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Australia's Rod Davies, left, is knocked out of bounds by Samoa's Alesana Tuilagi during their rugby union test match in Sydney, Sunday, July 17, 2011. Samoa won the match 32-23. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Amongst the smoking debris and bomb craters left on ANZ Stadium after the Wallabies were lambasted by Samoa yesterday, the comment was made that “coach Robbie Deans will be shattered in the dressing sheds after that”.
I’ve been something of a student of the Deans School of Psychology since he was appointed to the Wallabies top job in 2008 and while it’s hard to argue that Deans won’t be disappointed with the loss to Samoa, there is plenty to suggest that he’ll use it as an opportunity to reflect the responsibility back to the players, just as he has since day one.
A Deans University degree in rugby has plenty of free ranging electives, combined with a few core subjects, and these core subjects all point to one thing – that your standing in the game is always temporary, and you have to front up and earn every result.
This central tenet to the Deans philosophy was underlined by his comments post-Samoa, where he said plainly “We were beaten by a side which came here with a real intent, and got the result that they wanted”. The implication being plainly that the Wallabies didn’t bring a real intent, and consequently got a result that will make them squirm for some time yet.
Only those in on the half-time talk will really know what coach Deans said to his players, but I am certain that the vibe would have been “OK boys, you got yourselves into it, now get yourselves out of it”.
Certainly that line of thought was supported by his reluctance to use his reserves bench. Will Genia and Kurtley Beale didn’t join the play until the 55th minute, despite Mark Gerrard being largely absent, and halfback Nick Phipps being unable to organise the rabble.
Sitaleki Timani remained on the field when Dan Vickerman joined, with the experienced and effective Nathan Sharpe given the early shower. Rod Davies stayed on for the whole game, despite an ordinary display where his lack of raw strength was evident.
It all pointed to Deans wanting to see whether any of his fringe starters could step up and take some control in the face of huge pressure from a buoyant and aggressive Samoan outfit. Unfortunately as the game went on, the answer to that question became clear.
To say that Robbie Deans wasn’t interested in winning the Test would be plainly wrong. He’s a proud man, and a winner at heart. But he knows that the big prize on offer is the World Cup, and that perhaps the best thing for his young group is to get themselves into a tough situation and then own the experience of getting out of it. Or not, as the case may be.
Sometimes the learning can be as valuable as the winning.
Robbie Deans is big on responsibility and he’s big on learning. He’s also big on competition within the squad, and giving as many players as possible a chance to show their wares and press for a spot.
As he said recently “Only a certain number get that opportunity on the weekend to run out in the cauldron, but the wheel turns, and opportunity always presents itself. It is up to how individuals grasp those opportunities.”
Not many grasped the opportunity yesterday.
By way of illustration, when the 40 man Wallaby squad was named recently, it was an intriguing experience to feel uncertain for once about the naming of the returning Dan Vickerman and the recently injured Rocky Elsom, two players who normally inspire a huge amount of confidence.
Out on the field, Elsom looked sullen and out-of-sorts and appeared to be a yard behind for a lot of the match. I once wrote that he ran and fought for ground as though he was being paid by the metre. If that was the case against Samoa, he might be wondering about next week’s rent.
As for Vickerman, his hands were rusty and his lack of pace after an extended period of time out of top line rugby was obvious. Does Australia really need him at the World Cup?
Despite Timani’s lapses with his hands, he is much fitter and harder on the ball than Vickerman, and James Horwill is better than both of them by a country mile. Perhaps at 32 and after 3 years out, the big lock has left his run too late.
Speaking of grasping the opportunity, we have to look hard at the experienced Wallaby Matt Giteau, who was given the chance to show that he is a viable alternative to Quade Cooper, particularly in the nightmare scenario where Cooper is injured during the World Cup.
It wasn’t to be.
Although Giteau was the glue that held the faltering Brumbies together this year, he was unable to turn the tide against a physically rampant Samoa. To be fair, he was given no help from Phipps early, but it’s hard to imagine a Genia/Cooper pairing failing as much to change tactics when things started to go badly wrong.
Giteau appeared to not want to kick for position, but as Scott Higginbotham showed during his cameo, a judicious grubber or two went a long way to turning the Samoans around and rebalancing the pressure. Playing wide and cross-field against a rushing Samoan defence doesn’t really work – just ask Rod Davies who was on the end of a couple of bellringers. Indeed Giteau himself was t-boned a couple of times for his one-dimensional tactics.
To paraphrase Deans, the Wallabies didn’t so much show “the depth of their resolve” so much as the “depth of their presumption”.
And the Samoans played tutor to Deans’ professor, driving home Deans’ lesson to the Wallabies that “Nothing is forever and you have to earn it every time”.
Where to from here? It’s ugly, but not a total horror movie.
The Samoans played with some real structure and intelligence, unlike the unjust stereotype of Islander teams. Their defensive patterns were for the most part tight, fast off the line and very physical – a gift to the Wallabies really, in the sense that we got a good look at what we are likely to confront from the better sides come World Cup time.
Not everyone was poor either.
Adam Ashley-Cooper and Pat McCabe were strong in defence and McCabe took the ball forward with heart, despite the certain knowledge that he was going to get bashed.
Ashley-Cooper made a heavy try saving tackle about 3 metres out from the Wallaby line. Ben McCalman also managed to wrestle his shoulders through the defensive line to give the Wallabies some go-forward ball – the fact that it was mostly squandered was not his fault.
Digby Ioane didn’t see anything like the space he enjoyed with the Reds, but ran hard, and was physical in his work.
There were good signs there and nothing should detract from the Samoan victory. On this performance, they were as good or better than all the Six Nations teams, except probably England and France. The Wallabies, by contrast, were no better than any of the 6 Nations teams, except probably Italy and maybe Scotland.
But they didn’t get there on their own. The Samoans pressured them into mistakes, beat them at the tackle and breakdown contest, and won the physical battle generally. They deserve all the plaudits.
Robbie Deans will be disappointed that some of his players didn’t front up on this occasion. But he has learnt the hard way that this Wallaby side always needs a reminder early in the season. “Nothing is forever and you have to earn every result”.
He’ll be disappointed, but in the hands of Robbie Deans, the Samoan result could be just the mirror which reflects the Wallabies’ lack of resolve back at them, and forces the players to take responsibility for their World Cup fate.
If that happens, look out world.
Of course, that’s just my own outlook. As Deans quite rightly says about the words of critics and selectors, “It’s just one man’s opinion”.