- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
So here we are on the eve of the first international games of the season and, as good as Super Rugby’s been in 2014, I’m looking forward to watching the Wallabies pit themselves against the ever-enigmatic French in Brisbane on Saturday night.
Plenty was said beforehand, and even more has been said about Ewen McKenzie’s first matchday squad of the year since it was named on Tuesday.
Though I had a few quibbles here and there, I’m actually excited about this team that’s been named. I’d say it’s the most excited I’ve been about a Wallabies squad in years, but I think I said something similar before the first Test against the British and Irish Lions last year.
McKenzie said when he first named his 32-man squad that he had a good idea about, “the way we want to play”. If we assume that’s similar to how the Wallabies finished the Spring Tour last year, the similarities in personnel and playing style are obvious.
It was also bloody good rugby to watch, so we’ll happily take some more of that thanks, coach.
Just as veteran winger and sometime colleague Clyde Rathbone joked that he and Pat McCabe “weren’t picked for our kicking games” in their return to the Brumbies starting side, McKenzie’s taken the same approach in naming his back three for the first Test.
While Matt Toomua will undoubtedly drift back in defence and do most of the clearance kicking from inside the Wallabies’ 22 metres, it’s safe to assume that kicks fielded outside the 22 will be tucked under the arm, with Nick Cummins, Israel Folau and Adam Ashley-Cooper challenging the French defensive alignments and kick-chase at any given opportunity.
In truth, I expect we’ll see a lot of the Waratahs in how the Wallabies go about their business on Saturday night, and understandably so given they’re the form Super Rugby team going into the recess.
I hope McKenzie has adopted their restarts, especially where the ‘Tahs’ chasers start 10 metres behind Bernard Foley, are never offside at the moment the ball is kicked, create a contest and then win a surprising number of them.
This has been one area the Wallabies have been consistently bad at in recent years. I’d also like the Waratahs’ offload game to be capitalised on, with six of them in the starting XV and four more on the bench.
According to SANZAR’s official Super Rugby data provider, Opta Sports, the Waratahs trail only the Chiefs in terms of offload numbers for the competition, getting 169 offloads away this season at an average of 13 per game. The four leading offloaders for the ‘Tahs are all in the Wallabies matchday 23 – Israel Folau, Kurtley Beale, Wycliff Palu and Bernard Foley.
It’s been simultaneously heartening and interesting to hear Foley talking of wanting to cash in on his already good combination with Folau. You can already picture Foley taking on the line and throwing flat balls into midfield gaps for Folau, with Cummins or Toomua trailing just off the big fullback’s inside or outside hip.
Perhaps most worryingly, I’ll be watching the Wallabies scrums with interest. When Ben Alexander was ruled out of the June series, I assumed, like most people, that Scott Sio and James Slipper would be the starting combination. Given the struggles of Sekope Kepu this year, and that Paddy Ryan was initially brought into the squad for remedial purposes, Slipper switching to the tighthead side seemed obvious and logical.
That both Kepu and Ryan are now in the side as the designated tightheads is a genuine reason for concern. I especially can’t rationalise how someone with acknowledged technical issues – highlighted so brilliantly by Scott Allen this week – is now being promoted, but such is the dearth of quality tightheads in Australia currently.
But what of Les Bleus?
Whether it was a stretch for underdog status or not, McKenzie did his best to point out that the French squad had already been preparing in Australia even before he had welcomed his squad into their training base on Sunday.
That may well be true, but the fact remains that the French squad wasn’t complete until the players involved in the Top 14 final between Toulon and Castres arrived midweek. And then Phillipe Saint-Andre named a late-arriving flyhalf who couldn’t get a run in the decider anyway.
Saint-Andre has rested or left out more than a few key players for this Test, in order to have them ready to go in Melbourne next week. Inspirational captain Thierry Dusautoir is only just back from surgery to repair a torn bicep, and will sit the game out. Devastating No. 8 Louis Picomoles will also watch from the stands.
Freddie Michalak will start while first choice flyhalf Remi Tales rests up, having played for Castres just last weekend. Felix le Bourhis will debut on the left wing, while Wesley Fofana replaces Toulon centre Mathieu Bastareaud and Gaël Fickou shifts out to outside centre. Hugo Bonneval will start at fullback, with Castres No. 15 Brice Dulin also missing.
Speaking with some colleagues from the UK this week, the common train of thought was that an unknown French side is generally more unpredictable and more dangerous than a team full of stars. The team selected will acquit themselves and the jersey with pride, but how they combine as a XV – and particularly how Michalak guides them around – will be the key.
If history has taught us anything about French rugby in recent years, it’s that you don’t know what you’re going to get until well after the anthems. And so the Wallabies had better prepare for the same intensity and passion as what very nearly pinched France a Rugby World Cup in Auckland a few short years back.