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They’ll maintain that it wasn’t, but there can be little doubt that the escapades of the Dublin First XV were a major distraction that clearly affected the Wallabies’ preparations in Edinburgh.
The evident lack of midfield cohesion, and a return of the same second phase defensive realignment issues that plagued the side during The Rugby Championship all point to a less than ideal build-up to the Scotland match, and indeed, to the cobbled-together nature of the matchday squad.
The records will show that the Wallabies have recorded their first win over Scotland since 2006, 21-15 and two tries to nil, but it’s hard to imagine that the squad will be much more than ‘happy to get the win’.
They did get the win, yes, and it is the first time the Wallabies have won three on the trot since this time last year.
Obviously, it’s also the longest winning run under Ewen McKenzie, and should they win against Wales next weekend in Cardiff, it would mark the best winning streak since the Wallabies won their first five games under Robbie Deans, way back in 2008.
(Please note Roarers, the two coaches are mentioned in the same sentence for observational and chronological purposes only. Please, for goodness sake, don’t go down that same god-awfully boring path of debate again. Thank you in advance.)
Of the five players out of the ‘Dublin 6′ sitting out the Scotland game, I would imagine that winger Nick Cummins, and winger/outside centre Adam Ashley-Cooper will come straight back into the side to face the Welsh next weekend.
The three forwards to sit it out, Benn Robinson, Tatafu Polota-Nau, and Liam Gill may well force their way back onto the bench – certainly the first two – but I can’t see McKenzie keeping that same three-quarter line intact at the Millennium.
Mike Harris and Christian Lealiifano did an admirable job of filling the number 12 and 13 jerseys respectively, but the Wallabies just didn’t have anywhere near the same attacking potency outside Quade Cooper.
Cooper and Harris, particularly, played like a 10-12 combination that met in the car park just prior to kick-off, which I suppose is reasonable when you consider how little they played beside each other for Queensland this year.
This lack of midfield spark was due largely to a breakdown contest that was never really able to resolve a dominant side due mainly to the eagle eye of Jaco Peyper (and the 80-minute ill-discipline of both sides, to be fair), plus an ironically liberal policing of the offside line.
It meant that the Wallabies didn’t ask anywhere near the number of questions of the Scottish midfield as they did to the Irish the week before.
And you’d have to assume that that will be a major factor in selection this week.
I would imagine we’ll see Lealiifano move one place back in-field, to inside centre, with Ashley-Cooper coming back into the outside centre spot that he’s played almost exclusively in 2013.
I’d also expect Cummins to come straight back on the left wing for young Red, Chris Feauai-Sautia.
Feauai-Sautia had a reasonable game, even scored what turned out to be the match-winning try, but for mine, there were too many instances during the game where he looked like a kid in his first full year of professional rugby finding out the hard way just how big a jump it is from Super to Test Match rugby.
I’m buggered if I know, for example, how he managed to find himself beyond not just the touchline, but very nearly beyond the next exclusion line for trainers and camera operators to remain behind as well.
I’ve heard of players looking lost on the field before, but this was quite something else.
Feauai-Sautia has a long international career ahead of him though, and there’s no denying his talents. Leaving him out of the final Test of the Spring Tour will not harm his future Wallabies prospects one iota.
Cummins had been outstanding in the Tests prior to his suspension, and he deserves to regain his place back in the XV on the left wing.
The forwards were pretty solid again, a timely continuation from the wonderful eight-man effort in Dublin. Again at Murrayfield, the pack were good around the ground, even if the surface made the hard slog harder than it needed to be on a dry night.
The set piece was very good, especially the lineout, where the Wallabies won all their own ball while disrupting and even winning plenty of Scotland’s. The scrum was solid, but after halftime became an almost pointless exercise due to the horrendous state of the Murrayfield pitch.
At one stage, Peyper twice moved the next reset, meaning the final scrum result came almost fifteen metres infield from the original mark.
And more needs to be made of the Murrayfield surface, because it’s a disgrace that international rugby should have to endure the second half cow paddocks it has in recent weeks.
Dublin, Cardiff, and Paris especially have all been torn apart by the basic elements of the game during these Spring Tests, while by the end of the match at Murrayfield, the surface was left in shambolic ruins, as if visited by the gophers in the Caddyshack movies.
Never mind attempting to pack a scrum, when goal kickers can’t even trust the surface for their planting foot, then you know you’ve got an issue.
Lealiifano missed four second-half shots at goal, while Scotland scrumhalf Greig Laidlaw missed one as well, and neither side kicked another goal successfully beyond the 50th minute.
The players and the paying public deserve better.
What’s worse is that nothing appears to be changing from week to week. Millennium Stadium was terrible two weeks ago against South Africa, and it’s just accepted that it will be terrible again this weekend coming.
But why? Would the same levels of acceptance been forthcoming during the Lions Series if Australian pitches ripped up as we’ve seen this month in the north?
Disappointingly, and though there has been plenty said this week just gone by the IRB on concussion, and its latest Hall of Fame inductees, and even of Indonesia gaining Full Member status, there has been no official statement on the state of northern pitches this month.
Despite this, or perhaps in spite of this, the Wallabies need to end 2013 on a high, and the only way to do that will be with a solid win over Wales.
Four wins from five would be a worthy result for a team that has improved with every outing, and who on the whole, are now playing rather good rugby.
Anything less than a win would undo a lot of the players’ good work, and the general goodwill towards the Wallabies currently, and that would be a major letdown after an at-times brutal season has finished trending upwards.