After the unsettling loss to Scotland on Tuesday, Robbie Deans looked drawn, tired and under stress. It was the look of a coach facing the metaphorical gallows.
But four days is a long time in sport. On Saturday night he had the familiar cranky South Island farmer toughness and pride in his manner as he dealt with the media, after the Wallabies recorded an unexpectedly convincing victory over a confident Wales side at Brisbane 27-19.
A sense of that confidence came when the great Welsh finisher, Ieuan Evans, told the Fox Sports commentary team that ‘this is the best Welsh squad we’ve sent to Australia in 30 years.’
He also noted that the first Test was the best chance Wales had of winning a rare victory in Australia.
Touring sides generally have the advantage in the first Test. But this was or should have been accentuated for Wales by the fact that the Wallabies had played and lost a Test four days earlier in atrocious conditions. Berrick Barnes, for instance, was playing his third hard match (a Super Rugby game and two Tests) in the space of a week.
But it was notable that it was the Wallabies who finished the stronger when they stopped a Wales second-half fight-back in its tracks with a terrific try by Pat McCabe in the 67th, who broke the Wales defensive line with a searing inside break with the incisiveness of David Campese at his best.
I always enjoy the cornucopia of statistics that Greg Clarke, the Fox Sports rugby caller, gives us before a Test. Here are a few. Wales last won in Australia in 1969, 43 years ago. They last beat Australia at home in 2005 and 2008 when they were the reigning Six Nations champions. They are currently the Six Nations champions. In this 2012 Six Nations they scored eight out of their 10 tries in the second half.
In favour of the Wallabies, they have only lost to the All Blacks at Suncorp Stadium. To all their other opponents the stadium has been a Wallaby fortress.
And this pattern of a strong Wales second half held true in an engrossing Test. At halftime the Wallabies were leading 10-3, and could have been more.
Then the rightful Man of the Match, Will Genia, scored a sensational try. He broke from a maul, beat off the tackles of the props plonked nearby and then defeated the fullback, Leigh Halfpenny, again with a Campese-like in-and-out jink. The try was capped by booting the ball into the enthusiastic crowd. Great stuff.
Then Wales came back after 65 minutes of play to reduce the Wallaby lead to a point. It looked like the Scottish Test all over again as the Wallabies seemed destined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
But with some fresh legs coming on as reserves, the Wallabies won possession from the kick-off and then slammed into the Wales 22, before McCabe scythed through to ensure that the Welsh dragon was well and truly slain.
The penalty count went against Australia 13 – 6 but I thought Craig Joubert had an excellent match, again. I regard him as the best referee in the world. He explains to players exactly why he is ruling the way he is. He is accurate. He is in favour of open rugby and his 50-50 decisions tend to go with the attacking side.
Nor does he have that annoying tendency of many northern hemisphere referees to punctuate long phases of play with an inevitable penalty.
Back in 1905 the All Blacks complained that UK referees stopped play with penalties because they couldn’t keep up with their free-flowing, athletic game. I sometimes think that this criticism is valid over 100 years after it was originally made.
Barnes had an useful game, but not much more than that. He still stands too deep in the pocket. You cannot get a backline moving quickly into attack with a number 10 standing deep all the time. However, I liked the field goal he knocked over in the 51st minute, which turned out to be the buffer when Wales came back at the Wallabies.
My theory on field goals is that teams shouldn’t wait until the last few minutes of the match to take them. By then the defence is awake to the possibility and usually scrambles a good response. When the option is taken, as it was by Barnes, early in the second half, he had plenty of time to get his kick in solidly. The points, as I’ve noted, came in very handy 15 minutes later when Wales would otherwise have scrambled into a lead.
Barnes did (rightfully) incur the displeasure of Rod Kafer when he put a grubber kick in when the Wallabies were mounting a series of charges inside the Wales 22.
Kafer also made the point, when Wales launched its second half counter-attack against what seemed to be a wilting Wallabies side, that it was at this stage of many of their matches that the Waratahs began to get tired and lose leads to more spirited and fitter opponents.
The point here is that the run-on Wallaby side had no fewer than seven Waratahs. Only one member (Pat McCabe) of the leading Australian side the Brumbies was in the starting XV. There were five Reds, the Force’s David Pocock (who importantly out-played Sam Warburton) and the Rebels’ Cooper Vuna (playing his first Test).
It is greatly to the credit of Deans as a coach that he got the best out of the Waratahs, who have mostly been out of form all season under the coaching of Michael Foley. We have to remember that Genia, Quade Cooper and Kurtley Beale all were picked by Deans when they were inexperienced players (Genia having played just three Super Rugby games).
When Deans is criticised as a coach it needs to be remembered that the most gifted players in the Wallaby squad last year were developed by him, rather than by the respective Super Rugby coaches.
Another example of Deans’ coaching prowess was the play of Adam Ashley-Cooper. For the Waratahs he has been, to put it bluntly, almost useless. But against Wales he was impressively safe under the high ball. His defence was excellent. And he ran the ball back from deep rather than play the Waratahs game of just booting the ball down the field.
As Deans promised, too, he gave Barnes a lot of runners to pop passes to. As a consequence, we did not see much of his aimless kicking game.
When the Wallabies kept the ball in hand they were impressive. Deans had worked out the sometimes disconcerting Welsh tactic of coming in from the outside on defence, the umbrella defence invented I think by the rugby league coaching guru Warren Ryan.
The Wallaby halves kept feeding the inside ball to runners like Digby Ioane, who had a whale of a time in attack.
Pre-Test, there was much made of the fact that Deans, after the loss to Scotland, had a winning ratio of 57 percent, the same ratio that saw Eddie Jones sacked.
But it needs to be remembered that Jones inherited a great team, number one in the world, from Rod McQueen, who had won the 1999 Rugby World Cup, the Tri Nations, the Bledisloe Cup and a series against the British and Irish Lions.
Deans, on the other hand, inherited a side that was number five in the world and falling, had no major trophies in the kit, and had been eliminated from the Rugby World Cup 2007 in the quarter-finals.
My take from this information is that Deans has done an outstanding job at a difficult time for Australian rugby. And here is another statistic that Greg Clark might throw into the mix on Saturday night when the Wallabies play Wales at Melbourne.
Last season Deans had a 67 percent winning record, despite the fact that the Wallabies lost the first game of the season to Samoa in an upset as unexpected and untimely as last week’s defeat by Scotland.
Ben S
Roar Guru
NZ also has some awesome weather. France and England historically have not produced 7s. I've been involved with the age group sides as a young man and clubs prefer bigger men, It is a philosophy that is partly motivated by the weather and partly by style of play. The same applies to SA and Argentina. I'm confused re: the Wallaby point.
Rugby Diehard
Guest
Ben S - happy to go to wherever the posts are that counter these argument - j just tell me the article if that's OK as I am interested to hear the counter argument and cant ocate the posts you are referring to.
Axel
Guest
AAC is s serial HOG! When he's on song and busting tackles he's great but how often does he die with the ball with free men all around him - even when the line is wide open he rarely passes to a player in a better position
Sage
Guest
To answer your questions Stilmatic1 - not at all; and return fire occasionally only; - and your reckoning of my reckoning is getting all a bit too convoluted. I thought I was clear and I disagree with what you think Jarmen was only pointing out. Not surprising. I think enough has been said by me but I appreciate your comments and your need to do so. Actually, what about the double irony of you now looking to ironically try and put me in my place....................forget it. :)
peterlala
Guest
Fish, I'd like to see that.
MR
Guest
Ben, as someone who lives in HK and watches a lot of Nth & Sth hemisphere rugby I disagree, the points raised are valid questions. The northern hemisphere consistently under performs against southern hemisphere and that is reflected in world rankings (2003 being the odd exception). It is true that wallabies often fail to perform in tight five at scrum but still dominate northern teams with a mixture of pace and good scavengers. It is simplistic to blame weather conditions for a lack of scavengers & pace as style of play is influenced by but not dependant on weather, eg NZ has very similar weatherconditions to UK, SA has opposite conditions and premiership teams play in the same conditions
Albo
Guest
Ideally I would love to see Barnes move to 12 and AAC at 13. I agree that AAC would make a great 12 (and has in the past) but at 13 he's able to get more space on his good in and aways and fend. Barnes I think is a 12. When he's a playmaker 100% of the game he loses concentration at (sometimes) pivotal moments. When he comes in off the ruck in second + phases he offers his best game. I've never hidden my ardent admiration for AAC. He should always be there somewhere... wherever the poor bloke is put that week.
ohtani's jacket
Guest
Kind of like the tactics Tuqiri, Phil Waugh and others tried on a younger Richie McCaw, only less thuggish.
p.Tah
Guest
This isn't going to go anywhere, we're discussing the quality of depth now. That is subjective. By my logic you're a candidate to play for the Wallabies? Amusing as that statement is you're trying to bend the argument to suit your needs. Im not naming names for the sake of it. I have listed players who smarter rugby analysis than myself (which is most people) have listed as potential Wallabies. When the makeup of a Wallabies 22 is debated, there is without doubt stern discussion around every position. Thats not because the candidates are poor, IMO that's because they are good. Super rugby has brought up depth. More depth than we have previously had across all positions. We don't have 4 Pococks or Genias lined up if they get injured. No one does, not even the ABs. But Hooper and Gill will certainly be worthy replacements for Pocock and White and Pipps for Genia.
Fish
Guest
In the US, I watch the Rugby on Direct TV - channel 490. It has all the Super 15 games and advertised to show the upcoming rugby championship. It's essentially the same feed that's normally on Fox but without adds. It's quite amusing during half time when adds are meant to be on you can normally see the commentators discussing the game, statistics, having something to eat, getting makeup put on etc. Cheers Fish
Parisien
Guest
Thanks Frank. I was going to ask if someone wanted to write a balanced article about Deans' record - the arguments for and against, the good things he has done as coach and the stupid things as well. You don't want to go further in your analysis do you? I think Red Kev or Cattledog suggested that Deans' Wallabies need to win the Wales series convincingly and perform strongly in the 4N for Deans to stay on probation, and anything less than this, he should go. He has had nearly five years. I'm worried about the Lions series and don't believe Deans will coach the Wallabies to produce their best individually or collectively for a series win.
murph73
Roar Rookie
Maafu would probably do better
'We're discussing depth, not world class players'. We certainly are. What did you think we were discussing friend. There will always be names we could throw at any position, whether it was 1927 or present day. I myself by your logic am a candidate for the wallabies. I'm not talented nor would I make a world xv but I could certainly put on the jersey and run out. Let's put some certainty on what we are discussing. Perhaps 'world class' is a little strong. Let's call it 'genuine test match quality players'. Only three teams in the world have depth across every position to the point you'd not notice any difference. The All Blacks, the French, and the All Blacks 2nd team. Then you have sides like South Africa, Wales and England that can afford injuries in most positions. Then there is us, and the likes of Ireland and Scotland who are always an injury away in most positions from not being able to win test matches against any other top 12 nation. Frankly if Genia or Pocock get injured or do not play we lose to Samoa and we lose to Ireland as we did last year. If we have a few players left out for whatever reason we end up losing to the likes of Scotland. These losses should give your perspective on the matter a little bearing. No matter how many names you can put on a list (now that there are 5 super xv franchises it's quite easy) we do not have much depth at all.
Ben S
Roar Guru
If you can't read all my posts then it strikes me as rather unnecessary to state I only respond with we're tough gubbins. I don't feel the need to respond to that sort of comment in depth when the answer is on countless threads on the site.
Rugby Diehard
Guest
Righto, mate. I actually didn't mean to offend you but I would add that rather than "hyperbole and hot air" just a well-constructed argument with real points and actual examples would have been good. Very easy to pull my post apart with a glib one-liner by saying it is full of contradictions and stereotypes but not be bothered to actually mention specifics. No one could read all the posts on the site so as Dingo would say "I can only play what's in front of me".....
Ben S
Roar Guru
What is this? This is ridiculous. None of it makes any sense whatsoever. If a tight five is weak why on earth would that automatically suggest that their set pieces would be weak? It always baffles me why you constantly try to lecture on forward play.
Ben S
Roar Guru
Because that's a pointlessly simplistic and glib position to take. Rugby fans know that 6N tournaments directly after WCs and Lions tours are turgid affairs. The last 6N was of poor quality. There were three new coaching panels on display and a host of new players. Plus, anybody who had actually seen Wales play in the 6N would have noticed that their familiar failings were still pretty evident, and how a limited England side contained them pretty comfortably. When you further consider that Wales have an appalling record against the SH sides (and especially Australia), that they were missing some key players, were playing away from home, some of their best players hadn't played in a few months and Australia had just lost again to a very average Scotland side then it would take a brave man to back them. It's very easy to make broad statement about NH rugby unless you actually watch it on a regular and consistent basis.
PeterK
Guest
Ben S - If the wallaby front 5 is normally (commonly) mediocre to poor, and the wallabies have a head to head better win record against allNH teams (58.75% eng, 58.53% france , 66+% rest) how much stronger must the rest of the wallabies team be then! After all if the front 5 is so weak then scrums and lineouts must be weak as well. It is amazing how the wallabies beat them so often then.
PeterK
Guest
why shouldnt wales , the rgand slam champions, with wallabies backing up from tuesday be considered a serious contender?
Ben S
Roar Guru
I'm relaxed, but you're just talking nonsense ' 'boyos'?!, which is a waste of my time. During the first half of the live game feed I was very complimentary about Australia, likewise the other day I posted three paragraphs referring to specific technical failings of the Wallabies... not just stereotypes. I offer criticisms and positive appraisals of all nations, especially England. I guess the lack of hyperbole and hot air must be alien to some.