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Australia's Adam Ashley-Cooper, center, is grabbed by France's Aurelien Rougerie, center right, Yannick Jauzion as Alexis Palisson looks on during the rugby match between France and Australia at the Stade de France stadium, Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
There could not have been a more vivid illustration of the gap between the top three rugby countries – New Zealand, Australia and South Africa (in that order) – and the rest of the world than the three commanding victories these sides recorded at the weekend.
The Wallabies absolutely demolished France in the last 35 minutes of their Test at the Stade de France. Minutes into the second spell France took the lead for the first time in the Test with a penalty, making the score 16 – 13.
Then, sacrebleu, the floodgates opened and the Wallabies went on to score 46 unanswered points.
It was interesting how the floodgates opened. One of the reasons why rugby is such a wonderful game (Luke Doherty please take note) is that little mistakes or carelessness can have devastating implications.
France failed to chase a kick-off. They lost a lineout. And suddenly the Wallabies were running the ball at them, with great effect. Adam Ashley-Cooper started making the sort of breaks that opened up the All Black at Hong Kong. The ball started bouncing kindly for the Wallabies. Even some scrum penalties started to go their way.
In the end the Wallabies scored seven tries against a French side that in the first 40 minutes looked as though it was well-organised and determined. By the end of the Test they were a rabble. But they had been reduced to this by a well-coached Wallaby side that had any number of excellent set moves.
In fact, the beginning of the Test was marked with a terrific move that saw the ball moved from a lineout out to Berrick Barnes as first receiver. Quade Cooper doubled around him, as a decoy. The inside ball to James O’Connor on the burst opened up the French defence.
The All Blacks have a slightly similar move with Ma’a Nonu as first receiver, the centre making a dummy inside cut and Daniel Carter doubling around to receive the pass.
The Wallaby variation, which was capped off with a perfectly position Ashley-Cooper taking a pass from O’Connor, totally fooled a French defensive line which was obsessed by the need to watch Cooper like a hawk.
Cooper, in fact, played his best game for the Wallabies in that he underplayed his hand and contrived to send out long, beautifully timed passes to his outside backs which frequently defeated the French rush defence.
The only real blot on the Wallabies performance was the scrum. France overpowered the Wallaby scrum for most of the first half. This dominance included a penalty try when the Wallabies collapsed four scrums. But when Benn Robinson came on the scrum settled and the Wallabies were at least able to get their own ball, instead of conceding penalties.
The Wallabies half of the Rugby World Cup (RWC) draw has them, in theory at least, playing England in the semi-final. This presumes that England will defeat France in their quarter-final. This, in turn, presumes that the All Blacks will beat France in their pool round match.
England have been something of an obstacle to the Wallabies ever since RWC 1991 when Australia defeated the home side in the final. Since then, England has put the Wallabies out of the tournament three times. Judging by the demolition job South Africa did on England at Twickenham, you’d have to think that England will not repeat this history, if it is given the chance next year.
The Springboks would have won more comfortably than the 21 – 11 scoreline if they’d have any expertise and skill in their backs. Fourie du Preez and Bryan Habana could make a big difference here. But the Springboks need a number 10 with some fluency in his skills and imagination. They had to get their points the hard way by banging away. There were none of the easy points that the gifted Wallaby and All Blacks backs create for their sides.
The All Blacks scored five tries to one against Wales, and still a former Welsh international like Ieuan Evans (Evans the optimist, perhaps) opined that ‘Wales might have won.’ What nonsense. The All Blacks played at a high speed which gave Wales something to play off. The All Blacks, too, were curiously at odds with how to deal with the rush defence. They need some coaching from Robbie Deans on the inside ball, perhaps.
But despite criticism of their play from some of the experts, the fact is that the All Blacks achieved a fourth Grand Slam.
They scored 18 tries against the Home Union nations and conceded only four, one of them on Saturday night right on time.
When assessing the performances of the Wallabies, Springboks and All Blacks in the last four weeks, we need to remember that all their Tests in Europe have been away games. The Wallabies lost to England at Twickenham and the Springboks lost to Scotland at Murrayfield. Both these losses could have been turned into victories for the visitors.
New Zealand is not home territory for the Wallabies or the Springboks. But it is more familiar territory for their players than it will be for their European opponents in RWC 2011. The Springboks are basically an old side that is probably on the slide, rather like England in RWC 2007. The All Blacks are an old side that is getting better, a bit like England in RWC 2003.
The Wallabies seem to me to be a bit like the Springboks of 2007. This team endured a number of years of defeats. There were calls for the coach to be sacked. Then in the last Test before the World Cup season, in a make or break match, the Springboks defeated England. This victory meant that Jake White was retained as coach. The veterans like John Smit, Victor Matfield and Bakkies Botha were retained to play in every match of RWC 2011.
The Wallabies defeat of France at Paris 59 – 16 is a much bigger scoreline than the 2006 South Africa- England match. But the fall-out could be similarly important. There will be no more talk about whether Deans can coach successfully at the international level. The high octane Wallaby game can obviously overwhelm even strong sides like the 2010 Six Nations champions, France.
Adam Ashley-Cooper is a champion centre. Kurtley Beale is dynamic at fullback. Berrick Barnes gives the backline some stability on defence and attack. Will Genia has got his mojo back. David Pocock is running more, and still getting turnovers. The lineout is working well.
Fix up the scrum and who knows how far the Wallabies can go in RWC 2011.