Let’s face it we have a wee bit of trouble beating Argentina. In fact last game we didn’t! That defeat handed the South Americans their first win in the Rugby Championship. EVER! Adding to a mild sense of foreboding is the average one try difference in the scores in our last six matches.
The Wallabies have tightened up the ruck area by adding Ben McCalman and David Pocock to the back row and would be hoping to improve their scrum by adding the worlds best pencil legged tighthead prop in Greg Holmes. The fact that Holmes is a far less dynamic runner than Kepu and never strays far from the tackle area probably didn’t hurt his chances either.
In the backs there is a completely new halves combination. the Waratahs pairing of Phipps at halfback and Foley at Flyhalf will combine with Matt Toomua at second five. Rob Horne’s calf injury has made way for one of Australia’s form wingers in Joe Tomane.
Argentina lost heavily to New Zealand last weekend but showed real grit to score two second half tries off mauls set up off of lineouts set up deep in All Black territory. While their forward play in tight was good their backs were largely ineffectual and lacked any real penetration. But this is exactly the type of team that Australia has trouble putting away. We look a million times better on paper but somehow always managed to get sucked into the vortex of tight forward orientated rugby.
Granted, we’ve got a hell of a lot better at forward play in Australia in the last dozen years but we still lack that… I don’t know… Smarts? Nouse? It’s hard to quantify. Whatever it is we don’t got it and I don’t know how we get it. I firmly believe we need to import some forward brains in the coaching department.
But I’m ‘Lee Granting’. Back to the test match. It’s no secret that Los Pumas will work the ball through the middle of the Australian pack. They would have watched last weeks match and noticed our poor ruck and tackle defence and think there are rich pickings there. They will be hoping for more room for their backs than the All Blacks gave them. The Wallabies will hope their restructured backrow and Holmes will shore up the ruck defence and that Pocock, McCalman and Fardy will turnover plenty of pill themselves.
The Wallaby backs should be a class above their Argentinian rivals going on last weeks display. The splicing of the Waratahs and Brumbies backs, I think, work seamlessly. Phipps’ super fast ruck pass and his combination with Foley combined with Toomua’s direct play will work wonderfully. Toomua’s already proven combination with Quade Cooper will let the Wallabies finish strongly.
The bench is one of the strongest in many years. Hooper is the form Wallabies player of the last two years. Kepu, Polota-Nau, White and Cooper are regular starters. And Sio will be a regular Wallaby for years to come.
Overall
Michael Cheika and his coaching team seem to be building something special. The result this weekend while important doesn’t look like the end goal. They have a very short time to weld a team together for the world cup and strong showings in this competition will lead a long way towards achieving that. I’m going to set aside the sense of foreboding I get every time we play a team like Scotland, Samoa or Argentina and predict a strong showing from the Wallabies.
Wallabies by 19
[one_half last=”no”]
Wallabies
1. James Slipper
2. Stephen Moore, C
3. Greg Holmes
4. Will Skelton
5. Rob Simmons
6. Scott Fardy
7. David Pocock
8. Ben McCalman
9. Nick Phipps
10. Bernard Foley
11. Joe Tomane
12. Matt Toomua
13. Tevita Kuridrani
14. Adam Ashley-Cooper, VC
15. Israel Folau
Reserves
16. Tatafu Polota-Nau
17. Scott Sio
18. Sekope Kepu
19. Dean Mumm
20. Michael Hooper, VC
21. Nic White
22. Quade Cooper
23. Kurtley Beale
[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]
Los Pumas
1. Marcos Ayerza
2. Agustín Creevy (c)
3. Ramiro Herrera
4. Manuel Carizza
5. Tomás Lavanini
6. Javier Ortega Desio
7. Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe
8. Facundo Isa
9. Martín Landajo
10. Nicolás Sánchez
11. Juan Imhoff
12. Juan Pablo Socino
13. Matías Moroni
14. Gonzalo Camacho
15. Santiago Cordero
Reserves:
16. Santiago Iglesias Valdez
17. Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro
18. Matías Díaz
19. Matías Alemanno
20. Leonardo Senatore
21. Tomás Cubelli
22. Santiago González Iglesias
23. Lucas González Amorosino
[/one_half]
Kick off Sunday 8:40am AEST
Referee: Jaco Peyper
AR1: Chris Pollock
AR2: Stuart Berry
TMO: Shaun Veldsman
