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Australia's James O'Connor, center, tries to break through the tackle of New Zealand All Blacks during the Bledisloe Cup rugby test at the National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009. All Blacks won the test, 32-19. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
The scoreline of 32 – 19 to the All Blacks against the Wallabies in Toyko did not give justice to how tough this Test was for New Zealand to win. The All Blacks scored two tries to one, admittedly. And the Peter Hynes try was awarded by Mark Lawrence, the South African referee when he got tired (it seemed) of waiting for the video referee to make his call.
But for some minutes after this controversial try the Wallabies were camped on the All Blacks tryline. With Sitiveni Sivivatu off the field with a yellow card (which probably should have been red) for one of the most blatant tackles of a catcher in the air, the All Blacks seven-man scrum was being pushed around by the Wallabies.
Wycliff Palu almost got across from one 5m scrum. Then the Wallabies made a series of hit-ups metres out from the All Blacks try line. Why they didn’t go back to Hynes unmarked on the wing is a mystery. But a hit-up went wrong. Andrew Hore snaffled the ball in the maul, and the danger was over.
The Wallabies started strongly with Will Genia making a long break out of defence and then muffing his pass to Adam Ashley-Cooper for the flyer to run in a try. Matt Giteau kicked two penalties to ram home the advantage of the good start.
Then the All Blacks got their game going and took the score to 10 – 6, with a penalty and conversion from Daniel Carter and a brilliant try by Sivivatu in which Riche McCaw handled and passed a couple of times.
Then Carter kicked another penalty, and then came the Hynes try.
I’ve listed these movements in the score line to make the point that the game was there for the taking by the Wallabies, if they had rammed home their advantage of the extra player and extreme field position.
As with the Test in Wellington, the All Blacks came back strongly in the second half scoring 19 points which included another splendid try to Conrad Smith, and a conversion and four more penalties to Carter.
The Wallabies kicked a penalty which was slightly better than the no-scoring second half ‘achieved’ at Wellington.
Something needs to be done about these second collapses by the Wallabies.
In three of the four losses to the All Blacks, they have been ahead at half-time. When Rod Macqueen coached the Wallabies they lost, from memory, only one Test after they were leading at half time. The All Blacks have a similar sort of record.
Clive Woodward told me that when he started coaching England he had a similar problem to that of Deans, with his side invariably going down to losses after being ahead at half-time. The strong first half performances were not matched with a similar strong performance in the second half. His solution was to make his players put on new jerseys and shorts at half time.
The thinking behind this was in the fresh kit the players would believe the psychology that they were starting the second half as if it were the first half. It’s history now that this psychological ploy worked for Woodward and England. In 2007 particularly, especially in the Rugby World Cup tournament, England closed out the matches in which it established a lead, even if it had to wait until the last minute of extra time to do so against the Wallabies in the final.
So I offer this idea (or more accurately, Woodward’s idea) to Deans to consider.
It seems to me, too, that the psychology of the new kit worked in 2007 because Woodward’s pack had become an experienced, tough, resilient and intense set of forwards. This is not what the Wallaby pack is right now. The younger forwards like Benn Robinson and David Pocock were the best in the pack against the All Blacks. The second row was not strong and dominant. In fact it was weak in the lineouts. And the front row, even with Robinson, does not make much of an impact in the rucks and mauls.
As this pack is the best that Deans has right now, he has to hope that they acquire the physical power and the mongrel to take their play to real Test match standards.
Having said this, it is true that this was a much better performance by the Wallabies than the defeatist shambles they offered at Wellington.
They pushed the All Blacks hard throughout the match. At the end of the match when there was a remote chance of snatching a win with two converted tries, they found holes with strong running from Ashley-Cooper, Digby Ione (a strong performance throughout) and James O’Connor.
The execution was just not there. And this underlines another aspect of this current Wallabies side. They are not clinical in the manner of the great sides of the past.
In this Test they had the chance to score four or five times. And each time, somehow, the chance was blown. Again, the backs like the forwards have got to be more ruthless in taking their chances.
It is a mental thing as much as a physical thing. You get the impression that this Wallaby side is too conscious of all the side issues that go on during a match. You hear them yelling out all the time, for instance, trying to alert the referee to an offside or a knock-on.
You never hear McCaw doing this, though. He just thunders around the paddock with a single-minded pursuit of the ball, making his tackles, his catches, his passes and his runs. The All Blacks in general tend towards this style of silent killers.
Another type of rugby call that is getting to me comes from the two commentary teams on Channel 7 and Fox Sports.
I watched both coverages of the Test and the thing that stood out for me was the incessant second-guessing of the referee by Gordon Bray (who has become too partisan), Tim Horan and Dan Crowley of Channel 7, and Phil Kearns and Greg Martin on Fox Sports. Greg Clarke, to his credit, just called the game and left the refereeing to the referee.
As I watched with my son, we both agreed that one of the main reason why rugby supporters have become dissatisfied with rugby this season can be attributed to the woeful television commentaries. Viewers are getting an earful of the commentators bagging the laws, the game, the referee and opposition players.
No wonder viewers believe that rugby league, say, is providing a better spectacle. It is not really the better spectacle at work but much better and more positive commentary.
On neither channel, for instance, was the tension and the high skills displayed by both sides brought out. Nor was there much (any?) analysis of what was happening.
Greg Martin mentioned once that the Wallabies should have moved the ball out to an un-marked Hynes towards the end of the first half. But there was no analysis, however, on how the Wallabies had cleverly directed play to Sivivatu’s wing while he was off the field.
This was, in fact, a terrific Test match.
The play went up and down the field with attack and counter-attack. The lead changed hands a number of time. There was some searing runs and attacks and a couple of clever ensemble tries.
Before the Test I was sceptical of the Wallabies’ chances of going close to their Grand Slam. We will know this time next week whether the quest is on target. But I expect it will be. If the Wallabies can play with the toughness they displayed against what is now a very good All Blacks side, they should beat England.
This means, though, that the Wallabies have to put two strong performances together in successive Tests, which is something they’ve found impossible to do this season.