The Wallabies take three steps backwards

It was always likely that the Wallabies would struggle in their first Test under a new coach, particularly given that the coaching change came mid-season.

However, I thought the performance against Wales was worse than the one they produced in Argentina at the end of the Rugby Championship.

It was a massive step back from the performance against the All Blacks in Brisbane.

The Wallabies were lucky they caught Wales in the first Test of their season. Their lack of polish made life much easier for the Wallabies, who in reality were saved by the Israel Folau intercept and a good goal kicking performance from Bernard Foley.

It was after all four tries to three in favour of Wales. Had the Wallabies put in that sort of performance against New Zealand, South Africa, England or Ireland the result would have been ugly.

It may be that the Wallabies needed to take a step backwards to go forward but I was surprised that rather than take one step backwards they took three big ones instead – defensive organisation, attacking pattern and the scrum.

The defensive pattern used by Nathan Grey was the same one he used at the Waratahs this season and there is no significant difference to that used by the Wallabies earlier this season. Yet players were constantly out of position and not connecting with players around them.

The defensive pattern and the coaching has nothing to do with some of the confusion on show. Take Sean McMahon’s decision to leave his position alongside the ruck to try and rush up on the first receiver, allowing Rhys Webb in for the first Welsh try. That lack of adherence to the most basic rule in any defensive pattern would be unacceptable at schoolboy level, let alone at Test level.

Time and time again players were slow to re-align, and that’s not caused by the defensive structure being used or the coaches – that’s just a lack of sufficient effort. That is a massive step backwards and needs to be addressed urgently.

In attack the Wallabies used the same methodology the Waratahs have used under Michael Cheika – move the ball wide early and rely on offloads to break the defence down. It’s good to watch at Super Rugby level and produced good results this season for the Waratahs.

However, it was very one dimensional from the Wallabies on the weekend and I don’t think this style of play will work at Test level. Defences at Test level are significantly better than they are in Super Rugby and you would have noticed in this match Wales just fanning out and shutting down most of what the Wallabies threw up at them.

The Wallabies had some success with offloads and inside balls and it’s good to see that area of their game already starting to develop.

However, the strategy of moving the ball wide of the ruck as quickly as possible and avoiding contact through offloads will simply result in the Wallabies playing side to side for phase after phase as we saw regularly in the match against Wales.

The aim of this type of attacking strategy is to play so fast that you catch the opposition re-aligning too slowly and then rely on individuals to break tackles. That doesn’t happen often at Test level and particularly not against the top teams.

That’s the issue with the vastly superior defences at Test level – the holes that are there in Super Rugby just aren’t that common. So teams have to use attacking structures to create space and simply passing the ball wide isn’t an attacking structure that is going to break down the defensive structures of the top teams.

There needs to be more emphasis placed on the forwards creating some go forward and dragging some defenders in towards the ruck before the ball is flung wide.

With the one dimensional approach the Wallabies used against Wales the defence simply fanned out to stop the next phase. When that happens the forwards need to be used to carry the ball in tight until defenders start to narrow up. That can be through close carries off the scrum-half or through pick and drives from the base of the ruck.

This lack of variety in attack isn’t something the players need to fix – it’s the coaches who are insisting on the ‘fling it wide’ style of play.

The third step backwards came in the scrum. The Wallabies don’t have the players to have a top scrum but they have been reasonably solid this season with James Slipper and Sekope Kepu so far ahead of any other options that it’s not funny – actually it’s depressing how little depth we have.

Kepu didn’t have a good match and in the first half he was struggling to get low enough to compete with Paul James. He made the mistake of trying to solve that issue by adopting the Ben Alexander method – drop your shoulders and try to angle down under the opposition loosehead.

Of course that method is completely flawed and only results in one thing – collapsing to the ground. I had a great laugh when Rod Kafer and Greg Martin were adamant that Kepu had been incorrectly penalised in the 39th minute and that it was actually James who was rolling in and causing Kepu to collapse.

It amazes me that the Wallabies keep making it harder for their props by allowing the middle row to scrummage as poorly as they do. These issues do not just appear in the matches – every time you see a video or images of the Wallabies practicing their scrums you see the lock’s body height and technique is poor and the flankers not adding much.

Kepu’s performance in the second half was much better and the embarrassing performances that led to the penalty try in the 65th minute were less about his performance than it was of the lock and flanker behind him. At the time it was Will Skelton at lock and McMahon on the flank.

Locks that are big and strong should be a real asset in the scrum, but all the size and strength means nothing if the technique is poor and when flankers are more interested in getting off the scrum than doing their first job – helping the prop – the prop has no chance. Despite this it’s always the prop that gets hung out to dry when it all goes wrong.

When you watch the series of scrums leading to the penalty try notice how much of Skelton’s head and shoulders you can see as the drive comes on. In reality you should see very little and you wouldn’t if he was adding his considerable weight to helping Kepu resist the force coming at him. His technique in those scrums was dreadful.

These errors are not just about the players – it’s the responsibility of Andrew Blades as the forwards coach to fix these technical failures and demand that the middle row start helping the props. Yet we see the same issues every match, regardless of who’s packing in the scrum.

The Wallabies are fortunate that they’re catching France this weekend, who played Fiji last weekend in a five tries to two romp so they’ll probably still be a little rusty, as Wales were.

However, they then finish the tour with matches against Ireland and England who are both looking strong. If the Wallabies don’t get their act together quickly they’re going to get belted in those last two matches.