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Watching the international season unfold this year has been very interesting if nothing else.
Now that all the rugby has been played, I thought it was time to reflect on just where we are heading into a world cup year.
Since we have a brand new coach and new systems, I think thats a good place to start. Cheika has won one of his four Test matches (not including an entertaining win against the Barbarians), making for the worst tour in nine years.
I’ve read plenty from ex-players and journalists criticising the side’s inability to close out a game, and almost as much from the players and staff speaking about the positive growth from the tour. But what has really changed since Cheik took over?
Coming in less than a week before a tour was never going to be ideal circumstances, but the Wallabies had shown in their last outing against New Zealand in Brisbane that they were by no means a broken side.
Ewen McKenzie had made a lot of progress since taking over a somewhat rudderless side from Robbie Deans. He held up his promise of playing entertaining rugby, decreasing the Wallabies kicking and increasing our adventures phase play.
Our individual skills were far better, our player depth had grown and the attitudes of the players (for the most part) seemed to be improving. Our biggest weaknesses seemed to be our tactical kicking, our physicality and our set piece.
Cheika clearly prides himself on his teams physicality, fitness and running phase play. We have seen a huge change over the last two seasons at the Waratahs, and we started seeing the same changes at the Wallabies.
In my opinion our best game was against Ireland. Although we weren’t able to close the match out, we showed all the adventure, desire and physicality that would have been asked of the players.
Despite the poor results, I’ve never seen such a positive attitude come out of our national side.
There is no behavioural problems, no splits in the team, and everyone seems to genuinely respect and want to push each other to get better.
For me this is by far Cheika’s greatest quality as a coach, he is an exceptional man manager, and gets the most out of every player. But what of our weakness?
The Wallabies talked about learning to “love scrums” but for me this is our biggest weakness.
We have improved against some of the weaker sides, but when push comes to shove we will still leek 10+ points a game against England, Wales, South Africa, Argentina and Italy.
Surely this is the area that needs the most attention. In my eyes the only way anything will change, is if we can get a world class scrum coach.
Cheika and Andrew Blades clearly don’t have the technical expertise needed for us to thrive in such a complex area.
If we are lucky James Slipper and Stephen Moore will line up for the world cup, but we still have no answers at loose head.
Sekope Kepu and Benn Alexander are both great athletes in their own right, but neither have the ability to cut it against top opposition.
The downside for me is I can’t see a suitable replacement other then maybe Scott Sio, but even he is a young prop still learning the game in a similar mould to Kepu.
With the new scrum laws favouring the stronger sides Australia are up against it, and I don’t know that we can be competitive against the top sides next year.
Our lineout has been dragged up by the hard work of Rob Simmons, he has been one of the big improvers over the last twelve months and there is no doubt now that he should lead us in this area for the foreseeable future.
His partner however is less clear cut. Cheik clearly likes a physical second rower in the style of Kane Douglass, but I question whether that offers enough at such a technical area.
There are plenty of options but I don’t think any of them are particularly good. Will Skelton should have a spot in the 23 without a doubt, but most likely as an impact player from the bench.
Here’s to hoping someone makes huge strides next year to claim the other starting spot. We need them to be physical, have a huge motor and to own their attacking and defensive jumps.
As for tactical kicking, surely this was a lesson well learnt against Ireland.
You can play out of your skin, but if you’re not smart about it, you’ll still find yourself on the wrong side of the score board.
Matt Toomua has to be our best kicker, but there is little other quality to support him. To add to that, it doesn’t look like we have a clear tactical kicking option in place.
I’m not saying kick everything away, but a review of Johnny Sexton’s game against us will show what an opportune accurate kick can do for a side.
Who is in charge of our kicking side and what is planned to fix it? Someone needs to tell Izzy Folau to throw away his kicking boots, for an immensely talented player that spent two years in the AFL, he has a short and inaccurate kick.
I haven’t ever seen him win a kicking duel.
It is clear the biggest improvements to the side will be the attitude, fitness and physicality.
If Nathan Grey can continue to make inroads with our defensive structures then we will definitely be hard to put points on.
In saying this we have only two exceptional defenders in the Wallabies back line, Matt Toomua and Adam Ashley-Cooper, drop them to the bench and we will have plenty to worry about.
There is no doubt that the players’ positive attitude and another Rugby Championship under the new structures will see a big improvement in how we play the game, but my biggest issue when assessing our chances of winning the world cup is to do with brains, not braun.
We can be as physical, creative and as fit as we like, but the World Cup is never won on attractive play, points are hard to come by and the smartest team usually wins. If we keep leaking points from our scrum, line outs and rolling mauls then it may not matter how good we are at everything else.
This is one rugby fan hoping the Wallabies pack can truly step up, we don’t need to be the best in the world, but we need to improve. If that happens then anything can happen and we might just lift the Webb Ellis Trophy after all!
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.