Observations of the Newlands Wallabies

Saturday was one of the larger days on the Australian sporting calendar. The AFL grand final kicked off the festivities just after lunch time, followed by the second NRL grand final qualifier in the evening.

For many, the 1am wait until kick off in Cape Town was always going to be a bridge – built over a stream of bubbly amber liquid – too far. That was the case for most of the mates I spent the day with but for some of us the main event didn’t start until the lounge room looked, sounded and smelt like nap time at a grizzly bear kindergarten.

I dare say this scenario would have been replicated across the country, leaving many dedicated sports fans turning to their smart phones in search of the results while wiping sleep from their bloodshot eyes on Sunday morning.

No doubt this would have been followed by thoughts of another Newlands nightmare, but those of us who’d put matchsticks between our eyelids had a ‘yea but’ to deliver.

Telling the retired choir of ride-on mowers that the Wallaby effort they missed was by far and away the best of their 2014 Rugby Championship to date and a step in the right direction set off a Mexican wave of raised eyebrows.

But having my sides tickled by a long day and catching the game at one of Brisbane’s well known English pubs – where my view was obscured by a turbulent sea of heads fixated on the EPL action showing on a neighbouring screen – I needed to confirm to myself that my observation wasn’t a fantasy I’d dreamt up during the deep coma I’d been in since.

Currently on holidays, today I got that chance and I’d like to share a few of my tee-totalling observations with The Roar.

Let me begin at the end and start with that final tenth of the game. Many have singled out the Wallabies fitness levels as the cause of the collapse that resulted in 17 points being leaked in eight and a half minutes.

While fatigue played a part, I don’t believe the boots were dragging with greater friction than what you’d expect from a Test team at that stage of the game.

I thought Nigel Owens had a brilliant game and did his part to stem the criticism that’s been coming thick and fast for the northern hemisphere officiating this Rugby Championship. However some of his decisions (or non-decisions) at the breakdown late in the game swayed the flow in the Springboks direction.

During the Springboks 31-phase peppering of the Wallaby line, Victor Matfield was lucky on a couple of occasions not to get pinged for holding on when Adam Ashley-Cooper did his best to pry the ball from his grip. The onslaught continued and resulted in Pat Lambie slotting a field goal from in front.

On another occasion not long after, Tevita Kuridrani made one of his many bullocking runs and was caught on his back with the defender between him on the ground. The awkward position he and the defender found themselves in didn’t allow Kuridrani the opportunity to roll to get a clean place.

It was an unfortunate spot for the defender but instead of being penalised, play continued and Kuridrani spluttered the ball over to the Springboks who were more than ready to turn defence into attack.

Now by no means am I suggesting these decisions cost the Wallabies a shot at victory. There’s no doubt that the most deserved team won. But the looser policing of the breakdown had an impact on the direction the game took in a crucial period of time and probably contributed to the extent of damage the Springboks inflicted during the closing stages.

The next issue that I believe played a part in the Wallabies eventual capitulation was their mentality when the Boks got their roll on.

With the rub of the green behind the Springboks, passes starting to stick and things happening a little more fluidly for them, the Wallabies were as good as in the departure lounge. Instead of trying to wrestle back momentum, they packed it in.

Defensive errors, none existent support play, weak clear-outs and coughing up the pill defined the Wallabies final 10 minutes. I know this sounds like the game catching up with them but the reason that I don’t believe it represents shortcomings in fitness is because of the sudden nature of the problem.

These errors didn’t creep in; it hit them like a wall. The Wallabies game went from an eight to a two once they slipped behind.

The other reason that I don’t believe it was fitness related is because many of these errors came from players who hadn’t been on the field for longer than 20 minutes. And that brings me to my fourth and final contributing factor for the blowout – the guys on the pine.

Link was rightly critical of his bench post match. You want guys coming on who are ideally going to add something and take the tempo up a notch or two. At very least, those being injected into the game should be singing from the same sheet as the guys who are still there.

Unfortunately four of the seven who came on subtracted from our pattern of play and were overrepresented in the error stats in the last 10 minutes. This is in stark contrast to the likes of Bismarck du Plessis, Schalk Burger and Lambie who were instrumental for the Springboks in closing and then running away with the game.

As there has been much discussion over Kurt Beale’s claim to start, I’m going to single him out for some special attention here. This year I’ve gone from thinking he should start at 12 alongside Toomua at 10, to putting him on the bench and using him in that infamous x-factor capacity – to now wondering if he should be near the Wallaby squad at all.

Kurtley had 26 minutes on the weekend and to say he was poor is a gross understatement.

Defence has always been a weakness of his and that’s been enough for me to suggest he doesn’t belong in that all important 12 channel for the Wallabies.

After being reminded of just how poor this aspect of his game is, it’s become blatantly clear that it’s something that just can’t be hidden in the rigours of Test rugby, especially when you’re playing teams who can and will mount an attack from anywhere and everywhere.

His defence was again typically poor against the Springboks but his all-round performance on Saturday just wasn’t up to scratch for someone playing at this level. Put simply, he’s making some terrible choices at the moment and is lacking the intensity required to play Test rugby.

It’s not often that I agree with Rod Kaefer or any of the Fox commentators, but his assessment that Beale doesn’t think of his next move is pretty bang on.

Not only that, I’m not sure he’s really thinking what he’s doing at all and the rugby smarts he’s displaying at the moment make him look like a guy who’s ready to take up the room left under the salary cap by Sonny Bill Williams at the Roosters.

He did things like clear out a ruck when there was no one there to clear out. Instead of linking up with his Tah buddies to organise our next attacking raid, Beale jogs next to the breakdown to stand aimlessly with the defence.

And when there is someone there to clear out, his efforts are weak. It’s not a primary responsibility of a back, but physicality at the breakdown is another area that Toomua has well and truly got the wood over Beale.

To beat the best in the world, having backs with the physicality of forwards at the breakdown and forwards with the silky hands of backs is a prerequisite these days. Also having players with the positional awareness that allows you to capitalise and swoop on the sniff of an opportunity is a must.

It’s these sorts of breaks that quickly swing momentum and saw the Springboks and All Blacks pile 17 and 21 points on us respectively over just 10 minute periods. We can’t carry headless chickens like Beale proved to be on Saturday.

The poorest starter for mine was Phipps. Despite the best platform a Wallaby pack could lay against the Springboks being gifted to him, his service was rusty and his decision making was poor.

Considering Will Genia wasn’t in the 23 in Cape Town, I would have preferred to see him trade places with Nick Frisby at Brisbane City who could occupy that ‘just in case’ tour role at scrum half while Will can get some game time and have the opportunity to put some runs on the board before the end of year tour.

I also was a little concerned with Bernard Foley’s performance at 10. I was always a little unsure of Foley but I was happy to be proven wrong after witnessing his cool head and organisational abilities that contributed so much to the Tahs success this year.

However, these were glaringly absent against the Springboks at Newlands. Every time we managed to string together some phases in their red zone, our lack of structure and composure made it hard to convert our efforts into points.

It’s not exactly a great strength of Quade Cooper’s game when coming up against the suffocating defences of world rugby, so this remains a concern ahead of a big year in 2015.

Hopefully Foley can turn it on or Quade can pick up where he left off from the 2013 November Tests and show some form against teams positioned above or around us in the world rankings.

Thankfully, there were plenty of positives to take from the contest and hopefully the Wallabies are ready to use their 70-minute effort as a benchmark for their Tests at the back end of this year.

I was happy to see our tactical kicking game being employed again. The Wallabies have seemed to struggle to find a balance when putting boot to ball in recent history with the tactic being used too often or not at all.

Watching the game against Argentina from the stands and being able to see the entire field, I was shocked to see how many opportunities were being passed up. The execution of these kicks obviously remains an issue with the angles of grubbers and placement of chips still going astray much of the time.

The defensive effort was immense for the 71 minutes before the floodgates opened. When Lambie dropped into the pocket to put the Springboks ahead in the 69th minute, I turned to my mates to make the outlandish claim, “I think we’ve got this”.

I was confident we could get to the right end of the pitch to close it out one way or another and it was clear we weren’t ready to give the Boks an inch. Unfortunately we gave them a mile in the last 10 and they ran with it.

The individuals that shone for the Wallabies were quite obvious. Kuridrani had his best game in gold and has done everything to make the 13 jersey his own since Adam Ashley-Cooper moved to the wing. He has the odd defensive lapse but when he gets his body behind the contact zone, he dominates the tackle and is just as damaging as he is in attack.

If Kuridrani maintains this sort of form, he’s a certainty to remain there into next year. This is a pretty impressive achievement considering Adam Ashley-Cooper has been brilliant there himself over the last couple of seasons and unfortunately for him when we have a full complement of outside backs available for selection it’s hard to see Ashley-Cooper remaining on the wing.

Scott Fardy had the game he desperately needed to have and hopefully he’s ready to produce that sort of an effort on a more consistent basis. He was part of a very effective back row unit that included an impressive Ben McCalman who went off after 58 minutes with a shoulder injury.

With the two Number 8’s used this year sitting in the casualty ward, it looks as if Scott Higginbotham will get his shot next weekend. Looking ahead, if he can have a strong showing against the Pumas, Higginbotham could be moved to six with Fardy taking up one of the contentious lock spots that Sam Carter and Rob Simmons have failed to cement.

Before then though, bring on Mendoza and another big weekend of sport!