When during the Wallabies’ Munster match Irish rugby commentator George Hook said “I have to say this is the worst Wallaby team I’ve ever seen,” you might have given it some credence coming so close after the comprehensive test defeat by the Poms at HQ.
The only Australian player in the match who enhanced his reputation that day and put pressure on the selectors was Munster’s Paul Warwick. The local’s played with craic, we played with programmatic specificity?
Robbie thought there were positives to our performance but then he probably thinks Elvis still hasn’t left the building?
They say you’re only as good as your backup. Our 2nd XV defeat of Leicester the week previously suggested that it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
It’s really a pity that we can’t arrange tours to include at least four or five midweek matches to help with our development – oh, you know, like it used to be but shorter?
You would have to say that winning four out of five test matches suggests that in this arena the tour was a success.
The Honkers All Black victory was a highlight, especially coming back from behind at 24-12 to win at the death.
The ten match losing streak has now been broken; however, you would have to question whether the value of this win is the equivalent of a success against them at home or in NZ.
I was at the match and although both sides committed their top players there was a sort of exhibition feel to the game.
Here were the beginnings of our scrum yips as it creaked and groaned against quality opposition. Conversely, our fleet-footed outside backs looked a million bucks.
A poor three from eight kicking performance caused us some heartache and, as it turned out, facilitated the eventual demise of Gits from the test side.
On to The Land of Our Fathers with some confidence, although the Wallabies’ penchant for not being able to string together two wins in a row was always in the back of our mind.
More scrum Yapps as the Welsh hwyl had their boyos, the Jones’ Hair Bear in particular, extracting half a dozen front row penalties against us.
Enter KB, man of the moment, or in fact, man of the match. What he can’t do with a football? It should have been a try – the chip and chase – catch – grubber, but unfortunately a knock-on at its climax.
The 25-16 win was all well and good with Dave Pocock a standout but there were question marks over our physicality at the breakdown, notwithstanding the scrum woes.
Importantly, JO’C took over the kicking duties from Gits and did the business.
The English test surprised the hell out of everyone. It was as if the jerseys were swapped before the match, not after.
The scrum speculation prior to the game had the Pommy press in a lather but, as it turned out, we only operated a virtual scrum because we were penalised at every engagement.
The main game was that we were blasted off the park at the breakdown and the Pom attack operated with width and depth.
They were bewildering because we’ve never seen them with this disease before?
Our defence was just appalling and we missed at least 33 tackles. Blücher at Waterloo would have done a better job than this.
Unlike the “Syd-er-ney” Olympics, which according to Juan were the “best ever”, this result was the worst ever.
Thespian Toby Flood kicked one hundred from one hundred, or maybe it could have been nine from nine…. We kicked f*ck-all!
Limping off to Munster for a provincial jaunt we ended up needing CPR. Not that this is unusual in Limerick: “There was a Wallaby named Tucky, whose talent was described as just f….” ?
It was said that in The War, Italian tanks had six reverse gears and one forward, just in case they were attacked from behind! That’s a fairly apt description of the Wallaby scrum, actually.
Physics question: Can an object’s velocity reverse direction when its acceleration is constant? Yes, if it’s Ben Alexander!
The Italians threw the Wallabies off their game right from the start by playing the second verse of Advance Australia Fair. Shit, who knows the words to that?
Berrick had been promoted from Il Dirtio’s to Numero Uno. Apart from a scrum, the Azzurri offered absolutely zero in Florence. They were spoilers and eventually succumbed to Wallaby pressure.
It was an ugly win, the Wallabies tried too hard and Renaissance Man Shmoo’s ‘tattoo di blerta‘ was such a masterpiece I was surprised it wasn’t on public display at the Uffizi Gallery.
Les Bleus are the reigning 2010 Six Nation’s Champions and weren’t they a disappointment. Sure, early in the second half it looked like we were in some strife.
Behind 16-14 and with our scrum in flagrante delicto (sorry, that’s Italian for f*cked) Le Frog was on the up.
However, just prior to that The Myth Sloth was yellow carded for repeatedly Le Fusing and Le Chat came on. Jimmy Slipper switched to tighthead and all was well in Les Pilier land.
Le Chat scored, Sanchez scored and les gates opened up….
59-16 says they were merde and we were magnifique. Not only were our outside backs brilliant but the forwards muscled up at the breakdown, we were great at the lineout and the restarts were a feature.
The Frog selections were way off beam and in the end we had far too much speed and creativity for them.
One of the features of this tour has been a consistent First XV squad which has allowed the test match 22 to settle and establish combinations.
We’ve played No’s 1, 4, 6, 9 and 12 in the IRB world rankings and only lost to No 4. In anyone’s estimate, that’s a success.
Let’s hope the ARU season review delivers a plan to fix the scrum. Even though we’ve won test matches without one, it’ll be an essential element for RWC competitiveness.
