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Many, many words have already been devoted to the Wallabies heart-breaking 23-21 loss to the British and Irish Lions in the first Test in Brisbane.
With five full days of debate still available before kickoff in Melbourne on Saturday, it’s hard to say if we’ve even hit the halfway point yet.
Hang in there, Roar servers…
A lesser team might’ve panicked
Just forget the injuries for a minute, and consider some numbers.
45% possession for the match, after 31% for the first half. 45% territory for the match, after 30% for the first half. 2:51 minutes spent in the Lions’ 22, compared to the 4:51 they spent in the Wallabies’ quarter.
14 turnovers conceded to three. 16 tackles missed to nine. Four penalty goals and one conversion missed, to just one missed penalty from Leigh Halfpenny.
On those numbers, it really is a wonder the game was only lost by two points, and only in the last minute of the game. A lesser team might have panicked, and got towelled up by two or three tries.
And then you throw the four major injuries and other minor bumps and scrapes into the mix, and you see why “courageous” was one of the first words uttered publicly by Robbie Deans. It certainly was a courageous display against a very well drilled team.
We can – and will – argue the selection decisions and bench-use all we like, but to do so would really do a disservice to the 23 players in Wallaby jerseys, who weren’t just competitive for 80 minutes against the best of the Home Nations, they literally pushed them the entire distance in a way that perhaps they weren’t entitled.
Nor would it give due credit to the Lions for showing the patience to build the win.
I can’t think of too many Wallaby sides in the professional era, never mind the last six years, who could’ve gone the distance against the British and Irish Lions in those circumstances. We might’ve just witnessed a turning point in Australian rugby.
And that’s all said without waxing lyrical about the greatest debut in the history of the universe.
James O’Connor cannot remain at flyhalf
Discuss.
I’m very tempted to leave it at that, but I won’t. The big issue with stating your concern about a selection is that unless you’re a proper masochist, or have some other kind of sinister agenda, you don’t really like it when your concerns play out in front of you.
That’s what it was like with O’Connor at flyhalf for me, and I know I’m not alone in that, having read through thousands of social media and online comments since fulltime on Saturday night.
Concerns about his distribution game, his creative vision, his front line defence, and his game management all came to bear in Brisbane, and it made for excruciating viewing at times.
Until Kurtley Beale came on for Berrick Barnes in the 38th minute, and even after that, O’Connor’s input into the game was reduced to that of a mid-table NRL halfback. I say that not to stir up any cross-code sniping, but rather to paint the picture of how limited O’Connor’s game was.
Catch, pass, occasionally run, and that was it. He was Ben Hornby in a Wallaby jersey.
With no flyhalves among the three players to join the squad in Melbourne, you can only assume the options at 10 for the second Test comprise of more of the same from O’Connor, or some creativity curbed by likely defensive lapses from Beale.
Quite obviously, options at inside centre will dictate who wears the no. 10. If Christian Lealiifano is right to go – and it’s looking likely he will be – then you could possibly excuse Deans for wanting to see how his first choice 10-12 pairing goes for longer than 45 seconds.
But I don’t think O’Connor deserves another chance to redeem himself, frankly. Queenslanders will rightly point out that Quade Cooper would struggle to hold his spot after such a performance, and they’d have a valid point. Therefore, it has to be Beale.
I didn’t think O’Connor was the answer last week, and nothing has changed my mind since then. Rather, I’m more convinced than ever.
James Horwill’s ‘Harrison moments’
Had Australia won the Test, those tighthead scrum wins in the 72nd, and 79th minutes might well have gone down in Tom Richards Cup folklore, alongside those immense lineout steals of Justin Harrison’s in the third Test back in 2001.
In both cases, the Wallabies secured the Lions feed after holding their own on the initial hit, and then pushing through on the second shove, led by Horwill.
In that crucial scrum penalty that led to Beale’s last chance shot to win the game, Horwill looked to have come detached from Stephen Moore and Sekope Kepu in front of him, but somehow managed to re-engage and lead the shove.
On Horwill’s re-engagement, the loosehead side of James Slipper, Ben Mowen, and Rob Simmons were able to get through on Dan Cole and turn him and the Lions’ scrum past the 90 degrees. However, none of it would’ve happened without Horwill leading the second shove as he did. A phenomenal effort in the clutch.
Of course, for all his excellent work in the game – and he had an superb game overall – Horwill let himself down with that errant right boot of his in the third minute.
Quite why he thought Alun-Wyn Jones’ head was in the way of the ball on the other side of the ruck is beyond me, and he should probably count himself incredibly lucky not to be missing the second Test, if not more.
With the loss of Paul O’Connell for the Lions now as well, the Wallabies have been dealt both bowers heading into Melbourne.
I should add, the entire Wallaby pack played very, very well, with some good impact coming from the bench props, too. A second viewing erased thoughts of a quiet night for Cliffy Palu, and debutants aren’t supposed to play as well as Ben Mowen did.
A wonderful effort from the pigs.
What is the point of having Nick Phipps?
With the two other bench backs already used by the time Pat McCabe himself went down in the 46th minute, Nick Phipps must’ve thought he was in for an unusually long stint coming off the pine.
Imagine the dent to his ego, then, when flanker Liam Gill was preferred instead, as McCabe became the third backline player to require the stretcher to leave the field.
In that moment, Phipps was effectively told – very publicly – that not even when all other bench backs have been used will you get a run to replace another injured back.
With more than half an hour to go, and Will Genia running around like a superhero minus the cape, it felt like I was more chance of getting the “warm up” call from my couch than Phipps was of coming off the bench.
And if it truly is the case that Phipps is there only for the very, very worst case scenario – he finally came on in the 76th minute for Adam Ashley-Cooper, with no one else left to replace him – then what is the point of him being there at all?
In that case, surely a no.9 with more utility value – like Ben Lucas – would be of more use. Lucas on the bench and some reshuffling could at least have negated the need for Michael Hooper to play inside centre like he had to for 34 minutes. It’s a head-scratcher, Robbie.
With three new players into the squad – Ben Tapuai, Jesse Mogg, and the great George Smith – it will be interesting to see the line-up for Melbourne.
Two thumbs up for Channel Ten
There was much rejoicing after the 2012 season when it was announced that Channel Ten, part-owners of The Roar Sports, would become the new free-to-air home of international rugby in Australia.
And that rejoicing was justified with Ten’s excellent coverage of the first Test.
In fact, it goes well beyond the coverage itself. For the week leading into Brisbane, rugby was having the bejesus promoted and cross-promoted out of it, with ads everywhere and animated mentions in the primetime and late news bulletins, and on shows like The Project too.
We never saw Ken Sutcliffe speaking glowingly of rugby on Channel Nine last year, let alone Peter Overton, and the entire Nine tenure was put to shame by the manner with which the likes of newsreaders Sandra Sully and the lovely Natarsha Belling got into rugby last week.
Ten’s coverage of the game itself was better than anything served up on free-to-air TV in the last five years or more, with the commentary team of Gordon Bray, former Scottish Captain Andy Nicol, and former Wallaby fullback Matthew Burke.
Burke doubled up well for the analysis with former Wallaby skipper John Eales, and another former Wallaby captain, in Stirling Mortlock, made a solid debut on the sideline.
It wasn’t faultless, with a few blackouts during play, but it was still a good production overall.
Most importantly, rugby is on a network that clearly wants to show it, and who wants to get enthusiastic about showing it. And amen to that.