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Ah, that old Wallabies-fan feeling. It’s back. The bitter taste of blood in your saliva as the cloud slowly clears from your vision and you realise you were kicked in the teeth.
Again.
That feeling of pulling blades of grass out of your mouth and spitting out dirt as you drag yourself up. Again.
Staring at the field/television/tablet/laptop as the opposition in black celebrate, again, every year. They celebrate just as hard this time as any of the countless other times they’ve pulled the Wallabies’ heart out, sliced it, diced it and put it in a blender just to make sure, especially on their side of the Tasman.
They don’t get bored of it. The thrill of it fuels their determination to do it again.
It’s all normal. The Bledisloe Cup is always the same result now (I believe 13 straight years is long enough to qualify as ‘always’).
They always beat us. It doesn’t even usually come to a decider – 2007 is the last time before this year the Wallabies actually played a match with the possibility of securing the Bledisloe with a win.
And that’s what makes it feel a little worse this time isn’t it?
We know what it feels like to get smacked in the mouth by the All Blacks, but when you cop it sweet from a counter-punch is a little more bewildering. Trying to take that trophy back from the All Blacks is like trying to fight a way through Floyd Mayweather. It’s just about impossible. When you feel your best, on the attack and swinging hard, is actually when you are at your most vulnerable. They, and he, are just about to drop you.
The Wallabies fought themselves out from a corner for the first time since 2007 in Sydney. Little did they know the ultimate technicians would be waiting in the middle of the ring, ready to land a series of deadly blows just as the Wallabies were at full punch extension.
Before the Wallabies could take their next breath at Eden Park, a brutal combination of Dan Carter’s revived running game, a return to mistake-free counter attacking, accurate and punishing breakdown work by a re-jigged back row, and a Ma’a Nonu battering ram put the Wallabies on their back.
Now we are looking for a place to lay the blame.
Quade Cooper is the easy choice, but he wasn’t much poorer than many others in a losing outfit. The truth is the All Blacks found a gear they couldn’t in Sydney and a harder truth is the Wallabies team don’t have that same gear.
The All Blacks have a ferocity that is almost impossible to match. It isn’t visible in a single player but as a group there is a relentless accuracy and speed. The breakdown work is cleaner, support lines are tighter, offloads are smoother. That whirlwind is unmatchable.
Michael Cheika compromised the occasion by continuing to rotate the squad. But that shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone, rather a continuation of his policy.
On a deeper level, the need for Cheika to stick to the rotation policy is a punishment for Australian rugby’s handling of the Ewen McKenzie era. The ARU’s inability to manage the fall-out from the Kurtley Beale/Di Patston situation meant the man they selected to coach the side at this World Cup fell on his sword after just 22 Tests.
Cheika’s task was to use the remaining sum of nine games to mould a World Cup squad. A surprise win in Sydney, playing in a manner that suggests the squad is learning his philosophy, didn’t mean he had time to deviate from that task.
There might be some of you who believe compromising the World Cup program was called for with a Bledisloe Cup on the line. That’s a fair opinion, but just an opinion, not a hard-and-fast rule Cheika is obliged to stick with.
Anyway, would the pairing of David Pocock with Michael Hooper in the back row have changed things? Let me answer my own question with another question. Was the difference between the two sides the partnership between Richie McCaw and Keiran Read, or something more?
So what of the Quade Cooper scapegoating?
Well it simply means he will probably make the World Cup squad – barely competent fly halves aren’t available en masse to Australia right now – but he’ll be squarely behind Matt Toomua and Bernard Foley, on merit.
The likes of Matt Giteau and Adam Ashley-Cooper continued to tackle and tackle and show general signs of Test quality on the night, giving Cheika fewer selection headaches in their positions.
Israel Folau looked like the only player in a gold jersey fully worthy of the occasion. That gives Cheika another reason to continue to find ways to involve him in England.
We know that Will Genia’s quality core skill – passing – means we need to hope he regains fitness, because he is head and shoulders above his peers in that part of the game, although Nic White and Nick Phipps are trying harder in other areas.
Scott Sio, despite winning a few battles, was given a reminder that he needs to keep working.
The speed of Hooper combined with the mettle of Pocock was, by its absence, confirmed as the most effective deployment. Now there is evidence of that, not just theory.
Cheika was being praised for out-coaching Steve Hansen after the Sydney Test. That may have been true, but Hansen had the benefit of years of stability and evidence to make the necessary adjustments for the return leg. Cheika is still in the process of gathering that data.
Console yourself with the evidence, as Cheika will.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.