- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Australia's Quade Cooper, left, is tackled by Italy's Martin Castrogiovanni during the international rugby union match between Italy and Australia at the Artemio Franchi Stadium in Florence, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010. (AP Photo/Fabrizio Giovannozzi)
Both sides scored two tries. Berrick Barnes had to kick over a hatful of goals to take the Wallabies out to a comfortable 32 – 14 victory.
But a victory is a victory, and this is the attitude supporters need to take on this match.
The days of teams from the southern hemisphere coming over to Europe in November and sweeping aside their opposition are over. Professional rugby is finally evening up results and the abilities of teams.
Even a team like Samoa, in the past easy beats in Europe, put up a resilient match against England at Twickenham to lose 26 -13. This score line probably flattered England.
Scotland conceded seven tries to the All Blacks last week. Against the RWC 2007 champions South Africa they kicked their way to a famous victory 21 – 17.
All of Scotland’s points were from the boot with the Australian-born Dan Parks kicking six penalties and a drop goal in the wind and rain of Murrayfield.
This victory was virtually gifted to Scotland by South Africa’s brain dead play. They kicked and kicked and kicked.
Scotland to their credit ran the ball a lot and stretched the big Springboks pack. Very few, if any, of the Springboks’ kicks were gathered.
There was an instance where Victor Matfield won a lineout and Rian Pienaar did a box kick to hand the ball back to Scotland on the halfway mark.
And at the end of the match, with the Springboks trailing 21 – 14 and needing a try to salvage a draw, Rian Pienaar did an up-an-under from inside his 22 from a tap penalty. Scotland regathered the ball and the match was lost for the Springboks.
It was the southern hemisphere teams, the Springboks, Argentina (defeated by France 15 – 9 in a penalty goal shootout) particularly, and the Wallabies to a lesser degree (but still guilty), that kicked the ball far more than the northern hemisphere sides.
It is hard to see how Peter de Villiers can continue to coach the Springboks into the 2011 World Cup. Brian Moore made the point that their play was ‘clueless.’ They looked as if they hadn’t been coached on anything other than kick the ball high, chase and hope. Their scrum was poor. And they even lost a couple of lineouts towards the end of the match.
De Villiers has inherited a great team which had a lot of potential to develop into an even better side. He has coached this team into a one-dimensional side that doesn’t seem to have any plays or any way of playing other than using the kicking game that was so successful in 2007.
Since RWC 2007 and the kickathon finals, there has been a change in the laws to favour the side running the ball. Both New Zealand and Australia, for instance, won the kick-offs to their matches and held on to the ball for nearly two minutes.
This was energy sapping stuff for their opponents.
The Irish managed to hang on until a few minutes before half-time before the All Blacks broke away to beat them convincingly 38 – 18. The All Blacks scored four tries against a side that does not deserve to hold a record of only two wins in its last 12 matches.
Incidentally, the All Blacks scored four tries, the most of any of the teams in this weekend of major Tests, and it was the 83rd successive Test where they have scored a try.
As for the Wallabies, it needs to be remembered that they have rarely defeated Italy easily. Two years ago Quade Cooper came on and scored a try almost on time to snatch the victory. Last year the All Blacks struggled to overcome Italy.
There is a reason why Italy are not easy beats.
The Italians have a great scrum (they achieved a push over try against the Pumas last week). Their lineout is competitive. They drive a lot in the forwards. They are learning to recycle the ball more than in the past. They don’t give oppositions much to play off.
In short, they hang on to the ball for a long time when they get it. One of the truths of rugby is that you can’t score points when the other side has the ball. Italy did this and the Wallabies had to work hard for their tries and penalties. Nothing was gifted for them.
I always like to see a side toughing out hard wins. In modern rugby not every match against lesser opponents is going to be a walkover.
There will be discussion of the scrum and the seven penalties conceded by the Wallabies. In my opinion, the referee was wrong on most occasions with their penalties. The Italian front props persistently and illegally bore in. They got away with this tactic last year against the All Blacks.
The All Blacks complained and the referee Stu Dickinson was told by the IRB referees boss Paddy O’Brien that he had penalised the wrong side throughout the Test. I’m hoping the ARU take this matter up with O’Brien, as the NZRU did through the correct channels, and Christophe Berdos is told officially that he got it wrong.
The referee for the Wallabies’ next match against France in Paris is the New Zealander Bryce Lawrence. Hopefully O’Brien will have a word to him, too.
The Test at Paris will be a defining match in 2010 for the Wallabies. A defeat will mar what has been a year of steady, if slow-ish progress.
A victory against a French side that is on a winning track, at Paris where they are always hard to beat, will be a tonic for a Wallabies side that is still developing into the sort of team that could have a strong World Cup next year.