Wallabies lock Dan Vickerman has apologised to teammates and vowed to clam up in Saturday’s pivotal Rugby World Cup clash with Ireland in Auckland.
Vickerman cost Australia three points, allowing Italy to go to the sheds locked at 6-all in Sunday’s opening Pool C match after back-chatting Irish referee Alain Rolland and having the penalty advanced 10 metres closer to the Wallabies’ goal posts.
Coach Robbie Deans has made it clear he won’t tolerate any players mouthing off – advice Vickerman has clearly heeded.
“From my point of view, that wasn’t good enough,” the Test veteran told reporters on Tuesday.
“The penalty was awarded fair and square and you’ve just got to deal with it and get on with it.
“I let the team down there and it’s not good enough … once a decision’s made, you deal with that and move on with the game.”
All up, the Wallabies conceded 15 penalties against the Azzurri.
“That’s not good enough either and I gave away a few of those away and in (tighter) games where penalties become an issue, it can be a lot of points that come against you,” Vickerman said.
“So we need to work on that and focus on maintaining that area of the game so that penalty goals don’t become a factor.”
Mindful of upsetting match officials, the Wallabies are saying all the right things about the referees and accepting they need to adapt better to the refereeing at the World Cup, particularly the handling of the breakdown area.
Vickerman said it was imperative players stayed on their feet at the contact area.
“That area of the game is being hotly refereed now, going off your feet at the breakdown,” he said.
“Our game definitely wasn’t being badly refereed. The penalties were there – we’ve had a look at them – I went off my feet and I wasn’t peeling out properly so it wasn’t good enough from me.
“Alain’s a great referee. He’s refereed a lot of top-notch international games so, as I said, it’s just not good enough from my point of view.
“Those were the areas that let me down – maintaining the leg drive through the contact and getting on with it.
“There’s a lot of tall blokes out there that do it effectively. I’ve just got to improve on that.”
The veteran second-rower said the Wallabies were all for the crackdown, agreeing it creates a better spectacle for fans.
“If you’re going to go into a breakdown and (you) clean someone out, you’ve got to stay on your feet rather than sealing off the ball,” he said.
“If you can go in with that mindset and make sure you clean out past the ball on your feet, then it negates bodies on the ground and the game’s able to flow.
“So it comes with the players taking that responsibility upon themselves – not to flop.
“If you’re on your feet and you’ve entered through the gate, then the game flows and that’s what we want from rugby; we want the breakdown to be clean and have the ball in hand in attack.”
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