Greetings from London where on Saturday I just managed to catch the match in the hotel bar. Not exactly forensic viewing – but it was better than nothing!
I thought we played pretty well actually – better than we did against Argentina and Italy, both of whom we thumped. Four tries to nil against Ireland in Dublin has to be considered pretty fair win.
Only time will give us the full picture, but the scrum was immeasurably better and I can’t believe it was just Sekope Kepu. Perhaps the Irish scrum wasn’t up to much (although they had some experienced blokes there) but whichever way you look at it you have to say the coaching staff has achieved what they are supposed to – to improve their players.
I thought Quade Cooper was miles better. While some people thought he played well in against Italy, I thought he was all over the place.
In this match his positional play was consistent. When he gets miles too deep he invariably shifts the ball on without moving forward, more often than not with a long pass. This gives the opposition all the opportunity to deny us any yardage at all. At other times he’s that flat that he can’t move forward. He moves sideways with a jig and delivers a difficult pass for the receiver.
So I thought his performance was much better this week. For me, this is what coaches are supposed to do; to fix up these things, to rub off the rough edges. Even the greatest golfers in the world sometimes have to go to a swing coach to re-construct their swing for them because somehow it’s gone astray and they need someone to fix it. This is the same with all sports and it’s definitely the same with rugby.
So full marks there for the coaching staff and Quade on this improvement.
Will I thought was better, but not fantastic. I wouldn’t be worried about his running at all. I’d just want him to get to the tackle contest more quickly. For role models, just look at any New Zealand scrumhalf.
Last year Aaron Smith, when he came back to the Highlanders from the All Blacks was terrible. They pulled him off the field at half time (or before) and then didn’t select him. So he walked straight out of the All Blacks and into half a game with the Highlanders (who weren’t exactly crash hot). When he finally got back into the team he was playing properly again.
More interesting is England’s selection of Dixon at scrum half. He’s not as good a runner as Youngs or Care, not as physical and not as good a kicker, but they choose him because he’s fastest to the breakdown and fastest to move it by passing or running. I suspect the coaching staff are talking to his replacements about it too.
We were aggressive and had good leg drive in the tackle contest which made a big difference to us. I thought we dominated the game, it was only that pillock Pollock that kept the opposition in it at all. Geez he was tough on us – strewth!
This will be no surprise to anyone – but Israel Folau was just unbelievable under the high ball. We all thought he was pretty good, but he hit a new level. He seems to have overcome the difficulty – and I don’t how – whereby opposition teams chasing the ball want to take your space. They get past the ball to stop you getting to it. But he managed somehow though to get right over the top of them. Did he even drop a ball?
The good thing about the performance is that everyone contributed, like our second rowers did example. Simmons tries all the time but I thought he was much more effective in this match. It may have been his body position in contact but I thought that added to his consistently good attitude he was more effective than usual.
James Horwill continues to improve. He’s not back to his best, but is going in the right direction. The difference between him four years ago and now I think is all about support lines. If he gets them right again like he used to you’ll end up having big blokes running onto the ball at depth. That’s where he made the impact previously and I’d like to see him do it again.
The backrow was really good. I thought that Fardy and Mowen showed massive urgency around the tackle contest and pressured the halfback – catching him with the ball or forcing him to make a poor pass. That’s something you need from all your forwards in those tight situations.
Hooper was once again excellent. He never plays anything less than excellently. Deserved man of the match.
The only thing that worries me out of last Saturday is Kuridrani’s potential suspension. What might get him out of it is that other players were in there keeping the top half of the O’Mahony down and the guy’s head and shoulders were already on the ground. Fingers crossed.
Every player needs to fulfill the traditional requirements of their roles well. People will say “oh no, they game’s changed considerably, forwards have to make more running contribution now than they did then.” This is absolutely untrue.
There were no better running second rowers in the game than Colin Meads, Dick Thornett or Frik Du Preez. They were running players who would not be running anymore in today’s game then they were yesteryear. The same with front rowers, I mean Wilson Whineray scored a try from 40 metres out!
All of those things were always true and are still true now – you have to fulfill the core tenets of your position.
For me the most exciting thing that happened over last week (although perhaps it’s slowly been happening for a few weeks now) was that we saw an improvement in our individual players in the specifics of their positions.
As a result, we played well. More please!
