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Michael Hooper, that was 60 minutes of rubbish

16th November, 2014
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Michael Hooper must perform as he has McMahon breathing down his neck. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Expert
16th November, 2014
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5387 Reads

The Wallabies burst coach Michael Cheika’s bubble at Stade de France by handing France a 29-26 victory thanks to a litany of fundamental errors.

The men in gold only played rugby for the last 10 minutes of each half. The other 60 minutes were pure rubbish.

Cheika’s positive and aggressive coaching was a forgotten phase, as the Wallabies butchered all the basic fundamentals of passing, catching, support play, defence, and constantly failed to make the advantage line.

I’m going to leave dissecting the stats to Scott Allen. I’m only intersted in what was going on between the ears of 23 Wallabies, which ranged between nothing and very little.

I lost count of the number of times I said, “Bloody hell, what was that?”

But I did say “That’s more like it” three times – once in the first half, when reinstated lock James Horwill set up a rumble and a rolling maul that led to Adam Ashley-Cooper’s 30th Test try, and a halftime score of France 17-16.

The other two were applauding Ashley-Cooper’s bust late in the game down the right wing with no one in support, and Israel Folau’s midfield bust with no one in support, that eventually led to Rob Simmons’ first Test try in 49 appearances.

Three magic moments of rugby in 80 minutes. But despite the rarities, the Wallabies could, and should, have pinched the win in the last minute if bench prop Ben Alexander hadn’t dropped the ball within sniffing distance of the try line.

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Those fundamental errors were so endemic, Cheika and defence coach Nathan Gray will surely spend the next few days ironing out the basics before they face Six Nation champions Ireland in Dublin next Saturday.

Up front, hooker James Hanson must replace Saia Fainga’a, and blindside flanker Matt Hodgson replace Sean McMahon.

In the backs, Will Genia to replace halfback Nick Phipps, who is concentrating more on telling the referee how to do his job than improving the speed and accuracy of his passing.

If Bernard Foley wasn’t a champion goal-kicker, either Quade Cooper or Matt Toomua would slot into the 10 jersey, but Cheika can’t possibly afford to drop Foley.

Now comes the most interesting, even explosive, selection of the tour – Kurtley Beale, or Christian Lealifano at 12?

The Brumby had a poor game against France, but Beale hasn’t played a game since September 27 against the Boks, missing the Pumas, All Blacks, and the first three games of this tour.

Obviously Cheika intends to play Beale, or he wouldn’t have recalled him to the squad.

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So Beale will play against Ireland and England, and watch Foley, Tevita Kuridrani, and Folau relish Beale’s presence, while anti-Beale Roarers go into frenetic overdrive.

In the meantime, let’s see those fundamentals return so the Wallabies can play rugby, and stop retreating towards their own goal-line on a regular basis.

In short, no more, “Bloody hell, what was that?”

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