S
Spook
Guest
I can't disgree with anything written in this article from Jones. However, I'd love to see him eat his words.
Australia's power shortage
England can expose familiar failings in the Wallaby scrum on Saturday at Twickenham - Stephen Jones
Al Baxter, the Australian prop, has won more than 50 caps, which is a tribute to his durability and courage in adversity. He will be at Twickenham on Saturday with the Wallabies. However, his presence will also be a comment on the desperate lack in Australia of props with an ounce of credibility on the world stage, because if rugby had the same procedure as boxing in saving the battered from further punishment, then Baxter would hardly have finished a match.
And this is a cold reality that Australia must deal with, because for all their new outlook, their new coach (the New Zealander, Robbie Deans), for all their muscular talents and the brilliance of Matt Giteau and Luke Burgess at half-back, this new Australia will be haunted by the weaknesses of the old, and by the feebleness of their scrum.
For a great deal of those 50 caps, Baxter?s nose has been in grass. In the 2003 World Cup final, the limitations of Baxter and the Australian scrum were blindingly obvious, to all except the referee. Andre Watson?s scandalous performance and his penalising of the superior England scrum represented a day to live in refereeing infamy and it almost saved Australia entirely.
Baxter and company staggered on to Twickenham in 2005, and another match of quite awful humiliation for the macho nation. Baxter came up against Andrew Sheridan, then new on the scene. Sheridan demolished Baxter in the scrum comprehensively, and after Baxter had collapsed for the umpteenth time late on in the game, he was sent to the sin-bin. Matt Dunning, another Australian prop whose cheerful durability always seems to be at complete variance with his effectiveness, stepped in to prop and had to be scraped off the turf at the very next scrum. He was carried off, at first with fears that he had suffered a grievous injury. Thankfully, those fears proved unfounded.
Then came the 2007 World Cup quarter-final in Marseilles. This was another match in which England?s awesome scrummaging power beat what was in all other respects a superior Australian team. This time, Sheridan and company destroyed Guy Shepherdson and company, with Baxter arriving as replacement and faring no better than normal.
Props all over the world have accused Australia of cheating their way out of their own weaknesses over the years but these three demolition jobs by England finally nailed the myth that Australia could compete up front.
There was one faint hope that they would see the light. Pat Howard, the former Wallaby centre steeped in the northern hemisphere game with Leicester, became Australia?s director of elite performance in 2006: ?We must find real scrum-magers, we must put across the idea to young Australians that scrummaging can be sexy,? he said. But he left his post and what do we find? That Baxter and Dunning are still in the Australian party this autumn.
Naturally, ground conditions and refereeing can nullify scrummage advantage. Australia have definite strengths elsewhere, notably with the advent of the imperfect but powerful Burgess at scrum-half filling the gap left by the departure of the celebrated George Gregan.
Indeed, Australia have recast their forwards successfully into the bargain. Last weekend in Hong Kong, there were superb performances from Richard Brown, the new back-row man from Western Force, and also from Stephen Moore, the hooker who looks as large and combative as the great Phil Kearns, the last world-class hooker for Australia.
And as ever, Australia will come to Twickenham with real class behind the scrum ? Berrick Barnes, the 22-year-old from Queensland Reds, often comes on to slot in at fly-half later on in the game, allowing Giteau to move to the centre. There is also a chance of a very rare successful conversion from rugby league, because Ryan Cross, formerly of Syd-ney Roosters, has also been playing well in the midfield.
Stirling Mortlock, the captain, is also playing the best rugby of a distinguished career and it is conceivable that the Wallabies now have stability at the helm because of the appointment of Deans.
He comes from a celebrated New Zealand family and is a great nephew of Bob Deans, who, so all Kiwis claim, scored a try against Wales at Cardiff in 1905 that was disallowed, allowing Wales to win. It was the most famous nontry ever not scored.
Deans has always been earmarked to coach the All Blacks and he seemed a natural choice after the 2007 World Cup campaign ended in ignominy, with the defeat in Cardiff at the hands of France.
Emotions at the time were running strongly against Graham Henry, the incumbent coach. But by the time that Deans had applied to take over from Henry, some of the torrent of public opinion had lessened. More to the point, Deans had apparently made enemies in the executive of the New Zealand Rugby Union and when it came down to it, the old guard stayed in power.
Deans, with an incredible five Super Rugby titles under his belt as coach of the Crusaders, immediately decamped across the Tasman. However, he found Australian rugby in, relatively speaking, a parlous state in terms of play and finances.
Deans and Michael Foley, his scrum guru, will again be making the most strenuous efforts in the week ahead to hide the weaknesses, and to find some way of offsetting the power of Sheridan and England.
Baxter will almost certainly be in the firing line. He is no quitter. But England and the world know that neither is he any kind of dominant figure. They will be trying to destroy the remains of his reputation again.
- Australia yesterday beat Italy 30-20, Quade Cooper scoring the decisive try in the 72nd minute
Five new Wallabies who could test England
RICHARD BROWN
The new Australia No 8 made a tremendous impression last weekend against New Zealand in Hong Kong, with some powerful running around the fringes
LUKE BURGESS
The 25-year-old from the Waratahs is something of a late developer and may be just a little short in terms of scrum-half skills. But he has a potentially awesome all-round game
STEPHEN MOORE
The best Australian hooker since the celebrated Phil Kearns, and he has a definite power in the scrum to ally to his technical proficiencies
RYAN CROSS
A convert from rugby league and at 29 years of age, time is not on his side. Yet he has shown promise as a centre, and is picking up his new sport rapidly
BERRICK BARNES
The 22-year-old from the Queensland Reds was bloodied in the World Cup and, before that, in Australian rugby league. A rich and burgeoning talent
92
The number of caps won by George Smith ? making him the most capped Wallaby flanker in history. He lies fourth in Australia?s all-time caps list, behind George Gregan (139), Stephen Larkham (102) and David Campese (101)
