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The good, the bad and the ugly of the third Test: Australia vs England

27th June, 2016
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Wallabies' Scott Fardy try to escape the desperate tackle of England's Jonathon Joseph. (Photo: TIm Anger)
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27th June, 2016
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Now that was an incredible game of sport, let alone rugby.

The scoreline wouldn’t look totally out of place in an AFL game (well at least at three-quarter time). But when you look beyond the 80-odd points scored, there are some factors that should have Wallabies fans concerned and excited about the upcoming Rugby Championship in roughly equal measure.

First of all, that was an entertaining series of Test Match rugby and many of the Australian players should not feel too despondent with their own performance. It was a weird series, too, where despite being competitive in every single game over the course of 80/160/240 minutes the English really were the better side.

So from this third and final Test what did we learn and what does the Rugby Championship hold for the Wallabies? It’s a tale of the good, the bad and the ugly.

The good
Michael Hooper makes a damn fine loose forward. He has great hands, runs good lines and is hard to tackle. Sadly in this last match he was probably a bit too loose and not enough forward.

With David Pocock out and Sean McMahon also looking for chances to run in broken play, Australia really needed Hooper to support Scott Fardy much more. Fardy was left on his own a bit too often at the breakdown and unsurprisingly did a great job, but he was never going to be able to take on the English pack single handed. The Pooper is a fearsome combo that still causes nightmares for English players and fans alike after the World Cup. But Hooper, on his own, seems much less of a breakdown threat, and that’s where Fardy and Australia needed him in Sydney.

There were signs of a Plan B – in Melbourne Plan B for Australia was “let’s do Plan A but faster” and the English defence set themselves and absorbed wave after wave of the same style of attack. In Sydney there were signs of a more distinct Plan B – Bernard Foley tried a couple of chips and there was the odd grubber too. This certainly caused some questions in the English defence and made it harder for them to use their fast press defence as confidently.

Two really is better than one – in Melbourne Bernard Foley was left to struggle with no other playmaker on hand to help him out. He suffered and the players outside him suffered too with the English defence moving quickly off its line knowing that there was only really one route the Aussie backline could take. With Matt Toomua at 12 things seemed to work better. The Wallabies were able to get the ball wider faster and that caused lots of problems for the English.

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Israel Folau – much has been written about him and I have to admit that in his early days at fullback I felt he was massively overrated. However I want to take that back. He is a true weapon and is just getting better and better.

Perhaps the biggest improvement recently has been his game awareness – in the 20th minute when the Aussies had a ruck about 15 metres out and just to the left of the English posts, Folau saw the space and numbers on the right side and quickly moved behind the line to create the extra man. His smooth hands helped put Haylett-Petty in the corner.

He was more of a threat than his opposite man Mike Brown and had the better of his battles with Jack Nowell too. Given his hands and ability in the air one could not be blamed for wondering why Foley make it rain bombs on the English wingers whenever the Aussies got inside the English 22. Sure Nowell beat Folau in their one head to head, but it would be a safe bet that he couldn’t keep doing that if forced.

Set piece – there were many who left the game on Saturday feeling that the Wallabies’ set piece had been overrun by the English but looking at the numbers honours seem pretty much even with the Aussie scrum actually coming out on top. But as always the devil is in the detail – while the England wasn’t necessarily more dominant, it made full use of its strengths. From reliable lineout ball to tries from a number 8 pick up, the English pack took their opportunities better than their opponents.

The bad
Nick Phipps – Phipps gets a lot of bashing from many different sources. In my previous article I likened him to a crab and suggested that he had to stop with the two side steps before releasing his pass to Foley.

To be fair to him his distribution was better in Sydney compared to Melbourne, however that’s where the plus points end. His kicking was not good enough and this put more pressure on ten and 12 to look after the kicking throughout the game.

Phipps also seemed to lose his head towards the end and as the Aussies desperately needed control and possession, Phipps twice came up with special ways to make it easier for England. His bullet pass to Folau from about six inches away that crashed into the fullback’s ankles was unexpected and caused chaos as England swarmed forward hunting for another score.

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Then with only a few minutes left and Australia still in the game, he charged through a ruck, grabbed Danny Care and gave away a penalty about 20 metres out and smack bang in front of the posts. Game, set, match, and whitewash were assured for England.

Will Skelton – Skelton looks like he should be tearing teams apart. With his height and size he should be coming off the back fence, storming through the opposition defence and leaving them sprawled on the floor like pins at a bowling alley.

Instead in this game he ended up being more of a liability. Despite his height, he doesn’t create another option at the lineout and therefore actually made it easier for England to compete. He’s too clumsy as demonstrated when he gave away a penalty as he tried to compete with Anthony Watson for a high ball and could easily have been sent to the naughty chair to think about what he’d done.

He was too slow off the mark as well meaning that his great size just provided a larger target for defenders. Like I said – Skelton looks like he could be a destroyer but in an Australian side whose entire style is based around fast play, he looked out of place. A few big hits were great but in the end wasn’t enough.

Kicking – Foley does get far too much criticism in my opinion, but what is true is that this series showed the difference between good kicking and great kicking. Ford and Farrell showed how important it is to have reliable kickers who can get you points and control.

Time and again the England pair took the sting out of the Australian attack with a well-placed kick to touch that pegged the Wallabies back in their half, or punished a mistake with another three points. Meanwhile, Foley missed too many kicks both from hand and tee. One missed kick for touch in the seventh minute led to England having possession for the next five minutes and scoring the opening try.

Of course Foley didn’t let that try happen, but at the top tier of international rugby it’s these kinds of misses that can heap unnecessary pressure on your team and the best teams will punish you for that.

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The ugly
In a bizarre way, there wasn’t anything ugly. The Wallabies didn’t pay terribly. Maybe ugly isn’t the right word. Perhaps concerning is more accurate, because the Aussies seemed to give absolutely everything they had but they were always one step behind.

Even when the English were behind there was this sense of calm in the way they played that made you feel as though in their player’s minds there was a confidence that they just had to keep doing the same things and it would work. Meanwhile, the Aussies looked like they were running themselves ragged in search of a big enough lead and they never looked comfortable with the ball. A sense of pace and urgency became more one of desperation and panic that inevitably led to mistakes and poor decisions.

So what does the immediate future hold? Well, the Australians will need to think hard about how to succeed in the Rugby Championship. Given the three-nil whitewash and the way the Aussies played it is equally possible that they will come last or second in this year’s Championship. Time will tell.

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