The Wallabies first loss to Italy last night was of course bitterly disappointing, even though the Italians have improved dramatically from being the perennial laughing stock of European first tier rugby, that they have been in previous years.
We should congratulate the Italians on what is for them a famous victory and I add that seeing some Italian players come straight up to poor Ben Donaldson who missed the final kick to comfort him, made it even easier to be happy for the Azzurri and their fans.
As a Reds fans I haven’t seen much of Donaldson playing prior to this, but from what I did see in this game he looks like he is a classy number 10 who played well other than the missed kick, so I will look forward to seeing more of what he can do in a gold jersey.
Of course none of this disguises the fact that there were a lot of problems in the way that the Wallabies played, with the perennial issues of discipline and the lineout plaguing their game. Halfback Jake Gordon’s stupid yellow card for taking out a player without the ball would have to be the lowest lowlight of many during the game, two of the Azzurri tries were scored while he was off the park.
Jake Gordon of Australia passes the ball out wide during the Autumn International match between Italy and Australia at Stadio Artemio Franchi on November 12, 2022 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Timothy Rogers/Getty Images)
I don’t know whether the Wallabies are being trained to play cynically or whether some just do it themselves, but unless it stops they will keep losing.
Drew Mitchell knows infinitely more about rugby then I do but Dave Rennie has been a rugby coach who has won Super Rugby twice, so I tend to think that Mitchell’s critical tone could perhaps lean towards the more respectful and constructive.
Specifically, Mitchell has argued that the Wallabies need steady selection to develop combinations towards the World Cup and that Dave Rennie shouldn’t have replaced 12 players for the game against Italy.
On combinations I would ask Mitchell, what about injuries? For example the Wallabies had a great 10/12 combination in Quade Cooper and Samu Kerevi planned this year, but both got injured at different times and didn’t play together. That combination made no contribution to the Wallabies this year.
On the flip side World Cups can still be won by teams playing lower ranked players. New Zealand proved it when they won the 2011 Rugby World Cup off the goal kick of a washed up fourth choice 10, who had to be called back from white baiting to cover for injuries. So I don’t see much point in trying to develop combinations in modern rugby, but if Mitchell wants to explain why they are still relevant I am all ears.
Ironically Mitchell’s second criticism about the rotation of players against Italy, is at least in part intended to manage injuries during the long end of year tour campaign. Rennie has specifically said that he is using this campaign as practice for the World Cup.
As Mitchell well knows in every World Cup, coaches rotate players against the weaker teams to manage their workload. I take his point that the Wallabies are seventh in the world at the moment and against a much improved Italy rotation was a risk, but the fact remains that Italy is still the weakest Six Nations team, so are the only candidate against who the Wallabies can rest players.
The Wallabies can only get away with losing one pool game in the World Cup to have any chance of winning it, so if winning is the objective then rotating against weaker teams to conserve the best players for the toughest games seems like a must, with this tour being excellent practice to achieve this goal.
So my second question to Mitchell is, do you want Rennie to try and have the Wallabies win every game like they will have to in order to win the World Cup? Alternatively, would you rather the Wallabies just accepted that they are seventh in the world and play their best squad to bank wins against weaker teams like for example Fiji in the pools, even if it means throwing away the chance of beating stronger teams?
This is a key question, because the answer will reveal whether Mitchell thinks that the Wallabies should aim to be World Cup contenders or just participants. This should be a question all Wallabies supporters ask of themselves, a question that might impact their attitudes towards Rennie’s selection policy on this tour.
Waxhead
Roar Rookie
@Rhys Well I think you know more about rugby than D. Mitchell :laughing: As has been proved many times, just cos someone has played 50+ Tests doesn't mean they are a good rugby analyst, or coach. Mitchell mainly just uses his platform to talk up his failed old mates like KB and Foley - plus anyone from NSW. Rennie is neither and being a Kiwi he was always going to be on Mitchell's hit list. He'll soon be talking up Coleman as next WB coach. While injuries play a big part I do think developing combinations is important and WBs are not good enough to play a B team against any nation in top 15 in world and expect to win. So taking that poor WB squad against Italy at home was very big risk imo - and they payed the price. I also think Rennie has managed Donaldson and Lolesio poorly so far. Donaldson was thrown to the wolves with 5 mins against Italy. It was pointless and will only have stunted his progress. I also think Rennie has lost the plot on the flyhalf selections. Foley has been a dud since 2016 and there's been no attempt to properly develop 2-3 good new flyhalfs. Given the WB lack of confidence, and poor results in 2022, the Italy squad should have been picked to win imo. If they got more injuries to key players so be it. They were never a realistic chance of beating Ireland anyway and a 50/50 for Wales. So Rennie's risk failed and WBs are now looking at a 1 from 5 result from this northern tour. Then watch Mitchell and co pull out the knives for Rennie.
Deano
Guest
Totally agree Rhys. The problem is not selection, it is penalties. Or to be more accurate, it is coaching that encourages cynical play, which in the current era is more likely to be penalised. It was disappointing to hear that Dan McKellar has spoken up to take part of the blame for selections, which were not Rennie's alone. Dan, you shouldn't be "owning" or "apologising" for selection mistakes at all, in spite of what Drew Mitchell and others might say. They weren't mistakes. But the coaching team should definitely be owning and apologising for their mistake of encouraging play that is likely to concede penalties. Even more importantly, they should be fixing it!
SDRedsFan
Roar Rookie
Hi Rhys I didn't/don't have any issues with the selections made for the Italian game. To me, the most perplexing issue is the ongoing discipline issue and you touched on it in your article. The squad must be being coached to play cynically, to push the envelope. There just doesn't seem to be any other explanation for why it continues to happen week after week. If Gordon didn't get carded then fair chance the Italians don't score their two try's, and possibly we win the game legitimately. The other perplexing thing is, if they are being coached to play this way, why are they still doing it when it isn't working. We're losing too many games primarily because we are being penalised/carded out of them. I think a lot of criticism that players are copping is also coming from the roles they are being asked to play - eg Harry Wilson being instructed to play in tight so we don't see his busts/offloads out wide like he plays for the Reds. Hanigan and Holloway are asked to play differently to the way they do for the tahs. I think Jordan Petaia's confidence issues can probably also be traced to the same thing, although he looked good for the few minutes he got in the Italian test. The whole bench should have been brought on a lot earlier, or not at all. For a tactical substitution, anything less than 15 minutes seems to be a waste.
Rhys Bosley
Roar Pro
Of all the selections I agree with you most on the back row being problematic, though I think that had more to do with Harry Wilson being left at home, leaving them without anybody who bring close to what Rob Valentini does. Regarding merit and selections, I think that we have to acknowledge that every coach is subject to pressures to select certain players from powerful elements within rugby, which isn’t in the interest of winning. That said Cheika made the problem even worse with his bizarre rotating defence and insistence on mostly playing duel number sevens, poor old Rennie just looks worse than he is by comparison because of a player pool that is diminished by injury and probably isn’t quite as good as what Cheika had anyway. Players who shouldn’t have been there from the start are Lonergan, Hannigan and Holloway. Players who have proven not up to it this year are Fainga’a and Wright, with Gordon, Paisami and Petaia on thin ice. Players who should have been given a go are Angus Blyth, Feliti Kaitu’u, Angus Scott-Young, Dylan Pietsch, Fergus-Lee Warner and Hamish Stuart. Finally Harry Wilson should not have been sent home.
Rubbish Surf 69
Roar Rookie
For me a direct example of combinations not working was in the back row. Our breakdown security was just awful and I believe (out of many terrible areas in the Wallabies game) it was the key area that lost them the game. Backrows work as a unit within the team and there was absolutely no cohesion there. I agree that players are being selected on long gone merit. I have given DR a lot of leeway in my opinions but not any more. He has became Cheika 2.0 with his favouritism. His comments after the Bledisloe drubbing indicated wholesale selection changes would be needed to decrease infringements, yet his extended squad selected for Europe showed nothing new, even after seeing some shining lights come through in the Australia A tour of Japan. Tom Wright needs to be sent back to Super Rugby and bring his game back to Earth. He should not be on this tour. Neither should Darcy Swain. Two red cards in a year. The team needs to be shown that ill discipline will not be rewarded. Is it possible the Brumbies influence in the coaching box is affecting good selection policy? I’m not privy to that so I do not know, but I would say that most of the bad selections happen to be from Brumbies connections. May I ask who you think should be in the touring squad who didn’t make it? And who is there who shouldn’t be?
Rhys Bosley
Roar Pro
They key players need to be rested Mate, the Wallabies haven't played an easy test all season and have suffered absolute carnage from injuries, they can't afford to risk the likes of Rob Valentini, Dave Poreki, Nick White, Michael Hooper, Andrew Kellaway, Reece Hodge, Bernard Foley and James Slipper in a game against the weakest team they will play this season. Do that and they may as well not even turn up to play Ireland. Aside from those players there were other good players out with injury, but still enough to win. They just didn't play well on the day.
Rhys Bosley
Roar Pro
Thanks for the detailed response, the issue for me is that in the complaining about the number of changes, nobody is actually making a logical link to what went wrong. The prime example is that people keep complaining about the attack and linking it to a lack of combinations when the Wallabies scored four tries. On the flip side the errors that actually lost the game were individual, Gordan getting himself carded had nothing whatsoever to do with not being in a combination, he was just dumb. Like I have said elsewhere, of course people are entitled to express an opinion, but it is incumbent on all of us that our opinions make sense. To me the problems are less to do with the selections on matchday than they are to do with the makeup of the entire touring squad. There are players in there who really didn't justify their selection in Super Rugby and other players who are good Super Rugby players, but who have proven that they cannot make the step up at international level. There isn't much that they can do with squad makeup now, they are in Europe and I can't see alternatives being flown over based on this game, but I think that there is going to have to be a long, hard think about who is good enough to be a Wallaby and who isn't at the end of this tour.
Rubbish Surf 69
Roar Rookie
I agree with your points on rotation, but believe it is a combination of issues related to selection that have been the issue. First of all I think there were too many changes. One forced change to the Kiwis in a World Cup final isn’t the same as changing virtually an entire team. It’s not like we were playing Namibia or the USA (no disrespect to those teams). This felt a lot like watching Australia A, DR totally underestimated the Italians. Retaining players such as Nic White, Michael Hooper or a few others with leadership qualities on the bench may have saved that game. Secondly, continually chopping and changing has been a hallmark of DRs agenda, and I can only imagine the effect that must have had on players like Noah Lolesio or Tate McDermott as examples. To expect players like that to shine after inconsistent time on the pitch is unfair. And thirdly, if rotation is so important why is someone like Tom Wright still in the team? It’s not like we didn’t have other options. I don’t think he should even be on the tour. It shows to me players that have failed in the past with both discipline and execution are not being held accountable (read Darcy Swain). Player rotation is totally fine, but mass changes when we’re not that good, constant musical chairs mitigating continuity and worst of all not setting an example to Australian players by dropping the non-performers has created a ghastly culture in the gold jersey. DR should be answering a lot more tough questions right now.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
The extra 3 players came about by the need to have 6 props and 3 hookers in the squad !!!
The Late News
Roar Rookie
Rhys...you are right. My comments earlier were knee jerk from disappointment.
Ozrugbynut
Roar Rookie
In this case I feel it is broadly a matter of us getting the balance wrong in terms of workload management. 11 changes is flying too close to the wind really and although I appreciate DR believed his team could have (and should have) it was clearly all too much for this cobbled together side. There should have been far more of a risk buffer. What better way to condition players for a WC than to play them week in and week out.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
I dont think adding an extra 3 players helps at all. a 30 man squad should be able to play 5 matches in 5 weeks and you can always call someone into the squad if you lose players to injuries. Ive never seen such a weird season results wise than 2022.
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
Hi Rhys. First, good on you for having the passion and taking the time to write the article. Fundamentally I agree with you and also Jeff. It would be foolish to play almost any player five weeks in a row due to fatigue. Equally, it would be foolish to 33 players on a five week tour and leave a bunch of them in the stands. It’s actually better for combinations if you play largely the same team for three or four games and give the dirt trackers a run against the weakest team, in the middle of the tour.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Totally agree with what you are saying Rhys. Just because Drew Mitchell was a good player doesn't mean he has instant credibility as a commentator and analyst. What is the point of taking 33 players on a 5 match EOYT if you don't rotate. Only an idiot would expect that the strongest team would play all 5 matches in 5 weeks. And the logical team to play your weaker XV against on this tour would be Italy. They certainly aren't mugs but they are the weakest of all the teams we are playing on this tour.