Craig Gower looms as the chief threat to the Wallabies’ hopes of a two-match sweep of Italy after making an eye-catching international rugby debut for the Azzurri on Saturday night.
The former Australian rugby league Test ace overcame some diabolical service from his halfback to torment the Wallabies defence in an otherwise lacklustre 31-8 defeat for the Azzurri at Canberra Stadium.
Gower set up Italy’s only try when he swept into the Italian backline, changing the point of the attack and delivering a sweet inside flick pass for New Zealand-born winger Kaine Robertson to score.
“I thought he showed a couple of good signs. It was actually difficult for us to defend against him,” Wallabies centre and captain Stirling Mortlock said.
“I think he’s just enjoying playing rugby at a higher level.
“From the footage we’ve seen of him playing over in France, he played a lot of 12 and then he started moving into 10.
“When you move into 10 when you’re a primary playmaker, there’s a little bit more heat on you and no doubt he’s enjoying that challenge.”
Wallabies five-eighth Matt Giteau agreed.
“He was good. He created a few things,” Giteau said.
“Obviously in the second half, they liked to sit him in the pocket a little bit so he could pick and choose which way to go.
“He could have a go at our forwards and look for mismatches. From that side of things, he was quite creative and he’s only going to get better.
“For his first Test, I thought he went great.”
After 18 Tests for the Kangaroos, plus five State of Origin games for NSW and an NRL premiership as captain of Penrith in 2003, Gower said he was looking forward to many more appearances for the Azzurri now he’s got his first out of the way.
“Hopefully in the next couple of games I can improve on my performance and get better as I play more flyhalf,” he said.
Italy’s South African coach Nick Mallett is just hoping receives a bit more support from his teammates in Saturday night’s second Test in Melbourne.
“Craig’s a good player. I mean, he’s a very good rugby player,” Mallett said.
“The problem we’ve got is that we need to get him good ball on the front foot and he needs to get very good service from the scrum-half.
“We wouldn’t have come close to scoring without someone like that taking it to the line. It was a lovely little switch with Kaine Robertson and it’s just a pity we couldn’t given him more opportunities.
“When he gets front-foot ball … he put our lock into a half gap once so he’s a guy we really appreciate and we’re very fortunate to have him.”
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