- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
At last the Wallabies have broken their Eden Park hoodoo with their first win, and a brilliant one at that, at the ground since 1986.
The victory against Wales, which gives them the third place medal, is their first in 14 successive Tests in Auckland. So it is bronze for the Wallabies at RWC 2011.
Even more important than breaking the hoodoo is the fact that the Wallabies avoid the New Zealand or French half of the draw (depending on the outcome of Sunday night’s final) at the 2015 tournament in England.
The Wallabies showed that their defensive effort against the Springboks particularly (and the All Blacks) was not a fluke. Time after time a swarming defensive line forced the Welsh runners further and further back until the ball was kicked away in frustration. On one memorable occasion the Wallabies knocked back 15 Welsh phases of attack.
Totally frustrated by Australia’s accurate and intense defence and his side’s inability to make any dents into it, the gifted broken field runner Shane Williams took the hail-ary option and skewed off a misdirected attempted field goal.
Towards the end of the match, Berrick Barnes, with the Wallabies leading by 5 points showed how it was done by kicking over a neatly-taken field goal. The goal turned out to be the difference in the match when Wales scored on time.
Barnes started the third place play-off by kicking away the ball the first two times he handled it. Oh no, I thought, not the Waratahs kicking game being transferred to the Wallabies. But, fortunately, Barnes started to play like a Wallaby rather than a latter-day Waratahs playmaker. But when he took over as number 10 after Quade Cooper had to go off with a damaged knee, he started to run the ball with some effect with the Wallaby backs making some incisive attacks.
The Wallabies were hampered in their attacking play with the loss of Kurtley Beale with a re-occurrence of his torn hamstring, and with Cooper going off injured not much later.
To win without these two X-factor players is a significant outcome for the Wallabies. And it opened up the possibilities of a re-shaped backline for the Tests in November at Cardiff, and into the next season. I would like to see Barnes and James O’Connor as the number 10 and inside centre, and Cooper playing the Shane Williams role as a running, stepping winger.
A change like this would unleash Cooper’s sensational broken field running. His passing ability which is often quite uncanny would be useful, like the great David Campese, in creating opportunities for the other runners in the Wallaby backline.
The other pleasing aspect of the match is that the Wallaby scrum, finally, stood up and gave the Welsh pack a drubbing when referee Wayne Barnes allowed them to scrum.
Talking about Barnes, I thought he was tough on the Wallabies at ruck and maul time. He often seemed to allow Wales the chance to lie across the ball and go off their feet while being, correctly, tough on the Wallabies when they did the same thing.
But he did allow the most blatant forward pass from Wales that created their first try. The pass was so far forward, Shane Williams, the catcher, had to stick out his foot to get any contact on it. Amazingly, Barnes and the touch judge, Frenchman Raymond Poite, let the pass go.
New Zealanders with any sort of memory must have thought back to another missed forward pass by Barnes and his assistant referee Jonathan Kaplan at the quarter-final in RWC 2007 that allowed France to score a controversial try that won the match for them.
Some of the pundits have complained that the third place medal match has no place in a RWC tournament. On the evidence of this match, the pundits should admit they are wrong. This was a terrific Test match. Both teams played their hearts out. And there have been lessons learned about World Cup play, especially for the Wallabies.
After the loss to the All Blacks, John O’Neill marked the Wallabies at RWC 2011 as a pass mark. After their strong win against a Wales side that was rated the success of the tournament, I would give his pass mark a plus +.
The Wallabies are a young side with 10 players around 23 or under. They have four years to develop a front five that can hold its own against scrumming and driving sides. If this can be achieved, then RWC 2015 is looking good for the Wallabies.
