As the dust settles on a one sided Bledisloe Cup in Sydney, I have not been surprised in the disappointment expressed by most Australian readers following the match.
I suspect most of this disappointment is due to the fantastic run the Australian team went on only nine months ago in the World Cup to reach the final that I was lucky enough to attend.
Unfortunately, I think that success and winning the Rugby Championship has become a curse for Cheilka early in his international coaching career. A key reason for the success was the experienced players he successfully coerced back into the national set up like Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell, who were outstanding at the tournament.
Click here to see what Spiro had to say about the ‘Giteau Law’.
The other successes were hiring Mario Ledesma to strengthen the scrum that became a weapon and playing Michael Hooper and David Pocock together, which Cheilka should take huge credit.
However, I think the All Blacks nullified this later threat in the final, and have done so again yesterday.
By ensuring all of the forwards can offload like backs and can get over the gain line, it makes it difficult for a traditional arm-wrestle to occur, which is where ‘Pooper’ is outstanding.
Also, by playing this combination gives the All Blacks a serious advantage in line outs with Kieran Read being so dangerous alongside the world-class Sam Whitelock and Brodie Rettalick.
Playing Hooper and Pocock together was not the reason the All Blacks won comfortably, but doesn’t help the balance of the side.
What has surprised me has been parts of the game that was outstanding for this side in the 2015 World Cup but poor in 2016.
The back play: some of the interlinking was outstanding in the Rugby World Cup (although I do accept Giteau was a key part to this, who was injured early).
Scrummaging: the scrums were key reasons for beating both Wales and England in pressure pool matches.
Kicking: basic exit strategies with kicking has been average in execution and the option of pop kicks behind rushing defences should be deployed more frequently.
Passing: the skill levels of the forwards and backs has got worse since the Rugby World Cup.
I can only put this down to a disconnection when the players returned to their Super rugby franchises? Is this due to poor coaching and training at this level? By having more teams diluting the quality of players?.
So will seven days be enough to turn the tide, unfortunately it is unlikely, but what should be done?
Pick players and a team that can hold their own in lineouts and defensively on the gain line, as was done at the World Cup. Then target potential areas of weakness for the All Blacks.
These include Savea under the high ball, midfield defence and Wyatt Crockett at scrums. I am not saying this is easy, but it should be minimum expected. Then, if Barrett can be put under pressure, his kicking game will not be as assured and the Wallabies have a chance.
Cheika proved last year when he had the team together for two months playing regular rugby at the World Cup, he can get them to improve.
The difficulty this time around, is that he is effectively doing that against the four semi-finalists from a standing start. No easy task!
I do believe Hansen was right in saying a lot of the Aussie players hadn’t played pressure football for awhile with only the Brumbies reaching the playoffs, but that can not be an excuse this week.
As an All Black supporter I am pleased we won, but I was surprised at how the Welsh managed to put pressure on us in the recent Test series (at the end of a long season for their players after a Rugby World Cup) and at home the Australian team were not.
The Bledisloe Cup is an outstanding trophy steeped with amazing history, but it needs classic close encounters to ensure it is held in the same esteem it always been.
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