It’s nice to be wrong.
I said last week that there was no way the Wallabies could win the game. Of all the ways I could have dreamed of, scoring seven tries was about as far from my imagination as possible!
For the Wallabies’ first try (video below) there are a couple of things worth pointing out:
1. Tevita Kuridrani took the ball at second receiver (inside centre) powerfully creating front foot ball
2. Will Genia delivered the ball straight from the ground to create the space and the try was scored.
Two recurring themes of discussion in this column of late!
Last week I was critical of both Cooper and Genia and in the first half they both played much, much better. In the second though, Will was almost back to his ordinary self of recent days; in the 72nd minute, he picked the ball off the ground, backed away and got caught. In one incident in the clip we see him at his best, in this one we see him looking ordinary.
Cooper played really well and made the difference. He hasn’t played this well for a long time and even made a few tackles to boot! Instead of playing forwards off the halfback, we were playing 10 off 9 and forwards off of 10. The way he hit the ball flat put huge pressure on the Argies defence and it showed. Seven tries!
Overall I thought it was an excellent display from the Wallabies. Not just in terms of technique and accuracy, but also in terms of guts. In the 12th minute when Argentina had all those successive scrum feeds five metres from our line – that won the game for us and took a lot of ticker.
Perversely, I actually thought the referee taking Slipper off did us a favour. Even though he played well, I’m not sure that if he’d stayed on we could have diffused that. Benn Robinson ability to up inside the tight head and drive the scrum around forcing the ball out the side relieved the pressure.
It was a massive period in the game and could well have decided its outcome. It took a lot of courage, application and commitment to win it.
I thought that Tevita Kuridrani – he’s not the done deal yet, there are some rough edges – continues to show what I’d like to see from him at inside centre: lines of run, acceleration, size power are all there. He’s shown enough to see he could be a real plus for us.
I thought that our commitment at chasing the ball rather than reloading into pre-determined positions was good resulting in more offloads and re-cycles. If you’re going to get seven tries you’ve got to do a lot of work around the tackle – which is where the opportunities come: offloads (which means you’ve got support players there accurately) or quick recycles (where the support players are there immediately) mean you are going to see more opportunities.
That was a big, big step forward for us.
There is no doubt our scrum improved under Slipper and Alexander – despite being under a lot of pressure. You wouldn’t want to rely on them for the next few years. We still need to do more, but there was real improvement.
While we didn’t get ascendancy, we’d have to be happy that a scrum that gave the All Blacks a run for their money didn’t ultimately prevail.
Physically (and heaven only knows what we have to do) if we could ever get the most out of Kepu potential-wise, it would be a massive plus for us, he is one hell of an athlete. Mind you in a year’s time we’ll almost certainly have Palmer back too. A year in France should do him good.
I actually think that Saia Fainga’a – and my impression of him having bulked up – has improved this year. He’s always been a willing worker but his extra weight is getting more out of his work rate.
The lineout was just average but reasonable. I was disappointed with our second rowers for their impact in their ball carries.
I don’t think either of our second rowers are world-class players. You would want Rob Simmons to be a world-class player because he is definitely genuine in the work he puts in. His cover tackle in the second half was a gem – requiring determination and courage as well as speed. But alas, I don’t think he’ll make the world-class grade.
Tying down Sitaleki Timani to play in Australia will be an important move one way or another. Overall, we still have to sort out our front five.
The back-row were back in it. Ben Mowen again played his quality game. Scott Fardy was much better this week – giving a strong performance.
Just as Kuridrani is not the finished article, neither is Joe Tomane, both of whom perhaps over-read a few times in defence. But Kuridrani made a lot of tackles – which is sometimes more telling than the number you miss as they show how much work you’re putting in. Both of these players did enough of the difficult things to show they’ve got what it takes, and now you’ve just got to knock off the rough edges.
The Wallabies could have scored more as well. In the 68th minute Will kicked on the third or fourth phase. It was a good kick towards the right touch-line – it chewed off a lot of ground – but there was freedom and space with real opportunity and it’s clear that we have guys who can beat a tackle and get over the try line.
We can say we’re happy – it was a lot of points to score in a Test match and the most we’ve scored against Argentina. These guys are definitely a tier one ranked side these days. It’s a seriously good win.
However I thought they exposed us frequently and at will with the inside pass. It seems to be they’ve exposed it as a weakness of ours; that we don’t cover with the man on the inside. It’s a relatively easy fix though and we should be happy they’ve showed it.
I thought Israel Folau was fantastic in attack, a very difficult customer to contain. But we really do need to do something about his defence – so many times he just doesn’t lay a hand on someone. It’s so interesting to me how 90 per cent of league outside backs are dreadful defenders – and yet we all talk about how good league defenders are. You’d have to think Folau could overcome it though with his athleticism and size.
Full marks to the coaching staff – the turn around, especially in the backline attack was astonishing. If these were race horses the stewards would have been already in place!
I thought the other game was outstanding. Full marks to NZ scoring a truck load of points – even more impressive because this South African team is playing better rugby than any South African team I’ve seen. Considering the sending off they had in the first match and to lose Bryan Habana in this match, they played out of their skins.
New Zealand have set the standard and we just need to reach it – we’ve done it before. With such a big turn around, at least we’re now headed in the right direction.
