Deans moving on from storm of criticism

Wallabies’ coach Robbie Deans is looking to move on from the outpouring of indignation over Australia’s shock loss to Samoa, instead turning his attention to Saturday’s Tri Nations opener against South Africa.

The Wallabies’ team announcement for the ANZ Stadium clash against the Springboks has been brought forward from Thursday to Tuesday.

David Pocock, Quade Cooper, James Horwill, Kurtley Beale, Will Genia and James O’Connor, provided he can prove his fitness, are set to be rushed back into the starting side.

The changes are likely to muffle the recent horrid reaction to the 32-23 loss to Samoa.

Embarrassing, arrogant, complacent and disrespectful were just some of the terms used by former players and other pundits to describe Australia’s performance on Sunday.

Deans was typically terse on Monday but admitted the fans should expect more from the Wallabies, who recorded one of the worst defeats in their history at the weekend.

“(I wasn’t surprised by the reaction) – not at all. We expect it. That’s been our reaction,” Deans said.

“It wasn’t a great experience.

“I don’t know what other people were thinking, but we certainly weren’t (complacent) … and we talked about that – internally and externally.

“We’ve obviously reviewed the game – now we’re looking ahead.”

A number of Queensland Reds were rested or put on the bench for the Samoa Test due to the preceding Super Rugby final.

Former winger David Campese was one to lament the number of inexperienced players drafted into the incumbent side.

“You just can’t give guys Test caps for the sake of giving them Test match experience. It’s wrong,” Campese told Fairfax.

Deans believes the public’s rancour should be directed at the in-game performance, rather than any other factors.

“It’s more about the fact that we lost. It’s more about the fact that we didn’t play well,” he said.

“Had we not done either of those two things, the reaction may have been different.

“From our perspective, we had no choice. The Reds didn’t come in until Monday night. They’d had an enormous campaign that finished … (so) we then gave them a window to recover out of necessity – and obviously chose a combination based on that fact.”

Captain Rocky Elsom said little when asked about Campese’s critique.

“I would be surprised if everyone was happy about how it went. As far as I’m concerned, guys get given a jersey to do a job and no other reason. I don’t know how else to respond to that,” Elsom said.

“We don’t have a habit of talking about those sorts of comments as a group. Whether or not that’s motivation for guys – that’s an individual thing.”

Elsom is confident his team-mates will carry no mental scars from the loss.

“I feel like the guys are in a reasonable head space moving forward,” he said.

“As bad as it was, it’s important that everyone sticks together a little bit.

“We spent a lot of time as a group afterwards – there are things that you can do something about and then there’s everything else.

“(My message was) don’t dwell on the things that don’t help.”

Elsom is optimistic the Wallabies will even reap some benefits from the loss.

“Some of this disappointment and some of the emotional responses from a game like that do help,” he said.

“Because it gives you something to draw on and brings the focus in, whereas other things don’t.

“We got to turn our minds onto the South Africans this weekend and respond as well as we can.”

Deans was unwilling to reveal just how much the loss will influence team selection for this weekend’s clash with South Africa, but is optimistic O’Connor will be fit to return from a hamstring injury.