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70 minutes of improvement let down by sorry final 10

29th September, 2014
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Cornal Hendricks takes the ball up against the Wallabies. (AFP PHOTO/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA)
Expert
29th September, 2014
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‘The one that got away’ was how I described the Wallabies’ 28-10 loss to South Africa in Cape Town, in the Sunday morning post-mortem.

I still think that is the case now, with the squad already in Argentina preparing for their final match of the Rugby Championship.

We heard that Ewen McKenzie was “furious” and “disappointed” about the performance of his bench players in the last ten minutes, according to the various reports – and with good reason.

The two teams were a hell of a lot closer than the 18-point margin suggests, with the major difference being the way the Springboks bench over-ran the Wallabies, as opposed to the way the Wallabies bench seemed to implode with panic and indecision and just plain stupidity.

“I actually felt for the players who set the game up, I thought they did a really good job.

“That’s probably going to get lost in the final score line unfortunately,” McKenzie said post-match, in a moment of classic Australian understatement. There’s nothing surer that as the memories of the match fade over time, the scoreline will stand alone as just another heavy Newlands defeat.

Before I get into the obvious bench disappointment, though, I want to hand out some due credit.

First of all, referee Nigel Owens was excellent. I wondered out loud in the Big Questions last week about SANZAR making a bit of a song and dance about northern hemisphere ref, but the Welshman’s control of the match, and of the breakdown particularly was just magnificent, and allowed the game to flow as it did.

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My only real bone of contention about Owen’s performance was his decision that Francois Hougaard’s high tackle on Adam Ashley-Cooper was cancelled out by Ashley-Cooper scoring the try. It was either high, or it wasn’t, Nigel.

I was annoyed that he didn’t go upstairs to what looked like a fair try under the posts for Nick Phipps at the time, but given the TMO was already in his ear about Sekope Kepu holding Handre Pollard back, there’s little chance it would’ve been allowed to stand anyway.

Secondly, credit to the Wallabies forwards, who turned out the sort of performance we’ve hoped to see for years. The much-maligned 4-5-6 combination of Sam Carter, Rob Simmons, and Scott Fardy were very good, with the three of them getting through a mountain of work.

Simmons’ lineout numbers are low, courtesy of only playing the first, but he did a really good job of disrupting the Springboks’ lineout, too. James Horwill picked up where Simmons left off and Horwill finished among the Wallabies leading-tacklers, along with Saia Fainga’a and Carter.

For Horwill to manage that in just 40 minutes gives you an idea of just how busy he was, as well as just how much defending the Wallabies did in the second half.

Fardy, though, was wonderful. I think I’d go as far as saying this was his best game in 2014 in any jersey, and it came at precisely the right time for the Brumbies flanker-cum-lock.

The Wallabies’ pigs worked out early that committing fewer bodies to the breakdown was the best way of stopping the rampaging ‘Bok pack, but they also had a lot of success with the low, scything tackle that Fainga’a has mastered, with good first half support from Simmons in this department too.

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The low tackles dropped Duane Vermeulen and co like a stone, often allowing the loosies a clean shot at the ball before the clean out arrived. Fardy pinched three in the first 25 minutes alone, and I think there were two more in the second half as well. Ben McCalman was resourceful in this area too.

A repeat viewing made me reconsider just how much Michael Hooper got through, too, and the stats confirmed what a second Sunday cuppa took in. He had 13 runs, three defenders beaten, and 20 of 25 tackles made. And even if he wasn’t able to pinch much opposition ball, he more often than not did a job of slowing it down. None of my previous concerns about Hooper have been erased, but he certainly got through a mountain of work.

Finally, I’ll give credit to Ewen McKenzie. I actually thought McKenzie activated his bench really well, making the right moves in reaction to Heyneke Meyer unleashing one of the most experienced Test benches in recent memory.

When Schalk Berger went on, so did Scott Higginbotham. Patrick Lambie and Kurtley Beale were injected into the game around the same time, too.

However, and this is where we complete the circle, the Wallabies bench provided nowhere near the impact through South African counterparts did. In fact, the Wallabies bench provided next to no impact at all, and this was where the match was effectively lost.

There’s no question the tackle count of 260 wore the Wallabies down, but among the tired bodies I don’t know that too many fresh bench hands went up to offer assistance. And this is what I think debunks Spiro’s fitness theory from yesterday, too. There was no reason why the bench players would look as lethargic as those who started the match, yet that was appearance.

Kurtley Beale had yet another chance to mount a case for starting, and yet again failed to deliver. Truth be told, none of the bench players were able to provide more than the player they replaced.

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In actual fact, I don’t think Matt Toomua was quite as bad as is being made out. It certainly wasn’t his best game, don’t get me wrong, but I thought he was pretty good in attack, straightening at the right times, and providing the vision to send the ball through the hands for one of Tevita Kuridrani’s many breaks and Ashley-Cooper’s try.

Just on Kuridrani, as good as Fardy was, he still trailed the big outside centre as the Wallabies’ best. A superb game from the number 13.

Toomua’s kicking was off, no question, but I wonder if it wasn’t part of a plan to exploit the depth with which Springboks’ fullback Willie le Roux defends. One or two dud grubbers I can put down to the individual trying something, but another three or four after that makes me think it was planned.

Regardless, what was apparent when Beale came on was that Toomua had been providing all the defensive shape in midfield. Without Toomua, suddenly backline tackles were being missed left, right, and centre and all semblance of order had disappeared.

So the concern now is if Toomua can’t get up for the Argentina match in Mendoza. Beale has done nothing to warrant a promotion, yet that appears to be the expectation and even more puzzling, that it would be deserved. I can’t subscribe to either theory and, frankly, I think I’d rather Rob Horne plug the gap.

It would have been very easy to sink the boot into the Wallabies for this loss, and while I understand the sentiment of those who have, I think it is a touch unfair when even those doing the criticising concede that the Wallabies competed very well for large chunks of the game, if, indeed, they weren’t the better side.

And saying that is not accepting mediocrity, just providing a reasonable observation. The fact that the Wallabies were the better team for much of the game actually makes this loss harder to reconcile, for me at least. It’s really tough to accept that perhaps the Wallabies best performance of the year will be remembered as an 18-point loss.

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Just a quick one to finish, how great was it to see jumpers being swapped on the field for a change, instead of in the change rooms post-match? In these days of over-corporatisation – which pays the bills, of course – it was just a reminder of the little things we love about rugby.

That you battled so hard to defeat your direct opponent, but respect him enough to want a memento of the clash, regardless of the fact that his jumper has an unrelated sponsor emblazoned. It was a classy end to an intense encounter.

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