Don't despair - fitter Wallabies might rise from last in Tri Nations rankings SPIRO ZAVOS
June 29, 2010
.The famed Australian writer Tom Keneally once described the intense build-up to a big sporting occasion as the foreplay before the climatic event itself is played out. The June Tests in Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, in this context, can be seen as the foreplay for the real rugby thing of the Tri Nations series.
I've sometimes suggested that the Tri Nations is harder to win than the World Cup. There is an element of exaggeration in this in that by definition only three nations can win the Tri Nations. And, in theory, the 20 nations competing in a World Cup tournament can win it. In fact, only one nation outside of the Tri Nations powers has won a World Cup. That was England in 2003. And in that year, England did not have to defeat the All Blacks. South Africa won the 2007 RWC tournament without defeating either the Wallabies or the All Blacks. But to win the Tri Nations one of the teams has to defeat the other two national sides, the strongest sides in world rugby.
Even allowing for the loss through injury of their incomparable halfback Fourie du Preez, one of the greatest players in the history of rugby in my view, the Springboks on the evidence of their June Tests results might be even stronger this season than they were last year.
The All Blacks are a side in transition. Their squad contains six players who made their Test debut this season. Many of these new players have the X-factor, those dynamic skills bring match-breaking plays to their game. The issue for the All Blacks is whether these X-factor players, such as Israel Dagg, Victor Vito and Rene Ranger, can be fitted into the playing squad and then perform at Test level.
This brings us to the Wallabies. There was a splendid victory at Perth when the back line ripped England apart virtually every time they ran the ball. But the two Tests after Perth, the loss to England in Sydney and the victory over Ireland in Brisbane, showed a Wallabies side that lacks mongrel and ball-running in the forwards, and coherence and effective finishing in the backs. On the strength or, more accurately, the weakness of these last two performances there can be no argument with Robbie Deans's assessment that "we are still the third-ranked side" in the Tri Nations tournament.
There is justifiable doom and gloom about the chances of the Wallabies improving on this ranking. But the Australian way is to be optimistic in the spirit of the goldminers forever expecting that "flash in the pan" to rescue a bleak situation.
One flash is that the Wallabies conditioning coach will monitor the entire squad with GPS tracking devices that will record the intensity of their training. It is an open secret that many Waratahs and Brumbies players shirked their full training obligations in the Super 14. An unfortunate feature of the Wallabies, this season and last season, has been the way they have faded in the second half of Test matches. A fitter Wallabies team might convert those half-time leads to full-time victories.
A second flash is the Reds factor. The Queensland side opted for a high-speed and high-skills style run by the brilliant halves Will Genia and Quade Cooper. A fully fit Genia, later in the Tri Nations, will give Cooper, the star of this year, the space to put into action the Reds' high-octane game for a fit Wallabies. When the Wallabies squad is announced on Thursday, too, some of the Reds who missed out on selection for the first 2010 squad should be included. It needs to be remembered that the Reds defeated the top three South African teams in the Super 14 and thrashed the Crusaders as well.
Is there a Reds dawn for the Wallabies in all of this?
spiro@theroar.com.au
