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The mindset behind Izzy's

Cussell Roight new author
Roar Rookie
17th September, 2018
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Cussell Roight new author
Roar Rookie
17th September, 2018
109
2410 Reads

Selfish. That’s the only way to describe Israel Folau’s costly decision to go for glory and try his luck running at a trio of Pumas as the match hung in the balance.

Folau – one of the few Wallabies who acquitted themselves in arguably the biggest snoozefest Rugby Championship fans have ever been subjected to – had all the space and time to draw his man and put the unmarked Bernard Foley over in the corner.

Newsflash for those who missed Australia’s loss against Los Pumas on Saturday night: our beloved Izzy opted out of a try assist that would’ve won his side the game.

Here’s what happens if Izzy dishes it on to his Tahs teammate – Foley dives over untouched, the meagre crowd at Cbus Stadium breathes a sigh of relief, and Michael Cheika gets to sweep aside his side’s inadequacies under the rug of back-to-back wins.

Instead, the Wallabies have found themselves on the wrong end of a 24-19 result that torpedoes their confidence less than 12 months out from the World Cup.

We could get into the nuts and bolts of how a late try wouldn’t prove anything and how that game still shows the Wallabies are well off the benchmark set by current New Zealand and Ireland.

But let’s get back to that pass (or lackthereof) because, like it or not, it’s the kind of shortcoming that’s starting to define this Wallabies side – and Folau in particular.

David Pocock and Israel Folau

AP Photo/Rick Rycroft

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No one will ever doubt Folau’s capabilities, nor his status as one of the country’s most prolific try scorers, but where is the rugby nous?

It is inconceivable that Izzy wasn’t aware of Foley’s presence off his right shoulder and only the most blinkered Pumas supporter would say Australia wouldn’t have snatched the game away from them had the custodian just passed it.

The sight of Foley grabbing his hair in disbelief after Tomas Lavanini dislodging the ball from Izzy’s grasp tells the story – he’s got the face of someone who’s just been cut off at a busy servo despite waiting 40 minutes for his turn at the pump.

“All you had to do was pass, you selfish idiot,” screams Foley over and over in his brain.

“Why wouldn’t you just pass?”

Okay, you could probably also point to eight different moments throughout the game that proved costly, but the simple fact that Folau did not give that final pass speaks volumes.

Now, I’ve got no insight into whether Izzy grinds gears at training, so I’m not going to slap him with an ‘irritating’ label. But ‘stupid’ and ‘ridiculous’ fit nicely into his game-changing decision not to pass the ball.

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It was stupid for him not to pass to his unmarked teammate and, as mentioned earlier, the suggestion that he didn’t see Foley is ridiculous, so that’s two from three in my book.

I would have no hesitation in saying that Izzy honestly thought he could score from the position he was in, but that’s the heart of the issue.

In that moment, that pivotal moment, it looked like the need to score a try clouded Izzy’s judgement and prevented his side from clinching a win.

He was in a position to put the team ahead of himself by passing it on and failed to do so.

That decision hurts more than an embarrassing loss and even more than the sight of our players embroiled with sauced-up fans.

That decision says that there are individuals within our national team that still put themselves ahead of the team.

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