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When Rob Horne cut inside the Springboks covering defence and headed for the line to score the Wallabies’ last try I almost jumped out of my chair.
Then I started to rage that he had dived early rather than run round to create an easy conversion that would give the Test to the Wallabies 24-23.
Bernard Foley was left with one of those awkward kicks at goal, about halfway from the sideline and the posts.
Beauden Barrett had missed several similar shots during the All Blacks’ very impressive four-try victory over a strong Pumas side. And Foley himself had missed a similar conversion at the beginning of the Test after Israel Folau had scored a sensational opening try for the Wallabies.
That missed conversion was within the first minutes of the Test. Now Foley had the extra pressure of having to actually kick a successful conversion to ensure a Wallabies victory.
As it happened, Foley kicked an absolute beauty. Some of his other successful kicks had moved around a bit in flight. This one was arrow-straight. Yes!
Talking to other people about this, they told me they had the same sort of emotional response as I had.
What all this showed is that the Foley is the real deal. It takes nerves of steel and high skills to do what he did against the Springboks, both in running the game plan and then kicking four penalties and the one conversion.
I would say that the matter of the Wallabies starting number 10 leading into the 2015 Rugby World Cup is settled, unless he gets injured.
There was an immediate improvement in the alignment and the attack of the Wallabies from Foley’s direct method and his flat alignment. He is also a tough little player. He is prepared to take the tackle where necessary. And he makes his tackles in his channel, rather like Dan Carter.
Foley’s real value from his flat alignment is truly realised when Kurtley Beale is playing outside him at inside centre. The Wallabies backs started to carve up the Springboks defence when Beale came on well towards the end of the game. Beale’s inside passing confused the ponderous Springboks defensive line. In turn, Tevita Kuridrani’s power and speed came into play leading to Horne’s try.
The inference from these remarks is that even if Quade Cooper makes a successful return to rugby and if (and apparently there is some confusion about this) he commits to Australian rugby for the long term, Foley is the present and long-term number 10, at least until the Rugby World Cup 2015 tournament.
Cooper will have to be the back-up number 10 or develop the sort of all-purpose back play expertise that Beale has, playing in the centres and fullback (and remaining a possibility on the wing, according to Bob Dwyer).
And where does Beale fit in? There are calls, especially after his brilliant cameo, for him to start against the Pumas next week. I would support this. But I would also make the point that Matt Toomua (who I have been critical of during the past two Tests against the All Blacks) played splendidly against the Springboks. His best game as a Wallaby, I would think.
Probably Ewen McKenzie would like to see more of the Nick Phipps, Foley, Toomua, Kuridrani quartet before making a final decision to changing it.
But if this is the case, Beale needs to come on earlier in Tests from the reserve bench.
The point here is that he doesn’t have to come on as an inside centre. He is a terrific running fullback. Israel Folau could be moved on to the wing, if necessary, and Beale moved to fullback if the Foley-Toomua five-eighths combination is working especially well.
Some of Folau’s play at fullback, especially his kicking from around his own 22, was woeful. On the wing he wouldn’t have to make those decisions. He could play like Julian Savea, who runs when he gets the ball.
One way or the other, the Wallabies are a more dangerous side on attack with Beale on the field.
Matt Toomua’s impressive start to the Test fell away a bit when the Wallabies forwards started to get overwhelmed by the big Springboks pack. However, his defensive work remains a strong part of his game.
And there is now a strong case for making changes in the forwards as a result of what happened. Two starting forwards, in particular, were obviously out of their depth: Scott Fardy and Rob Simmons.
Fardy was exposed as having no running game, a big fault for a number six. Even more importantly, he had no idea of his role at scrum time. Most scrums he hardly shoved and when he did it he pushed straight ahead, instead of angling in support of his prop.
He needs to look at the way Richie McCaw scrums. This is one of those many little duties that McCaw does better than anyone else which makes him one of the greatest players to play the game. Often he pushes so hard that he becomes the fourth prop. He did this on that crucial last scrum before halftime in the Test against the Pumas.
His effort, along with the rest of the pack, resulted in the All Blacks forcing a tight head. Beauden Barrett made a break and Liam Messam scored a tremendous try that broke any chance of the Pumas defeating the All Blacks.
The Australian flanker who scrummed like this was Owen Finegan. Fardy and the Wallabies coaching staff need to ask Finegan the scrumming secrets of his trade.
As for Rob Simmons, where does one start? He almost single-handedly kept the Springboks in the Test. He allowed Victor Matfield to dominate the lineouts and to force penalties against the Springboks.
Simmons had no idea of how to cope with Matfield. He took him out in the air. He failed to win his own lineout ball at times and generally played like an enthusiastic schoolboy trying to contest against grown men.
Scott Higginbotham in for Fardy, James Horwill in for Simmons and Wycliff Palu to play 60 minutes, at the most, are the changes I’d make to the pack to confront the Pumas.
The Wallabies brains trust needs to understand that the Pumas are a greatly improved side, in the forwards and backs and, most importantly, in their attitude to balancing their kicking game with a lot of clever running.
Even though the All Blacks forced a crucial tight head, they still had to scrum brilliantly to hold the Pumas pack. A new front row was needed about 20 minutes out when the Pumas finally cracked the starting line-up.
The All Blacks had trained especially for a torrid scrumming contest with a lot of eight-on-eight scrum repetitions. The Wallabies have to do the same thing. Their scrum is nowhere near as good as the All Blacks’. But they can’t hope to get away with scrumming tricks.
What Joe Louis used to say about the square boxing ring applies to the new scrum rules that have taken away the irregularities and opportunities for cheating of the hit, ‘you can run but you can’t hide’.
Under the new regulations, you have to scrum. And the Pumas are likely to do what they tried to do against the All Blacks, which is to hold the ball in the scrum for as long as possible to force their opponents to scrum and give away a penalty, perhaps.
The best part of the Wallabies’ win against the Springboks is that for the first time in Ewen McKenzie’s coaching reign, the Wallabies have defeated a side ranked higher than they are.
Mind you, the Springboks are their own worst enemies. How their supporters tolerate the obsession with kicking away possession is beyond me. It is boring. And it allows a team like the Wallabies, beaten comprehensively in the set pieces, to defeat them. If the Springboks has used even half of the ball they kicked away there is no way the Wallabies could have come out as winners.
It is not as if the Springboks can’t run the ball. Their try was a beauty. And in Brian Habana they have the best finisher to have played for the Springboks. But Habana had to try and make something out of nothing. You have to be God to do this.
But nine out of 10 times the Springboks kick the ball away to their opponents. Admittedly, the Springboks kicked six penalties by being at the right end of the field, but the incessant kicking allowed the Wallabies to score two tries, and this with Bernard Foley’s four penalties trumped the Springboks on the scoreboard.
Nothing can convince me that giving the ball to your opponents the ball is a smart way of playing rugby. The tactic allows an opponent to dictate the outcome of the match. If they make mistakes under the high ball, as the Wallabies did early on, the Springboks get in front. But if mistakes are not made, then the Springboks lose.
You can win penalties without the ball. But you need to have the ball under your control to score tries. And all the evidence of Test rugby is that the side that scores more tries than their opponents will usually win the match.
My point is that kicking away possession is an extremely fraught way of trying to win Tests. The Springboks were incredibly lucky to defeat the Pumas with their kicking game. The All Blacks, with their all-court game, varying their kicking and keeping the ball in hand for long periods and putting on back line moves, defeated the Pumas comfortably in the end.
However, that is the problem for the Springboks and their supporters. I’d sack the present coaching staff, even though they have been successful in the last two years, and bring in some coaches who understand the modern game of rugby.
I wrote here a couple of weeks ago that I admired the way the All Blacks always came on to the field, no matter how cold and wet is was, in their jerseys. I said that this was a sign that they were ready to play. I suggested other sides should do this.
And what do you know? The Wallabies came out at Perth in their jerseys. And they started brilliantly to score inside the first two minutes of play.
At halftime, too, instead of staying out on the field, grand-standing by Ewen McKenzie I reckoned, they went into the dressing rooms and you could see all the coaching staff giving advice to different groups of players.
All in all, after the debacle at Eden Park against the All Blacks, the Wallabies can take some heart, on and off the field, with their spirited and smart victory against the Springboks, who had been sitting on a run of eight straight victories and expecting a ninth, without having the courage to play real rugby to get it.
I reckon, though, it will be just as hard against the Pumas next week.