35-18. This score should bring pain to every Wallabies player involved in Australia’s journey in 2010, and inspire them towards glory in 2011.
What’s ironic about this score, of the game in which we succumbed to an inconsistent English side, is that we managed to upset a roaring All Blacks team only two weeks earlier (albeit in a dead rubber game).
Following that match, everyone was kicking up a fuss about how we were now ready to claim our third Web Ellis trophy, the most of any team in international trophy. Had these people not forgotten about their countless brain explosions and indignant losses since our quarter-final exit at the 2007 Rugby World Cup?
I care not to mention the fact we have not won the Tri-Nations since 2001, and the Bledisloe since 2002. We should not be gaining optimism from just one victory over a good team, but a string of wins against a number of contenders.
What this brings me to is the Wallabies’ 59-16 annihilation of France in their own backyard. Benn Robinson, Nathan Sharpe, Berrick Barnes, Adam-Ashley Cooper, Drew Mitchell and co. all starred in a game of two contrasting halves. Whilst the second is a reason for optimism, a half in which Australia scored 46 points; the first was perhaps the one that needs analysing the most.
The Wallabies scrum became their Achilles heel once again, to the point where a penalty try was conceded in the 30th minute. Even the slightest of scrummaging problems will turn around and bite us come World Cup time, as it did in the 2007 tournament when we were bundled out by, you guessed it, England.
This year, the men in gold won three games, lost one (not including a 15-6 loss to club side Leicester by our ‘B’ team) and were rather frustrating to watch. Earlier this year, in the annual Tri-Nations competition, we won two, and on more than one occasion were defeated not by the opposition, but ourselves.
Our painful 23-22 loss to the All Blacks in the final game in Sydney showed that in a one-team match, we’d be able to find a way to finish second.
There were also games in which we were never in the contest, e.g. a 49-28 loss in Melbourne which probably impacted the team’s morale for the rest of the campaign. Note the pattern: The men in black.
Sure, we are a good team, but not great. If the World Cup began tomorrow, we’d be lucky to make the semi-finals.
Taking a glance at the record of the New Zealand All Blacks, it is impossible to fathom why they haven’t won a World Cup in 23 years. For pundits to even consider the Aussies a World Cup chance must first look at the All Blacks’ record.
Their most recent game, an entertaining 37-25 dispatch of the Welsh, was a professional performance in which ball movement was fluid, the breakdown was won, and the forwards were in control.
One player who displayed the team attitude on the weekend was Jerome Kaino; he assisted his team in dictating the pace of the game, which in turn helped control possession, territory and gave the backs enough time and space to exhibit their silky skills or flyhalf Dan Carter to put the boot to ball, and peg the game back another 30 or so metres downfield.
Plus, an indication of the All Black’s quality is that there is no spot for Sonny Bill Williams in their star-studded line-up.
The Wallabies, who possess buckets of potential, have the ability to worry a team for 10 or so minutes, before becoming complacent or frustrated when the opposition begins to shut them down and slow down the flow of play.
The two options faced in these situations are what separate the Wallabies from winning teams such as New Zealand; the All Blacks keep chipping away with a true 15-man performance, and when something doesn’t work, they don’t overuse it and try to force the play, instead they analyse a situation and make the most of it.
Australia however, become frustrated and works as a team playing like 15 individuals, not 15 individuals playing like team.
Unfortunately, this is just one of many facets of rugby that the Wallabies fall behind in. So, in short, did they put together a World Cup, or any major trophy for that matter, winning performance against France?
The answer is an emphatic ‘no’.
chuck
Guest
problem is the wolf at the top of the hill is very territorial very protective and aggressive.
Scotty
Guest
Powells shot was indeed a "Loe" point of the game..... :-) As to the Wallas, I'm quietly optimistic, but I believe 2011 will be a year too early for them. 1999 was a year or two too early for England, and this will be a bit early for us. It will only be when BamBam becomes captain that the team will hit its straps.
stillmatic1
Guest
so Peter K, does that mean the wallabies are better than the Abs at the moment? i mean since you decided to throw a completely irrelevant assertion into the mix about how much the wallabies won by. sounds like the same kind of talk after the wallas beat the boks last year, but the Abs lost 3-0, so Aussie were better!! huh! surely each game has its own merit, or does your hatred for the abs cloud your judgement. by the way, you now are my new best friend!!
Mick Gold Coast QLD
Roar Guru
McCaw does honour to rugby through attaining true excellence in his play, in his confident effective captaincy, by showing respect for the traditions of the game and in the manner in which he conducts himself publicly. He epitomises "mana". We saw a glimpse of his modesty and quiet manner during the season when he visited a Northland primary school to surprise children who had been fashioning a life sized dummy of their hero - the video clip is a pearler http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/all-blacks/3997100/All-Blacks-statue-comes-to-life-to-stun-pupils "The measure of a man" is an anaytical tool from another time (first heard it from my father in the '60s) now often forgotten or ignored, but so pertinent in assessing blokes. Powell swaggered off to his team-mates immediately after, showing his muscles or such - one can just see some triumphal pose in the background, briefly. McCaw got up, winked at Powell and got on with it (on legs of jelly). I have seen no news of a citing, which must occur within a fixed period after (half day or one day?) so it seems Powell will enjoy his fame undisturbed by sanction. The young Welshman has only a deliberate head high, from behind, on a far superior player by which to mark his presence in the game. You are right Cattledog - I hesitate to have a fair dinkum crack at refs but on this occasion he and the linesmen failed in their jobs. So too the citing official.
Ben S
Roar Guru
'mainly in the forwards, due to lack of size' The Australian forwards were bigger than the French forwards, Peter, and also the English forwards.
Peter K
Guest
I for one disagree. The biggest weaknesses we have are mainly in the forwards, due to lack of size, power and quality. However this is one area where we have the most players coming back. Horwill, Vickerman, Palu. The locks will help in the scrums as well because they scrumage better, push harder. Also TPN will be fit and could easily be a starter. He is better in defence, attack and scrumaging than Moore but worse at lineout throws. Also the scrum should be better since it should be obvious the experimentation of a LH in Alexander at TH should be over. Another positive to take from the France game is that for ONCE the Wallabies were ruthless and kept piling on points instead of coasting. That aspect has been missing for too long. People might say France gave up, BUT if they tend to do that once they cant win then it still has to be said the Wallabies smashed them by a bigger margin than even the AB's ever have (or a larger number of points scored).
James Ditchfield
Roar Rookie
Yes, Richie McCaw is an excellent captain and I was greatly impressed by his sportsmanship on the weekend after being blatantly high-tackled.
Cattledog
Guest
Yeah Harry, that was bad and that dud of a ref and his assistants missed it. Hats off to McCaw, though. Took it on the chin and nothing else said. A real measure of the man. To me he's in the class of the Eales and Farr-Jones'. Superb player and has captain written all over him, unlike our 'scrubber', unfortunately.
Cattledog
Guest
We were talking more about the written media, ARS, but it sounds disappointing what you will be getting next year in the way of TV coverage.
Ai Rui Sheng
Guest
We used to have great coverage in Shaghai but next year ESPN has the rights to the 3N and RWC. We got nothing of the EOYT's because 6Nations Ltd wanted too much and the Australian Network could not afford it. We have to download the matches next day from the Internet. When ESPN gets the games they will not be shown here but will be on BenSports which charges about five times the salary of a doctor. Their argument is that the service is for pubs, but they cannot cannot to pay either. Consequently we will be viewing games at least 24 hours delayed and we will have many students working to hack the satellites.
Harryonthecoast
Guest
C'Mon you guys! Not one of you mentioned about Richie being a cheat? You're going soft. Get into him. He loves it....just as he can look the other way from the biggest cheap shot of the year (or the decade?)
Cattledog
Guest
Canine poetry...lol. I'm certainly not one that is over enthused by the France game. Too many inconsistent performances for my mind. I do like the look of the young side, though, and with some older heads coming back there's still improvement, thus the climbing the hill bit. I've been accused of being Slippers manager but I really like what I've seen with him. Beale has been a sensation and JOC excellent. Let's hope they don't regress during the S15, especially Beale. So all in all there are some positives to come out of the trip but still a lot of rugby between now and RWC.
Cattledog
Guest
No argument from me on that, Warren. The rugby coverage is pretty pathetic at the best of times in Oz. In the off season it's non-existent. Not sure if the WC will make much difference, maybe slightly. It wasn't great when we hosted.
Damo
Guest
Canine poetry Cattledog! A positive thought. But the negatives in the article are spot on. I am very relieved that we recovered from England, Munster and a penalty try to finish on a high note. But RWC will last longer than the 35 minutes taken to put 46 points on a broken French team. That was a rare gift. If I can be so rude to say it - this has been NZ's mistake at world cup time - too many points smacked into teams that don't matter. MacQueen's Wallabies won tight games by modest margins. It was hell for a supporter - we could never rest during a game -but it was a winning way. And they won more than the other teams. Consistent disciplined winning is what wins TN's and world cups, not flamboyant 35 minute try fests. Don't get me wrong I love this team, even the bench and I am hopeful they are on track. They have given much cause for hope but the consistency and discipline required to win a major tournament is very thick on the ground across the ditch ATM.
warrenexpatinnz
Guest
Agree cattledog but innuendo, far fetched opinions are the only thing I will have now until February as the lack of reporting on player recovery, pre season Super tit bits and anything else that Aussie rugby players are doing, or have done to be where they are is so limited. The NZ rugby media is far more obliging on the rugby scene, obviously it helps when it is the number one sport in NZ but wouldn't it be nice to see regular features on rugby in Australia especialy building up to a RWC just across the ditch? I would suggest promoting the game during the off season will help the Super 15 enthusiasim and also get the country just a little excited about our chances come September 2011.
Cattledog
Guest
Let's leave the discussion until the squad's picked post S15 and we've seen the results in the TNs. Still a lot of water to go under the bridge. The wolf climbing the hill is hungrier than the wolf at the top.
Al
Guest
I think you're having a lend though if you think they will be lucky to make the semis. If you analyse the draw you can't imagine we will have too much trouble wining the pool or beating Wales in quarter final. How many teams are better than the Wallabies? NZ definitely, SAF/Eng are a match, France/Ireland on their day, Scot/Wales every now and then and then noone else
Behind Enemy Lines
Guest
The real problem for the Wallabies in the 2011 WC is that assuming current rankings play out in the pool matches (a big assumption) they will need to beat England and New Zealand on consecutive weekends to win the Webb Ellis trophy. Consider what we've seen from the Wallabies over the past year. They are 1 from 4 against the All Blacks (note that they last won a match against NZ at home in 2001). They are 1 from 3 against England and haven't beaten England in a world cup game since 1991. All this doesn't mean they can't win, just that there is still a long way to go. If they are any chance to win the WC they will need to win the Tri Nations. Again, that is far from an easy feat.
Jamesb
Guest
All I would say to this is the AB's beat Wallabies by 50 pts in 2003 and France by 50pts in 1999 and look what happened later in the year at the RWC. The Wallabies will meet either France or England in the semi-finals.
Jim Boyce
Guest
James - Interesting article hosing down euphoria. I think you indirectly touch on an important issue towards the end of your piece , viz maintaining tempo and not succumbing to frustration/complacency. This is to my way of thinking is the role of the captain and Elsom is unlikely to be replaced in that role before the RWC. To me, Barnes is crucial at I/C if Cooper is ready to address his defensive shortcomings. Barnes reads a game better than anyone in the team I think you are right as to these weaknesses of the team and the group of coaches cant solve that , it is very much on the field.