In Green and Gold Rugby’s latest podcast Matt Rowley and Steve Timms spoke to Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie and discussed an array of issues affecting the Wallabies as they embark on their tour to South Africa and Argentina.
Tactics
McKenzie admitted that if the Wallabies were to win more Test matches then they would have to play field position more effectively meaning more kicks especially from inside their own 22.
He added: ‘The top teams are kicking… the All Blacks are kicking the most out of anyone’.
‘You’ve got to be relevant as much as you’d like to throw the ball around and we did that the first 3 tests and we ran the ball and we made more metres, had more linebreaks, more broken tackles but we also had more turnovers and we paid the price for that so we played a lot of footy but we didn’t get over the try line and we turned the ball over and they were able to play off those mistakes. You got to get that balance right’.
McKenzie denied fitness was an issue for his players who have conceded almost half their tries (9/19) in the 50-70 minute period in the first six games of the season. McKenzie admitted this was a focus point for the group but suggests it is rather the subtle changes being taken place within the structure which has caused some disruption especially after players had only been familiar with ‘one regime over the past six years’.
The scrum
McKenzie highlighted the fact that teams all around the world, including the All Blacks, were struggling to adapt to the new laws and that Australia were working hard to resolve issues in that area, saying ‘There’s been a lot of penalties and free kicks around that area of the game… It’s a frustrating aspect of the game at the moment’.
‘The new laws are causing headaches everywhere… when you watched the New Zealand South Africa game you watched the New Zealand scrum get pealed backwards in the first scrum so don’t think people aren’t battling to come to grips with it. Three of the scrum penalties last week were just for scrum putting – the ball being put into the scrum… so there’s a lot of penalties and free kicks coming out of that sector’.
‘You see scrums buffer everyday, doesn’t matter whether it’s ITM cup, they’re already starting to modify to referee’s call because they’re frustrated with the way that’s transpired… In Europe it’s the same there’s a lot of talk already about the scrum in Europe. So we’re no different to everyone else, we’re battling to find a way to go in the environment’.
‘We’re working very hard and it’s disappointing not to see the outcome of that and the effort we’ve put into it but it’s just not consistent at the moment, it’s not consistent for anyone’.
Patterns of play
McKenzie conceded that the Wallabies would have to sacrifice some of their ‘running rugby’ game plan in order to win test matches. This was demonstrated in the Test win against Argentina in which Nic White kicked more than Will Genia kicked in the previous three test matches combined. He also highlighted the benefit of having a playmaker at no.12.
‘I think where you play the game is essentially going to be in the opposition half and that’s a function of what’s working in world rugby at the moment. From our perspective I guess the difference is that we want to play but we have to play more off and we can play more off no.12 which is like a second five-eight principle… so we’re actually playing off Leali’ifano as well and we started that and that’s been successful’.
‘We’ve created width… With an extra playmaker… everyone organises their defence from the first three off the ruck so if you can get another playmaker it stretches the defence’.
‘The danger with that is that you get width but you can get lateral … The field position aspect of the game has become prevalent’.
The breakdown
McKenzie revealed the importance of having a balance in the backrow and how it impacts the breakdown and how that approach differs depending on the opposition. The breakdown is certainly going to be a focus for the Wallabies for the up coming tour especially after they were dominated by South Africa in that facet of the game a couple of weeks ago.
‘Our backrow performance is a bit different at the moment, we’re playing Fardy in there who dominated the game physically against the Argentinians breakdown, simple breakdown presence and that’s his specialty. Hooper has been providing a little bit more of the X-factor which has attributed to Australian backrows and Mowen is obviously a fetcher as well so we’ve got a couple of the best contesters in the country at the moment and have that physical presence but the balance of the backrow is different if you had Pocock, Palu and Higginbotham it’s a different balance again and those guys aren’t available so you’re adapting around what you’ve got. We’ve got the best guys for the physical contest we can muster at the moment and McCalman and some of those guys do well in those ares as well so it’s a balance’.
‘The breakdown has been important all year, it doesn’t matter what competition you’re playing in.’
James O’Connor?
The James O’Connor incident has been widely publicised in the press and McKenzie’s thoughts of the incident were inevitably going to be asked.
‘It’s disappointing for a rugby perspective no doubt about that, I spent my first part of my tenure to make sure that we got away from that sort of stuff from being in the press and actually talking about rugby, now we’re talking about, not about winning, but a least we’re talking about rugby and rugby matters… Suddenly we get plunged back into off field discipline which is not helping the game at all in terms of the marketplace or how we want the team to be perceived’.
‘It’s an important aspect – team culture – how players behave is an important part of what we do so it’s certainly not overblown in terms of an issue that needs to be dealt with’.
The tour
McKenzie hinted as to how he may decide to play against South Africa and Argentina over the next two weeks. He did not shy away from the fact that it was certainly going to be a big challenge.
‘We know both teams will be difficult to play in their own backyards. Against the Springboks we created opportunities but didn’t nail them. I don’t feel we got near our game plan against them last time so I feel like there’s so unfinished business there. You got to deal with their physicality and the things you know that are going to come at you in the game. They have a good kicking game and a good goal kicker… they are very good in structured play and it’s a question of if we can knock them out of their rhythm a bit. We were too lateral the last time we played them so we need to think how we go about that. We dealt with their maul better than other teams did. They scored four maul tries in the first Test against Argentina and one against New Zealand. They got away from us early in the game but apart from that we handled them.’
‘So if we can get an outcome there hopefully people will sit up and notice’.
