although, before Roarers give me a hard time for being negative about him, I hasten to add that Cooper is trying to be tougher in the tackle than he was in the past.
The problem is, especially when playing hard-shouldered sides like England, South Africa or New Zealand, that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
But against Ireland, at least, I did not see any flinching or shirking. And, while he drifted occasionally into the pocket (and was rebuked by Rod Kafer for doing so), he played splendidly and was an important part of an important victory.
It was a victory, too, that was achieved despite conceding nine penalties to three to Ireland in the first half of play.
Two Wallabies were sin-binned, too, which meant that for nearly a quarter of the Test the Wallabies played with 14 men.
Michael Hooper was a bit unlucky with his sin-binning, but Tevita Kuridrani was just too strong for his own good. He did lift Peter O’Mahony above the level of the hips, and although the Irish flanker was not dumped, he did hit the ground with his head and shoulders.
Talking about Kuridrani, he has given the Wallabies a lot of power and presence in the wider areas of the field. He is improving every game, and I would think that he is a long-time Wallaby outside centre.
This brings us to Israel Folau, who had one of his best games for the Wallabies. He took the high kicks like someone trained in the AFL arts, leaping into the other contesting jumpers and then running on strongly after the catch.
Folau is getting himself into proper position more often than he has in the past where he can do a lot of damage with his break-out running.
It was a pity, therefore (and Kafer noted this too), when he opted towards the end of the Test to kick rather than run at an opposition that was just hanging on under the Wallabies assault.
One of the lessons these Wallabies are yet to learn is how to punish oppositions to the maximum when they are on top. They lack the killer instinct.
Hopefully, this will come as they slowly but surely (in my opinion anyway) claw their way back to the top tier of rugby powers, with the All Blacks, the Springboks and (possibly) England, a side on the improve.
I used the qualifier ‘possibly’ about England because they lack any rhyme or fluency in the backline.
As individuals the England backs are fine. But they lack the ensemble nous that the Wallabies are beginning to show and which the All Blacks undoubtedly have.
For England to beat top-tier countries, without much contribution from the backs, the side has to be dominant in the forwards.
If this doesn’t happen, and the All Blacks victory over them at Twickenham was an example of this, then England are going to struggle to win.
Overall, back play is in decline in the northern hemisphere.
Ireland, even though they had the run of penalties in the Test, could not score a single try. Right at the end, Ireland crossed.
An obvious knock-on that was acknowledged by the TMO meant that several Wallabies stopped playing as Ireland continued their attack.
The Wallabies scored four tries and were denied another try when Nick Cummins, who is becoming an essential part of the Wallabies’ backline, performed a miracle of strength and contortion and planted the ball down over the Ireland try line even though most of his body was over the touch line but not touching the ground.
The TMO ruled that he lost the ball as he planted it. In my opinion Englishman Geoff Warren got it wrong. I ran the play a number of times. Cummins had part of his hand on the ball throughout the plant.
You have to be careful, too, about slow-motion replays. When a player is planting the ball down one-handed there is almost always a fraction of separation between the ball and the hand.
This is the equivalent of not ruling a ball thrown forward if the hands delivering the pass are pointed in a backwards direction.
In the case of the Cummins no-try, though, it seemed to me that there was actually contact with the ball throughout the plant.
The Wallabies have now won back-to-back victories for the first time this season. They are in the situation which they have to exploit by winning three in a row when they play Scotland next week.
And then, hopefully, four in a row when they finish off their tour with a victory over Wales who looked like a balanced and dynamic side when they pummelled the Pumas at Millennium Stadium.
There is no qualifier or proviso to all of this. Murrayfield and Millennium Stadium have surfaces that are a disgrace to their unions.
The Wallabies have been at their best on this tour when they have played on excellent surfaces for ensemble rugby at Turin and Dublin.
The terrible state of Murrayfield and Millennium Stadium will provide a test for the growing discipline and power of the Wallabies tight five.
If they can carry on from the good work at Dublin, then there will be two more weeks when Aussie eyes are smiling.