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Is David Pocock's injury secretly a blessing for the Wallabies?

22nd September, 2016
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David Pocock is quality, but where does he fit? (Photo: AFP)
Roar Guru
22nd September, 2016
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2644 Reads

David Pocock is still clearly Australia’s number 7. The loss of a team’s most influential player is never a blessing. However, the injury may have a silver lining.

It offers the perfect opportunity for Australia to return to fielding a more traditional back-row.

Since the start of the Rugby Championship last year coach Michael Cheika has insisted on fielding Pocock and Michael Hooper at the same time (the ‘Pooper’), or an equivalent, such as both Hooper and Sean McMahon during the England series.

While strong in 2015, the strategy has unacceptably weakened the Wallabies since the World Cup final.

Best documented is its negative effects on the lineout. It means that neither the 7 nor 8 are legitimate lineout options, leaving the Wallabies with a maximum of three jumpers.

In the World Cup final New Zealand realised that they could kick the ball into touch with impunity. Fielding the Pooper and Kane Douglas, Australia only had two legitimate options, Scott Fardy and Rob Simmons. Even on the Wallabies’ throws the All Blacks relied on their excellent defensive lineout to either steal the ball or disrupt enough to prevent the Wallabies from getting an attacking ball.

The woes continued in 2016. Against England the lineout looked shaky. Even when the Wallabies won their lineouts, they never got clean ball.

It came to a head in the Bledisloe Cup Tests. Australia won 71% and 67% of its own throws. At international level, this is an utter travesty, and alone should have been enough to end the Pooper. The absolute worst point was when New Zealand managed to score a try off of Australia losing two of its own lineouts in succession, one from five metres out from the New Zealand tryline and the other at half way.

Scott Fardy out-jumps Maro Itoje

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The lineout is, statistically, the best attacking platform in rugby, and Australia – an inferior team to New Zealand around the park – was sabotaging its own best weapon.

Perhaps even more importantly is the way in which it forces Cheika to field play players in other positions in order to make up for the lineout weakness.

The best example of this can be seen in Dean Mumm being played over Scott Fardy.

When Adam Coleman was yellow carded in the second Bledisloe Test, oweing to the fact that Douglas, Hooper and Pocock were on the field Cheika felt the need to put Mumm on for Fardy. This is despite the fact that Fardy is a superior player to Mumm in every facet of the game aside from (perhaps) the lineout, and the fact that Fardy had been one of Australia’s top performers thus far in the match.

Since then Mumm has started at 6 over Fardy in both matches. Against Argentina Mumm missed seven of 17 tackles and turned the ball over three times.

He does not deserve a spot in the Wallabies, especially over one of Australia’s better performers in Fardy.

Going forward we should select Fardy at 6, Hooper at 7 and Lopeti Timani at 8, with Sean McMahon on the bench.

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Australia's Sean McMahon

Timani, at 193cm, has the height and athleticism to be a good lineout option, and has the size required to provide physicality at the breakdown, direct the scrum and get over the advantage line.

McMahon is a better player than Timani, but at only 186cm provides the same limitations as Pooper. He is currently not fit enough to play 80 minutes, so Hooper should start over him at 7.

We should utilise McMahon in the same way the Kiwis use Ardie Savea – we should unleash him in the second half to wreak havoc on tired opponents.

His incredible run in the second last Saturday where it took five Argentinean defenders and about 15 metres is the perfect example of the impact McMahon can have off the bench.

Fielding this team would mean we would have a strong, traditional backrow, with line-out jumpers at 4, 5, 6 and 8.

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