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Lack of on-field leadership lets the Wallabies down

Roar Guru
21st October, 2014
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Michael Hooper is a veritable angel (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Roar Guru
21st October, 2014
144
2117 Reads

I tried to be positive, I really did. I sat down with the remote and a notepad to watch the replay of Bledisloe III and had notions of writing a ‘five positives’ article to submit.

However as I watched and rewound and watched again I kept coming back to certain key moments, moments that while seemingly minor, highlighted the Wallabies lack of leadership on the field. Moments that cost them the sight of a golden dawn peeking through the darkness.

While it cannot be argued that the Wallabies played well for most of Saturday night, the positives in the game plan and the performance of certain players all seem rather irrelevant now that a new coach is about to come in.

Instead I am going to focus on how, to my eyes, the Wallabies were let down by some poor game management. I consider this to be a very worrying trend for the Wallabies – who have been guilty of not playing the full eighty minutes a few times this year. Indeed the two best performances by the Wallabies in the past three years have come in losses in 2014 (at Newlands Stadium and at Suncorp Stadium) during which the Wallabies have been overrun at the end of the match.

Moment 1: The Empire Strikes Back – Timestamp: 12:00 to 16:00
We all know it. It’s as certain as death and taxes, the All Blacks are most dangerous just after they’ve given up points.

Nick Phipps scores and the Wallabies celebrate, appropriately so after scoring first, but where was the chat from the on-field leadership telling them to focus on the upcoming restart?

Watch the replay and Wallaby captain Michael Hooper, who is in the ruck that Phipps scores from, gets up and walks back to halfway by himself, he doesn’t congratulate Phipps, doesn’t join the team celebration. He walks away without saying a word.

While Foley is lining up the conversion you can see the Wallabies spread out back in their own half and Hooper walking alone to his restart spot.

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His body language displays relief, the rest of the Wallabies look relaxed as they await the restart.

What happens next? 26 seconds after Beauden Barrett’s kick-off, Cory Jane scores in the corner.

That’s just not good enough. Hooper as the captain needed to draw the Wallabies in for 10 seconds on halfway and say “Hey, these guys are going to hit us now, focus. Secure this kick off.”

I’m going to include Adam Ashley-Cooper and James Slipper in that criticism too. They were two most experienced Wallabies on the park and both vice-captains as well, but the main fault lies with the captain himself.

Moment 2: Nick Phipps versus Liam Messam -Timestamp: 45:40
What happened? Messam is on the wrong side of the ruck and interferes with the play which leads to Phipps making a poor forward pass. Messam then stands up and has a word to Phipps, getting all up in his grill, and Phipps being doesn’t back down.

Hooper then meanders into the fray (hands on hips 15 seconds after the whistle) and steps forward, puts his hand on Messam’s chest and shoves him backwards, and clearly tells him to F-off, twice.

Messam and Phipps continue to mouth off and Joubert stands between them and tries to calm them down. Joubert then pulls Hooper up and reprimands him “Do you want to lead by example?” he asks twice.

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What should have happened? Hooper should have grabbed Phipps and dragged him a step, turned his back on the All Blacks, and loudly said something along the lines of, “Nick, look at the scoreboard. He’s mouthing off because he’s scared. If you want to get to him, do it on the scoreboard, where it matters.”

I can’t recall the number of times I have said something similar to calm temper flare ups in matches. Then he should have turned to Richie and, right in front of Joubert, loudly said, “Hey Richie, how about you control your guys?”

This was a failure in leadership. Hooper was simply too immature to realise that dealing with his own players was his responsibility. Instead he wanted to shove an opposition player and act tough.

He wasn’t smart enough to realise that he had an opportunity to put it in the referee’s head that the opposition were losing control and engaging in niggle.

By not being to the situation fast enough he also missed the opportunity to talk to Joubert about the fact that Messam was on the wrong side of the ruck affecting the Wallabies’ play – exactly the thing Joubert had warned McCaw about at the 31-minute mark, after four All Black penalties in ten minutes.

Instead he got the referee offside by putting Joubert in the situation where he was doing the captain’s job.

Moment 3: Closing out the game – Timestamp: 76:30
This is at the restart after White’s long-range penalty. The Wallabies secure the ball from the restart and are at 38 metres from their own line. There is 200 seconds to go. Five phases later Wallabies get to 43 metres out, 165 seconds to go.

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They are trying to close up shop, but three minutes is a long time in rugby. The Wallabies give away a penalty for holding on, but they get the ball back because Slade misses touch!

Joe Tomane runs it back and the All Blacks turn the ball over immediately with 125 seconds to go.

At this point it is blindingly obvious that the All Blacks are attacking with their defence and flooding the breakdown going for penalties and turnovers. The Wallabies need to get out of their half.

The opportunity comes the very next phase when White pounces on a loose ball 26 metres out from the line. Instead of hoofing it downfield, the Wallabies try to set the ball with one-out forward runners, except the Wallaby forwards are (a) solitary instead of in pods for momentum and weight, and (b) standing still to receive the ball meaning the All Blacks are driving them back every tackle.

Three phases later the Wallabies are inside their own 22 with 95 seconds to go. White box kicks about seven metres forward, and we all know what comes next, seven phases later Fekitoa crashes over and Slade nails the conversion to seal a one-point win.

Trying to close up shop was a bad decision. It’s all well and good to try and retain possession with a ‘they can’t win without the ball’ mentality, but in that case the Wallabies should have done what they had been doing all game – punching the ball up in the centres or one channel wider with Tevita Kuridrani and Israel Folau and then working the short blind with forward runners.

The one-out stuff doesn’t work. The right option was a pass back to either Folau or White himself with someone else at scrumhalf for a big kick downfield with a hard chase from Lealiifano, Ashley-Cooper and Tomane.

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But the Wallabies weren’t set up for that. Neither Foley nor White had the presence of mind to think of it.

In this instance the fault is not Hooper’s. There was no break in play for him to say “get out of our half”, although he should have said it before the restart).

I am going to pin this one squarely on Ashley-Cooper, who is both vice-captain and the most capped backline member. He is also a back-three player with a decent boot.

The Wallabies have been weighed down by a dearth of on-field leadership all rugby championship, and it cost them the match on Saturday.

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