SPIRO: I see some light in the Wallabies' dark tunnel

The experiment with dumb kicking rugby is or should be finished, if the Wallabies’ performance in Cape Town, losing 28-8 against the Springboks, means anything to Ewen McKenzie and his other coaches.

As per Sean Fitzpatrick’s memorable phrase, this was a Test of two halves.

When the Wallabies played their dumb kicking rugby, they were beaten 23-3 in the first 40 minutes of play.

When they brought on Will Genia and used his passing and running game to play more a more expansive, ball-in-hand, typically Wallaby game, they drew the second half 5-5.

The running scoreline gives a good indication of the run of play: Wallabies 3 – Springboks 0, W3-S3, W3-S10 (after 14 minutes of play), W3-S17 (16 minutes of play), W3-S20 (20 minutes of play), W3-S23 (32 minutes of play), W3-S28 (72 minutes of play), W8-S28 (75 minutes of play).

The Springboks scored 20 of their points in a 18-minute period of play, from the 14th to the 32nd minute in the first half.

It was in this period Nic White, playing his last game for the Wallabies in a long while surely, kicked away ball after ball.

The effect of this kicking was to deny the Wallabies any attacking play in the back line. The ball was virtually handed to the Springboks on a platter to run back at the Wallabies.

By halftime, the Wallabies had lost the game on the scoreboard, and they had lost on the possession and position statistics. They had made 66 tackles to 28 by the Springboks.

We need here to consider the tactics and methods of the kicking game.

The first point to make is that kicks, unless they are for position or touch, are useless and actually worse than useless when they can’t be re-gathered.

The second point to make is that virtually every Wallaby kick, generally from White, had exactly this effect.

The re-gathering kick is not about length, but everything about height. The height of the kick has to reach the elevation that enables chasing runners the chance of catching the ball on the burst.

This is such an elementary observation that it is amazing the Wallaby coaches, players and rugby reporters who support the kicking game (Bret Harris of The Australian go and stand in the shame corner) do not seem to have a clue about this obvious point.

The masters of the kick and chase game are the Springboks. For the most part, especially when Fourie du Preez is kicking, the elevation on the ball is of such a height the kick can be re-gathered.

The Springboks’ kick-offs are similarly beautifully weighted.

By way of comparison, the Wallabies’ kick-offs were easily taken in by the Springboks, the ball was driven forward and then booted out, except for the occasion when the Springboks used the solid platform of a strong take to launch an attack from inside their 22, which yielded their second try.

And an observation on du Preez. His positional play, his ability to make scuttling breaks, his choice of runners with pop-up passes, his longer passes to put players into gaps and his varied kicking game makes him the prince of halfbacks.

He is in the elite class of the greatest halfbacks in the history of the game, a champion fit to join the other champions like Ken Catchpole, Des Connor, Gareth Edwards, Chris Laidlaw and John Hipwell, who sadly passed away last week.

The Wallabies clearly went into the Test with a plan to take du Preez out of the game. Michael Hooper, especially, tried to take du Preez out just after he had passed the ball.

But the champion was unruffled and smoothly, like the Rolls-Royce player he is, went about his business, keeping the momentum of the Springboks’ attacks at the sharp edge.

It will be fascinating to see how the All Blacks try to counter the influence of du Preez in next week’s Test at Ellis Park.

If there is a tiny weakness in du Preez’s play, it is the couple of steps he sometimes takes before popping up a pass. You’d expect the All Blacks to be more effective than the Wallabies were in clattering du Preez if he doesn’t release his pass quickly enough.

Back to White. He was clearly on instructions to kick the ball away whenever he got it. And when he didn’t kick it away in the first half, Quade Cooper did. Both players kicked poorly.

The Springboks were given plenty of room to run the ball back at the Wallabies.

The point here is the Springboks don’t like making plays from set pieces. They have some moves from scrums inside the red zone involving Bryan Habana. But they prefer to re-act rather than act with their play making.

So when the opposition kick balls to them, especially high balls that are not chased, this is playing into their hands.

They take the ball to the middle of the field and then get their big forwards to rumble forward in a series of tank-like attacks.

The intention, generally, is to win a penalty for the dead-eyed goal kicker Morne Steyn to convert.

Occasionally, though, they put the ball through the hands in the backs and cut loose with a scything attack.

This sort of attack is becoming more common from this Springboks side, as newish backs players like Willie Le Roux and JJ Englebrecht become more comfortable in the side.

The Cooper experiment, like the White experiment, is surely over for a while, as well.

He did make some tackles but he missed a lot, including gifting a try to the Springboks by coming out of the line when the Springboks were metres away from the Wallabies’ try line. He dropped high balls, too.

But the worst part of his play was the way he played so deep when the Wallabies tried to run the ball in the second half.

Rod Kafer, a long time admirer and proponent of Cooper’s play, expressed his disappointment at the depth on his play and his unwillingness to take the ball to the line with his shoulders square (to stop the drift defence) and the ball in two hands.

I know some Roarers will complain ‘here he goes again bagging Quade’, but the point is without an effective play maker, and Cooper is not that play maker right now, a team like the Wallabies that are without a dominating and domineering pack, does not have many tricks to play to trump their opponents.

Matt Toomua played splendidly in his cameo role at inside centre. This should give McKenzie the message that Christian Lealiifano needs to be shifted to number 10 and Toomua to inside centre.

Ultimately, I’d like to see Kyle Godwin at inside centre. And for now, anyway, Tevita Kuridrani remain at outside centre.

I know his hands are letting him and the team down. But this can be worked on. A Godwin/Kuridrani centre pairing would give the Wallabies the size they’ve lacked in the middle of the field since Stirling Mortlock retired.

I also think teams are working Israel Folau out at fullback. His lack of a left foot was exposed by the Springboks, and other teams, probably the Pumas next week, will play to this more and more.

Folau needs to go to the wing and having a roving brief, like David Campese, especially inside the red zone.

Enough of the gloom, there was enough in the second half for the Wallabies and their supporters to take heart.

The break has given Genia a chance to re-examine his game and return to what he does best, passing long and breaking from mauls and rucks.

Ben McCalman provided some shoulder and energy to the pack with a series of surging runs when he came on.

You can see the makings of a good loose forward back three with McCalman, Michael Hooper and Scot Higginbotham when he comes back.

The scrum gave a glimpse, too, that something good is being achieved, when they held the ball in a scrum and shunted the Springbok pack back as if it was, say, the Wallaby pack for most of this year.

More importantly, it is a sign of a team with lots of guts and some skills to be down by 20 points at halftime, when there was no wind to take into account, and come out square 5-5 in the second half.

The Springboks might have scored a record victory at Cape Town, making the tunnel the Wallabies are in seem an awfully dark place.

But, in my view, there was just enough light from the second half performance to suggest the end of the tunnel might be closer than the record score makes it seem.