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Wallabies Jekyll and Hyde (modified AAP Image)
Coach Robbie Deans’ eyes will be riveted on the first five minutes of tonight’s crucial Rugby World Cup clash against the USA at windy Wellington.
That will tell if the Wallabies that slaughtered Six-Nations champions France 59-16 back in November at the Stade de France with a pulsating and unanswered 46 second half points have turned up to play.
Or the squad that has beaten the Springboks five times in the last six, and the All Blacks two of the last three.
Very impressive.
That’s what Deans will be hoping for, and he’ll get the message immediately.
Or will it be the disgracefully inept Wallabies who were so badly beaten by both Samoa, and Ireland?
Very pathetic.
It’s impossible to fathom why there’s such a huge void between the switched-on Wallabies playing superb rugby to the switched-off and totally embarrassing side making one monumental mistake after another.
It’s only black and white, there’s no grey.
No wonder Deans’ hair is rapidly turning grey. But he can, and must, do something about it
The fans can’t even though they are itching to do so. I’ve never seen so many avid supporters as angry since the Ireland game, most of them fuming.
And who can blame them.
In over six decades of watching rugby, the Ireland game ranks among the worst I’ve seen from a team that can play.
I almost had to strap myself to the bed to keep watching, having to do a summary for The Roar – painful to watch, painful to write.
And it took until the dying moments until something special happened for the Wallabies – James O’Connor coming from the far side on a diagonal run “suburbs” away, running down speedy Irish winger Tommy Bowe’s length of the field dash with a diving tackle in the corner.
Simply brilliant, as good as George Gregan’s Bledisloe Cup-saving tackle on All Black winger Jeff Wilson at the SFS in 1994, in the same corner, television left.
The difference was O’Connor’s tackle couldn’t save the game, it was long lost.
And his team-mates were lost souls.
Sport is all about spirit, the will to win despite the circumstances, the never say die attitude.
The Wallabies went missing against Ireland in every department.
So it’s stand up and be counted time tonight for the Wallabies, with the Brisbane-born American skipper-half-back an interesting story, best described by his Twitter intro.
Tim Usasz – Aussie American living in Nottingham (UK), nickname “Russian” – confused yet?!
You bet, his multiple variations means he has the makings of a Wallaby.