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Should the Wallabies have changed their team for Bledisloe 2?

19th August, 2014
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Nic White isn't in the Wallabies 31-man World Cup squad, but he may still go one tour to the States. (Photo: Paul Barkley/LookPro)
Expert
19th August, 2014
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Life has been so busy lately that I’ve only been able to watch the first Bledisloe Cup match this afternoon.

I knew the score and had managed to read some articles on The Roar and other sites over the last few days, so I had some preconceived notions of what to expect.

The first thing I expected was that the Wallabies had played most of the running rugby. The statistics support that, with ESPN crediting the Wallabies with 123 runs compared to 64 for the All Blacks.

Watching the match, the Wallabies had the better attacking chances. The best scoring opportunity in the match presented itself for Nathan Charles in the 63rd minute when it looked like if he’d put his head down and gone to ground he could have slid over for a match-winning try, but instead he passed the ball out to Pat McCabe who was bundled into touch.

Obviously execution let each team down at some crucial moments, but who could blame them in those dreadful weather conditions?

The defence from both teams was fantastic and even though there were no tries scored it was very entertaining.

The second thing I expected, based on a lot of the commentary I’ve heard, was to see Matt Toumua playing first receiver nearly as much as Kurtley Beale.

In fact, Toomua only went to first receiver 10 times compared with Beale in place for 22 (69 per cent). Toomua did go to first receiver an additional three times to make a clearing kick.

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Those numbers aren’t anything out of the ordinary when a team is playing with dual playmakers as the Wallabies are.

The third thing I expected was to see Beale running consistently sideways, but I didn’t see that as a consistent theme. Beale certainly played more laterally than I’d like to see from a fly-half, and this lateral play doesn’t suit the Wallabies game plan.

Compare the lateral run from Beale and inside pass to Rob Horne in the 19th minute of the match, that was far too easy for the All Black defence to shut down, with the effectiveness of the simple catch-pass to Toomua and loop that Beale ran before Toomua passed short to Adam Ashley-Cooper in the 40th minute.

Beale is much more dangerous when he gives the ball early and then loops outside ball carriers. With his exceptional footwork he’ll always find more room on the outside of defenders than on the inside where covering defenders are coming from.

We heard last week that one of the reasons Beale was selected was the additional x-factor he brought to the team. The Wallabies don’t need x-factor from their fly-half under their current game plan – they need a distributor who can set up his outside runners and occasionally challenge the defensive line.

Bernard Foley offers a lot more ‘directness’ but even more importantly he directs the team better than Beale, which showed when he came on to replace Beale last Saturday.

I was shocked when Ewen McKenzie dropped Foley for Beale last week – Foley is the better option for the Wallabies right now.

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However, McKenzie doesn’t walk away from a decision at the first sign of it not being right. He showed that last season when he selected Toomua at fly-half over Quade Cooper for the opening two matches of the Rugby Championship. Toomua didn’t show much in the first match but McKenzie gave him another chance in the second match before making the decision to replace him with Cooper.

The other factor that can’t be ignored is the impact the weather had on Beale’s ability to make a difference in attack, so I can understand why McKenzie hasn’t replaced him for this week’s match.

The same factors may have saved Nic White as well, because he was ordinary last week. If White doesn’t lift, I’d be surprised if Nick Phipps doesn’t replace him as the starting scrum-half.

Apart from those two, I wouldn’t have considered any other changes to the team. Of course we’ve now seen that McKenzie has stuck with exactly the same 23 for this week.

Although it wasn’t a win for the Wallabies, it was a solid performance and as a coach you’re reluctant to change a team that performed reasonably well together.

There weren’t enough strong performers for the Wallabies but from the starting team James Slipper, Toomua, Ashley-Cooper and Rob Horne should be rated in that category.

Sekope Kepu, Sam Carter, Michael Hooper, Wycliff Palu, Pat McCabe and Israel Folau performed reasonably well.

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Nathan Charles, Rob Simmons, Scott Fardy, White and Beale all need to lift their games.

The biggest issue facing the Wallabies this week is that the All Blacks were pretty flat and it’s rare that they produce two such performances in a row.

I also found time to watch the Springboks take on the Pumas and I was certainly impressed with improvements the Pumas have made.

The Springboks also looked a little flat but if you think the weather conditions were poor for the Wallabies match, they were fantastic compared to the conditions in South Africa. Even with better weather this weekend, the Pumas could spring a surprise.

Tomorrow I’ve got some 3D analysis of the Wallabies attack for you.

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