Opinion
Well it’s that time of year again. The Wallabies received their annual whacking from the All Blacks. A tradition that feels to be older than the Haka itself.
The Wallabies have now won two of their past 10 games. The second reign of Eddie Jones is yet to produce a win and the World Cup is just over 40 days away.
Sonny Bill Williams eloquently described the injury to Wallabies captain Allan Alaalatoa as “tough vision to hear”. Vision is tough to hear at the best of times, which makes you think just how bloody hard the vision of this injury was to hear.
So it’s all over for the Wallabies and rugby Australia right?
Wrong!
As any superannuation advertisement will let you know, past performance is not an indicator of future performance. In rugby terms, past losses do not project future losses.
A set piece that doesn’t work and the inability to execute a game plan project future losses.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The set piece has improved dramatically. The line out percentage has improved from 79% in the wallabies first game to 100% in game 3.
This is largely due to Jordan Uelese getting over a chronic case of the yips – an impressive feat of mental toughness in itself. It’s near impossible to win test match rugby when you can’t win your own line out. About as hard as hearing vision. So that’s one big tick on the way to a Wallaby victory.
In attack, the Wallabies look to have found their “style”. After possession rugby was declared dead, it has rose again from the ashes.
The wallabies have extremely strong ball runners in the forward pack through Angus Bell, Rob Valentini and Will Skelton. This allows the Wallabies to retain possession and build pressure through multiple phases.
The backline, while it does not contain any genuine kickers, does have great “ball in hand” players. So the Wallabies game plan is obvious – retain possession and keep the ball in hand. Don’t get caught in a kicking battle.
This style of play perfectly matches Carter Gordon’s strengths. Carter Gordon’s rise from Super Rugby to an international flyhalf has been exceptionally fast. It’s not reasonable to expect Carter Gordon to dominate Test rugby straight away.
However, he has the potential for rapid and significant improvement. Especially due to his age, experience and having the advantage of Quade Cooper in a mentor role.
So they’ve got the set piece, the style and the 10 to match. Its all trending up and all trending towards a win. However, as Eddie Jones said in his post match press conference “there’s always a but”.
And this is a big one.
The discipline of the Wallabies is costing them and costing them dearly. The Wallabies received five yellow cards in the rugby championship, while both Argentina and South Africa received one, and the All Blacks received none.
No teams received yellow cards against Australia. So over the three games, Australia played 50 minutes with one less player than their opposition. This problem is nothing short of biblical for the Wallabies, and in turn my own sanity.
The improvements to attack, set piece and the coming of age of a young flyhalf will all be for nothing if they cannot fix their discipline.
There should be a caveat on the new Cadbury advertisements tag line “where there is a wallaby, there is a way… unless we have been given 2 yellow cards in which case we are completely f#cked.”
Eddie Jones told fans to keep the faith and he will deliver. Against our better judgement, we hope he is right. It’s not the hope that will kill them. It’s the discipline.
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.
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