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The Roar

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Clear the slate, Ewen, start again

25th August, 2014
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Michael Hooper breaks free from a tackle against the All Blacks. (Photo: Paul Barkley/LookPro)
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25th August, 2014
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The biggest joy of the weekend of rugby was watching Argentina play so freely, and so simply against South Africa in Salta.

It was about as stark a contrast as it gets to what the Wallabies put Australian supporters through the night before in Auckland.

It was impossible to watch the Pumas – even at that time of Sunday morning – without a smile on your face.

This was a team playing with and for their teammates, themselves, and their country with passion, and with the confidence to chance their arm.

That’s not to say that the Wallabies don’t have all that; I’m sure they do. I know they do. They’re all professionals, and they have pride in their job.

But there were times in Auckland where the Wallabies really looked like they weren’t enjoying that particular day at the office. It looked like the rugby equivalent of having to clean all the four-month-old leftovers out the office fridge.

In Salta, Los Pumas played with simplicity. Beautiful simplicity. If they didn’t have the ball, they smashed into every tackle and every ruck until they did. And when they had it, they kept it alive as if it was the last play of the match.

It was wonderful, and I genuinely felt more disappointment for the Pumas when they lost to the Springboks than I did for the Wallabies in Auckland.

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Whereas this moment of potential glory for Argentina was very real and played out for 70 minutes, the Wallabies heading to Eden Park has had an air of forced confidence covering gritted teeth for a lot longer than I’ve been writing about rugby.

So what now for the Wallabies? And why do I feel like I’ve asked this question every six months for the last six years?

I maintain the conclusion I reached late Saturday night, when I first started punching annoyed words through the keyboard; there’s no point talking about who to bring into the Wallabies side. The 51-20 loss is one of those major setbacks after which the only way forward is to start afresh.

Don’t regroup. Don’t tinker or tweak. No rebuilding.

Just clean the slate.

Ewen McKenzie’s biggest job now is to work out if the players he has available to him are the right players for the job. In order to really start afresh, he can’t just bring a few new guys into the side and fit them in; he needs to work out who should stay in the side and build up from there.

For starters, is he getting the right balance of set piece technicians and general play workhorses from the tight five?

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The hooker curse is obviously a major issue, and let’s hope Nathan Charles’ injury is not as bad as first thought. If it is, then you’d presume it’s James Hanson to come in with Saia Fainga’a on the bench, but then who? I suggested Heath Tessmann yesterday, and I genuinely can’t think of who would be after him.

Is the Rob Simmons and Sam Carter second row combination still right? Is the team getting the right balance of scrum solidity, lineout presence, and general play work rate? Is a slightly out-of-form but desperate to return James Horwill a chance of being recalled? Do you start Will Skelton and just take the 25 or 30 minutes that you might get out of him?

Or do you really re-think it, and look at Luke Jones, or maybe even Cadeyrn Neville?

In the backrow, is the Scott Fardy, Michael Hooper and Wycliff Palu combination still providing the right platform? I have my doubts. Both Palu and Fardy were disappointing, and Scott Higginbotham certainly had an impact when he came on. However, how do you fit Higginbotham in?

I wonder about Hooper, too. Yes, he was everywhere at Eden Park, but was he effective or just everywhere?

The worry about playing Higginbotham and Hooper in the same backrow is that they both play too loosely. So to fit Higginbotham in – not undeserved on Saturday night’s showing – you might need to bring in a down-and-dirty player like Matt Hodgson too. Would a Hodgson-Hooper-Higginbotham combination bring the right mix of breakdown presence and ball carrying? Could Palu have a similar impact off the bench as did Higginbotham?

Surely Nick Phipps can’t do any more to state his case. He’s been very good in both Bledisloe games thus far, and deserves to start.

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And we need to forget about an x-factor based attack and just go back to doing things simply. Doing things simply worked pretty well against France in June, don’t forget. I’d go back to the Bernard Foley-Matt Toomua midfield.

Wider than that, I’m not sure there’s a whole lot of point in major changes, simply because injuries have ruled so many guys out. It’s pretty obvious that Henry Speight will come in once eligible, but until then there will be a bit of a makeshift feel about it. Unless Tevita Kuridrani coming back forces Adam Ashley-Cooper wider. Or maybe someone like a Tom English has a storming couple of weeks in the NRC.

And maybe that’s the point to finish on: how many of the Auckland squad will play for their NRC clubs? I’ll bet it’s not as many as should be sent back to find some form.

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