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Forget any nonsense spoken about the Wallabies clawing back lost credibility in Wellington on Saturday. That’s just pure straw clutching.
A loss by 29-9, four tries to none, is exactly how it reads – another comprehensive beating, their sixth consecutive loss, stretching back to last year’s Rugby World Cup final.
It also consigns the Bledisloe Cup to New Zealand hands for an incredible 14th year in a row.
From the outset, it was obvious that the Wallabies’ tactic was to disrupt; to get in the faces of the All Blacks, to take the pace out of the game.
And in the process, keep the scoreboard down.
Call it damage limitation if you like, and if reigning the All Blacks back from six tries last week to a mere four this week counts as a win, then you could make an argument for it being successful.
But since when, for a proud rugby nation, runner-up in last year’s World Cup, did respectable 20-point losses become a thing?
Coach Michael Cheika talked post-match about this performance being the first, necessary step on the path to rebuilding his side. Which might be fair enough, except for the fact that his squad is stacked with players who are clearly beyond their best – no matter what fine service Stephen Moore, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Will Genia, Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell have provided in the past.
And if it is a true rebuild, it surely needs to be based on foundations more solid than a bit of red-mist niggle.
Cheika can clearly coach, his Waratahs Super Rugby champion side of 2014 was motivated, well-conditioned and cohesive. They also played a fine brand of rugby.
What is under question, however is Cheika’s ability as a selector. Now 21 matches into his Wallabies tenure, (11 wins and 10 losses), he is no closer to knowing what his best team is than when he started.
Take the middle row for example; an area where New Zealand dominate through Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock, and where Australia was comprehensively taken to the cleaners in the June series loss to England.
This years’ five Tests have seen the Wallabies try five different combinations, using eight different players. That’s simply too many.
It’s a similar story in the backline, with players swapping in and out of positions, without sufficient opportunity to develop familiarity and combinations required to succeed at Test level.
It took until the 79th minute for the Wallabies to suggest they were capable of scoring a try – Nick Phipps having the ball dislodged as he stretched for the score – but with all their focus on stopping the All Blacks, perhaps that was to be expected.
Rebuild or not, the Wallabies urgently need to find their scoring mojo; for their own state of mind as well as their fans. It was there against England, at least until the deficiencies in other aspects of their game forced them to curtail their attacking tendencies.
Halfback Will Genia was again close to Australia’s best and, on his return to the front line, Quade Cooper, for the most part, acquitted himself well. Despite a few morons still not having got the message, it was good to note that the mindless booing was mostly absent.
The All Blacks got drawn into the niggle, to the point where they were initiating some of it as well. Owen Franks is not known as a dirty player, but he only invited scrutiny upon himself for getting his hands into places they shouldn’t be.
Dane Coles was again superb, a runner who offers multiple dimensions to his play and his team’s attack. But he also sails close to the wind at times and might do well to observe that sometimes the stronger, tougher thing to do is to simply get on with the game.
In between the handbags and interminable scrum resets, when some rugby eventually did break out, the All Blacks scored four good tries; two of them thanks to the involvement of Beauden Barrett.
The local hero – as much as a Taranaki boy in Wellington can be ‘local’ – enjoyed another quality match, astutely underplaying his hand. If there can be one quibble – a minor one – it is that he is too conservative with his penalty touchfinders, sometimes barely nicking off 20 metres at a time.
But quite simply, if Barrett doesn’t play, Israel Dagg’s second try and Julian Savea’s try don’t get scored. There is not a player in world rugby who can inject himself into a back line movement so incisively – straighten the line at such pace – and then pass with precision, to create an overlap where, moments earlier, none existed.
The Wallabies will be frustrated at how they are leaking tries on the outside, seemingly with their defensive line set, and sufficient numbers in place. It is the subtleties that are missing, with too many players coming in and out of the side meaning the absence of sure combinations.
And of course, the presence of Barrett, with a sharp eye and speed to burn, good enough to take advantage of any weakness.
For the All Blacks, Anton Lienert-Brown enjoyed a nice debut, largely free of the handling errors and contact spillages that have marked some of their recent midfield play.
It was the collective strength of their pack, however, which saw them camped in Wallabies territory for most of the second half. Retallick and Whitelock were once again powerhouses, and Jerome Kaino looks to be going so well, it’s as if he has the 2019 World Cup in his sights.
So while Steve Hansen moves forward with a few customary ‘work-ons’, Cheika faces a far more onerous task. He might do well to focus on two things.
The first is to ditch the overt victim mentality that pervades his body language, and his player’s mindsets. Perhaps referee Romain Poite could have been less dismissive of Stephen Moore during the match, but this was merely some chickens – old boilers at that – coming home to roost.
The Wallabies, Moore in particular, are already marked as serial complainers and, with them turning almost every stoppage into a push and shove, one can understand Poite waving Moore away and telling him to get on with playing rugby.
Cheika’s second task is to settle on the combinations he wishes to take forward, and select consistently around them. He has done this with Israel Folau at fullback, and also with the continued selection of David Pocock and Michael Hooper together – although at the expense of ball control at the back of the scrum and lack of ball-running thrust.
His front row is settled too, so there are the beginnings of something. But if this really is a rebuild, he has no choice but to promote younger players and get repeated Test match experience under their belts.
If Adam Coleman and Samu Kerevi, to name just two, are to develop as quality Test players they need to be starting every week, not just rotated in when others fail or get injured.
That said, Cheika will be disappointed to learn that two players touted as Test prospects, Jack Debreczini and Andrew Ready, marked the start of the NRC with sub-par efforts. On this evidence, both cannot be considered for Test rugby in the foreseeable future.
One of the benefits of watching last weeks’ match live in Sydney, was the absence of TV commentary. Back at home, it was painfully revealing to suffer through the Fox Sports coverage, in particular – and you know where I’m heading with this – the incessant whining of comments man Phil Kearns.
It is hard to believe that Fox Sports has defined Kearns’ role as complainant about every decision made against the Wallabies – after all there is no other commentator in their stable, in any sport, who does this.
But Kearns is now well beyond a bad joke. Coleman’s late shoulder charge on Ben Smith was idiotic, potentially dangerous, and cost his side ten minutes without a player.
For Kearns to say, “I’m not disappointed by Coleman doing that” is unfathomable. Naturally the irony of Kearns saying that in one breath, and complaining about the referee not talking kindly to Moore in the next, was lost on him.
John Eales got it right after the match, calling it out for what it was, ie “stupid”, but the damage was already done.
Fox Sports, enough is enough. Lift the standard of your commentary so that viewers who pay you good money, receive genuine insights about the game from professionals without a tired old axe to grind, who actually understand the game.
Otherwise, hurry up and further develop that ‘viewers choice’ red button. If the technology is there to broadcast Jarryd Hayne’s every twitch, it must be able to delete Kearns as well.
To Sunday morning, and it seems that the Wallabies aren’t the only side with issues in their backline defence, an inventive Argentina getting around and through South Africa with regularity.
And even if the Pumas’ scrum isn’t the powerhouse it once was, their final, rock-solid effort on the hooter put a convincing stamp on their victory.
South Africa continue to be an enigma. Elton Jantjies is playing deeper than he did for the Lions and while the players are clearly trying hard, they are yet to reveal a distinctive style and consistency to their play under Allister Coetzee.
When your best player is a 33 year-old winger, you know things aren’t going quite to plan.