SPIRO: 10 out of 10 for Wallabies against Wales

It was tight, 33-28, but it was a well-deserved and necessary victory for the Wallabies against Wales at the Millennium Stadium at Cardiff.

It was also a great start for Michael Cheika in his first Test as the Wallabies coach.

‘Well-deserved’ might be challenged as Wales scored four tries (Rhys Webb, Alex Cuthbert, Alun Wynn Jones and a scrum penalty try) to the three (Israel Folau – two – and Tevita Kuridrani) scored by the Wallabies.

But the pressure the Wallabies exerted on Wales was registered on the scoreboard by Bernard Foley’s immaculate goal-kicking, with three conversions, two penalties and a dropped goal.

Test rugby is all about winning. If the opposition stops your attacks on their try line with breaches of the laws, then the game has a remedy with penalties. And it is up to your kicker to convert these penalties into points. Foley did this for the Wallabies.

People who don’t understand the zen of rugby often complain about penalties deciding rugby Tests. But what they need to know is that rugby is a game about high skills played under the intense corrective powers of body contact. Both attackers and defenders have to play within the complex laws.

The best players have the quickness of mind of defence in lawyers in interpreting and understanding the complex legality of the rugby game. This mental agility is combined with the brutality of a bouncer in inflicting damage to those who intrude on their territory.

It was a ‘necessary’ victory because the Wallabies have maintained their death grip around the throat of Wales, choking off their ambitions to register a victory after what is now 10 consecutive defeats, from Tests played both in Australia and in Wales.

Six victories in this 10 out of 10 run of wins by the Wallabies have been in Wales. This is important as the Wallabies, Wales and England play in The Pool of Death in the Rugby World Cup 2015 tournament, which will be played in England.

Even though the Wales versus Australia Test, along with the England versus Australia matches, will be played at Twickenham, it will be an away match of sorts for the Wallabies as the vast majority of the crowd will be supporting Wales, as they were at the Millennium Stadium.

So winning at the home of Welsh rugby sends a strong signal from the Wallabies that they have the mental and rugby strength to overcome any Welsh home advantage.

Nine of the Wales side that Michael Cheika’s Wallabies defeated were in the British and Irish Lions squad that monstered the Wallabies at Sydney in the final match of the series. The big Welsh centres on that day, Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Davies, smashed the Wallabies defence into a pulp. At Cardiff, Roberts was there with the even bigger George North this time as his centre partner.

North initiated one fabulous Welsh try with a devastating break. But he and Roberts were generally held in check with some quick and gutsy defence. Tevita Kuridrani and Israel Folau actually made more impact for the Wallabies in the middle of the field, and scored more tries, than their Welsh counterparts did.

There was one other feature of the Test that deserves a mention. In their last four Tests, and this statistic was rather ominously broadcast by Greg Martin towards the end of the match, the Wallabies had conceded 46 points in the last 20 minutes of play and scored only nine of their own.

Heading into the last 20 minutes the Wallabies were behind. Was this Test going to be deja vu all over again, as dear old Rex Mossop might have been tempted to ask?

Answer: No. And this resounding answer provides a strong hope that this Wallabies side is on the rise. With 10 or so minutes left to play, the Wallabies took the lead through a drop goal by Foley. Then a neat penalty by Foley increased this lead.

Wales had about a minute to snatch a victory. The Wallabies had about 60 seconds to catch the kick-off, do a couple of one-off hit-ups and kick the ball ‘into the shit house’, as Bob Dwyer would say.

The Wallabies caught the kick-off. They did a couple of hit-ups. And then Foley booted the ball down the field. He didn’t even try for touch. Just down the field. Wales had a final chance to run the ball back…

What was going through his mind? Was this a planned tactic? Surely not.

What we had next was pulsating attack and defence, with Wales making one break that looked very promising, before a final error.

Hopefully this ability to close out victories like the Wallabies did, or to force a victory on time as the Waratahs did against the Crusaders in the Super Rugby 2014 final, could be a feature of teams coached by Michael Cheika.

It is a controversial call to ask this question: but would the Wallabies playing under Ewen McKenzie, with their history of choking in the championship minutes of Tests, have fought back against Wales, and then held on after creating a small lead?

There were several little things about the Wallabies that struck me.

First, they all sang the national anthem, even the coach, as if they knew and cherished the words. I see this approach as a sign of pride in being in the side that represents Australia in rugby.

Second, the Wallabies used the Waratahs kick-off trick with all the players, except the kicker, striding out from about 10 metres behind the half-way line and presenting the catcher with a line of attackers with intent on their minds. As it happened, Wales spilled the first two kick-offs, which gave an immediate momentum to the Wallabies.

Less successful was the tactic of coming out of the defensive line at pace to upset the Welsh runners. This is a high risk tactic that needs to be used judiciously, rather than all the time. The Wallabies conceded three tries from general play and could have conceded more if the Welsh handling and passing had been a bit crisper. But if it is done properly it has the power to undermine even the best attacking sides.

Incidentally, the last time the Wallabies conceded more than two tries to Wales was in 1996. So there is a lot of work for Nathan Gray to do to bed-in the new defensive system Cheika wants the Wallabies to adopt.

Initially, too, the Wallabies scrum held up well. But was the improvement due to the fact that Adam Jones, the veteran hairy-monster prop, was not playing? Certainly when the most-capped Welsh player ever, Gethin Jenkins, came on the Welsh scrum started to over-power the Wallabies.

With the Wallabies leading 27-21, Wales forced a series of scrums right in front of Australia’s posts. After four scrums, a couple of them collapsed by the Wallabies and all of them with Wales shunting forward, the referee Craig Joubert awarded a penalty try to the home side.

Greg Martin, typically complained, but Rod Kafer pointed out that Joubert was right, as indeed he was.

This scrumming deficiency remains a Wallaby problem. There is something wrong with the props (Ben Alexander particularly, who has an Al Baxter tendency to go down on most scrums) but also with the rest of the pack. I noticed, once again, that the flankers do not help their props by pushing in at the angle that will (or should) sometimes take them into a fourth prop position.

My mind went back to 1984 and the famous push-over try by the Wallabies, with the massive Tommy Lawton powering forward like an unstoppable tank. That try is part of the folklore of the Wallabies, an iconic moment for the Grand Slam champions.

Somehow Cheika has to get this scrum power back for his side. There is no way a team with a dicey scrum will win the Rugby World Cup 2015 tournament. I see the scrum problem as the major area for improvement by the Wallabies. Get this right and the Wallabies will be able to hold their own against any team in world rugby.

As it was, it was too inevitable that Wales were going to scrum the Wallabies into the turf, and win a penalty try, once they got into the dominant position under the posts.

The Test itself provided another telling example of what a splendid and dramatic spectacle modern rugby is when played by sides investing passion, courage and high skills into their play.

The referee, South African Joubert, once again demonstrated why he is the best in the world. Joubert concentrates on ensuring that teams stay onside, that defenders do not prevent quick recycling of tackled ball and that there is a fair contest in the scrums.

By insisting on these elemental requirements, Joubert creates an environment where the players can take their game to an exciting and productive level.

The running score line provides an indication of the ebb and flow of the Test.

Wales 7-0 Australia, W 7-7 A, W 7-14 A (the Wallaby try came after Folau intercepted a pass that would have created a Welsh try, and just earlier Sam Carter had been penalised and Wales played on to almost set up their own try).

W 14-14 A (this ensemble try came when a Foley grubber was gathered in by Wales and a counter-attack led by North was mounted), W 14-21 A (Kuridrani, as he did against the Barbarians, stormed through the defence on a 35m run).

W 21-21 A (Wales scored after turning down two kickable penalties, one of them from right in front of the posts).

W 21-24 A, W 21-27 A, W 28-27 A (this was the penalty try scored by Wales), W 28-30 A (the penalty was awarded to the Wallabies after 20 phases of attack, a measure of how composed they were under the pressure to make the winning score). Final score Wales 28-23 Australia.

There were a number of big calls made by Cheika before and during the Test. They demonstrated, in my view, the willingness of the coach to trust his players. He allowed the Wallabies only two back reserves, for instance, although Michael Hooper and Sean McMahon could play on the wing at a pinch.

Talking about McMahon, he made a couple of early mistakes, especially allowing the Welsh halfback Webb to sneak inside him to burst away for the first Wales try. There was a turnover, too, that McMahon conceded early on. But his lineout work was strong. He made his tackles, after the Webb mistake, and his running was strong.

I think he is a long-time Wallaby loose forward of quality. Cheika is right to invest a lot of confidence in his ability to play at the Test level.

There was a lot to admire, too, in Cheika’s decision to empty the bench towards the end of the Test, even though the Wallabies were under pressure. As it happened the bench players performed well, even though some of their roles as in the case of Tetera Faulkner were cameos.

Next weekend, the Wallabies play France who were victors over Fiji at Marseilles 40-15. Teddy Thomas (a fine French name) became only the second French player to score three tries on debut.

Also on debut was Rory Kockott, who should have been playing for the Springboks if their selectors over the years had had any sense about quality halfback play. Kockott has a sort of Napoleonic quality about his play that could lift a French side that has under-performed since the 2011 Rugby World Cup final.

The Test against France will be at the Stade de France. The referee will be Nigel Owen, a referee I’ve admired in the past but who gave (in my opinion) some strange decisions in England’s favour in their epic losing contest against the All Blacks.

I wouldn’t expect Cheika to change things much in his efforts to find his best starting XV, and his best reserves bench. Injuries might force some changes and there are players like Scott Higginbotham to come back in, of course.

But if the players who performed so splendidly against the All Blacks at Brisbane were given a chance at Cardiff to prove themselves to Cheika, I reckon that after their strong victory against Wales most of them deserve now to be considered assured members of the Test squad.

With this current crop of Wallabies, Cheika’s mark on the side is the way he is preparing them to play the sort of aggressive rugby, on defence and attack, that will see them challenge from their fourth position on the IRB rankings table the likes of England, South Africa and, in time, the All Blacks.

One of the failings (among several of the McKenzie Wallabies) was their general lack of success against teams ranked above them in the IRB table.

But right now, though, the challenge is to beat France, a side that the Wallabies defeated 3-0 in their home series earlier this year.

But France at home, especially at Paris with the crowd shouting out ‘Allez Les Bleus!’, is a different beast from a French side that is touring.