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The Wallaby backs are match-winners. The forwards are not exactly match-losers, but are not dominant even against second-tier packs. That was the impression on watching the Wallabies thrash the USA 67 – 5.
This impression may be slightly awry because the watching was done in a crowded bar in Howick, an outer suburb of Auckland.
You couldn’t hear the match commentary over the hubbub of patrons chatting up members of the opposite sex.
We were sitting near the door and from time to time groups of cougars dressed in black marched into the bar. They had the purposeful look in their eyes of prospectors digging for gold.
Watching rugby without the sound off is like being in a sound bubble. You can’t hear the surging roars of the crowd which indicate the build-up of a startling movement. I couldn’t hear the crowd reaction either to the Wallabies.
But as the match was played in civilised Wellington rather than hip-hop Auckland (which has many similarities to Sydney, incidentally) my guess is that the Wallabies were treated by New Zealand spectators with the respect they have shown to other sides.
I hope so, anyway. For a World Cup tournament is not about the country where it is being played but about the world game. Australia in Rugby World Cup 2003 with its ‘show your true colours’ slogan was a model in this respect.
Despite all the talk of the antagonism of New Zealanders to the Wallabies and the Australian supporters following their team, there did not seem to be much interest in the match from anyone else in the bar.
There was a desultory cheer when the USA scored their first and only try when the match was at an interesting stage in the first 20 minutes.
But there was nil interest in the rest of the match when the Wallaby backs particularly started to get their act together and put on a series of spectacular long range tries.
The pick-up in the quality of the Wallaby backs really started when Berrick Barnes came on to the field.
His stepping, kicking, running and just taking the right options at the right time took the Wallaby back play to a high level, and a level it has to maintain if the team is to be competitive in the finals.
A backline of Will Genia, Quade Cooper, Berrick Barnes, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Drew Mitchell, James O’Connor and Kurtley Beale was the backline that demolished France a couple of seasons ago.
When this backline clicks, it is difficult for any defence to hold it. And the play of these backs, with Digby Ioane to come back into contention perhaps in the finals, carries the hopes of the Wallabies.
The pack was not dominant in the scrums against the USA. And it has been scrum dominance that has marked the difference between the tier-one sides and tier-two teams.
So if the Wallabies are about average in their scrumming, they will be in trouble from packs like the Springboks, the All Blacks (who monstered the French pack in the first 60 minutes of their match) and England (perhaps, if both teams make the final).
England, in particular, are always confident of beating the Wallabies (although they sometimes lose, of course), especially in World Cup tournaments, because of the often misguided nit-picking of the referees who tend to favour the England tactics of the props boring in.
This was the case in the final in 2003 (when the scrum penalties should of gone to England but did not) and the semi-final in 2007 (when the scrum penalties went to England, after a couple were awarded to the Wallabies).
England fancy steam-rolling the Wallaby pack in the scrums and rucks. If this comes off it means that the Wallaby backs do not have quick ball to work with.
This reference to the rucks is a reminder to note that the USA forwards, until they ran out of gas, were hitting the rucks more efficiently and effectively than the Wallabies.
The Wallabies missed David Pocock. Ben McCalman, as against Ireland, had no impact on the play.
He is a tight/loose forward at his best. But he is not the fetcher that every team needs to turn over ball and slow down the opposition’s ball.
If the Wallabies have to replace players who were injured in the USA match, they should take the opportunity to replace a back with a loose forward who has fetching abilities.
There have been calls for Phil Waugh but Robbie Deans should probably look to Hodgson or Brown as the back-up for Pocock.
One of the difficulties in assessing whether the Wallabies have put the Ireland ambush behind them was that the USA fielded a side that left out some of their best players, like the captain and an outstanding loose forward Todd Clever.
If Clever had been on the field when the USA was making most of the play in the first 20 minutes, this surging play might have been continued up to half-time.
Other minnow teams have done the same thing, of course. Japan fielded a B team against the All Blacks and paid for this insult. Romania B was similarly thrashed by England.
South Africa monstered Namibia, the weakest team in the tournament, which left out of its run-on squad several of the side’s best players.
You know what these teams are doing here. They were trying to preserve their best teams for their must-win matches some days later.
In Japan’s case this was the match (which was lost anyway) against Tonga. The USA are looking to defeat Italy, and with two tournment wins this victory would give them get a guaranteed place in Rugby World Cup 1215 in England.
Despite the logic (of a sorts) in all of this, I believe that these sorts of selections do a disserve to the players in minnow sides.
For most of these players this is their only chance to play against the Wallabies, the Springboks or All Blacks. The life-time pleasure of being part of such a contest means much more than a result (which mightn’t come anyway) in the tournament.
At this halfway stage in the tournament, four teams have staked their claims with strong performances: Ireland, South Africa, England and New Zealand.
Compared with these sides, the Wallabies are a bit off the pace. But they will be in the finals and they will probably be playing a side, the Springboks, they defeated at home the last time they played.
The tournament is still alive for them, in other words.
