The Back Row
To put it bluntly our back row lacks balance. We knew this already, heading into the end of year tour with no Scott Fardy and Cliff Palu we were always going to have a drop off in overall performance.
During the French test we weren’t beaten by French physicality or skill but by their brains. It was clear early on that the referee Nigel Owens was letting a bit go at the breakdown. The French, ably led by Thierry Dusautoir took advantage of this, often failing to release the tackled player, slowing ruck ball for the Wallabies. They did get pinged for it a couple of times but they were also simply told to release on numerous occasions, by then the damage was done. As with all of rugby, it’s not cheating if you get away with it and the French certainly did. My main hope is that it serves as a steep learning curve for us.
One positive however is the resurgence of Ben McCalman. Often derided as a player that is consistently good at club level yet rarely effective in the test arena. With some other names absent I feel that he has used this opportunity to really show what he can do and he has been a great carrier of the ball as well as a valid option in the lineout.
McMahon was always going to take time to adjust to test intensity so I think he’s traveling reasonably well, but probably would be more effective coming off the bench. It would be good to have another lineout option too, Luke Jones would be a good candidate if Higginbotham is still injured.
While I’m not going to knock Hooper’s effort, I feel that he needs to get a bit closer to a fetcher role. With no Fardy he simply needs to redouble his efforts in that area, he may also benefit from a rest also as he’s played a phenomenal amount of rugby over the last two years. There are few players that deserve a start more than Matt Hodgson and he would bring the over the ball work we have lacked, but it is a big call to demote a captain, even if it makes sense.
