It was Barack Obama’s catch-cry in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election and it sure galvanised his supporters at the time.
‘Yes We Can’ should be the Wallabies’ mantra leading into Sunday’s Semi Final match-up with the All Blacks.
That’s because last weekend the Wallabies showed they possessed the mental toughness to overcome serious odds, and they surely were stacked against them in the Quarter Final.
The pressure of overwhelming possession and territory was telling but the will to defend to the death in this case took precedence.
Really, if anyone has a chance of tipping the ABs out of the RWC it’s the Wallabies. How sweet would that be at the home of NZ rugby?
And do you think they’re concerned about having to play the team they always thought they’d have to confront at the business end of the tournament? And without Dan Carter and a potentially crocked Richie McCaw?
And it’s the team with the coach that many of them rate higher than their own whom they’ve seen rebuild the Wallabies into a force to be reckoned with right at the peak of the cycle. You betcha! They think we’re a real dangerous pack of bastards….
Realistically, the All Blacks pose a different kind of threat to what we saw the Bokke dish up last weekend.
Sure, physicality at the breakdown (as always) and a sound set piece, but a backline that can tear anyone to shreds — and they can do this off the smell of an oily rag.
They only need a few badly directed kicks to go their way or a turnover or two, and you’ve got Ma’a Nonu breathing down your neck in broken play. Scrambling defence: warning, code red!
When was last time anyone held the All Blacks tryless in a Test? It was actually in a 2004 loss to the Wallabies in Sydney (18–23).
That’s seven years since they last haven’t scored a try in a Test match. Wow….
In the past ten years, there have been only two Tests where they haven’t crossed for a try, and only one result in single figures. This was the 5–18 loss to the Springboks in August in Port Elizabeth, and that score was obviously a try.
You’re getting the drift, aren’t you? Sure, it’s easy — all we have to do is score more points than them on Sunday….
The stats are saying that they’ll score tries, no matter how good our defence is. We’ll need to score meat pies against them to win.
That means putting our best try-scoring combination on the park to win this thing without degrading our defensive capability.
But why would you change a winning combination? I don’t think Deans will make changes unless injury-forced.
My feeling is that if KB is out, AAC will go to fullback as the next best 15 available, and Rob Horne would probably come into contention for the outside centre position.
As for Pat McCabe — well, who knows what’s happening with his shoulder, but it’s clearly an issue. After a great defensive effort last Sunday I’m picking Deans will leave him there (if fit).
For me, all the talk about dumping Quade Cooper is just not realistic. I’d leave Cooper at 10, bring in Barnes and Horne in the centres (they at least play for NSW together some of the time, and are defensively strong) and move AAC to fullback.
You’ve really got to have QC there if you want to seriously use your backline. But for him to be effective he needs front foot ball. Cue, the forwards.
Faingaa and McCabe are too much alike — great defensively, but if you want to score five pointers you’re going to have to do something else.
Likewise, our kicking game last week was poor. There’s probably only one serious option to potentially fix that and that’s Barnes, as we saw later in the Bokke game. It may be that McCabe starts but in my view Barnes will be needed earlier.
I wouldn’t make any changes to the forwards but they need to find their Brisbane mindset and improve significantly on last week. There was a fair bit of luck involved in that win.
If we didn’t have potentially suspect backs I’d be keen to return to a 5/2 split on the bench and include both Higginbotham (a dynamic attacker) and Matt Hodgson. What happens if Pocock gets injured like Brüssow?
What else is against us? The so-called hoodoo attached to Eden Park, where we haven’t won since 1986. The law of averages suggests that this ‘record’ must be getting closer to being broken. We haven’t beaten NZ in-country since 2001 — likewise.
Yes we can. You bet we can. Lets roll the c…ts!
Update – Team Named: 15. Kurtley Beale or Adam Ashley-Cooper 14. James O’Connor 13. Adam Ashley-Cooper or Anthony Faingaa 12. Pat McCabe 11. Digby Ioane 10. Quade Cooper 9. Will Genia 8. Radike Samo 7. David Pocock 6. Rocky Elsom 5. James Horwill 4. Dan Vickerman 3. Ben Alexander 2. Stephen Moore 1. Sekope Kepu. Reserves: 16. Tatafu Polota-Nau 17. James Slipper 18. Rob Simmons 19. Ben McCalman 20. Luke Burgess 21. Berrick Barnes 22. Anthony Faingaa or Rob Horne.
Note: Beale given until Sunday, otherwise replaced by Ashley-Cooper, in turn by Faingaa and Horne on bench. Same team except Sharpe is replaced by Simmons (no 100th Test this time).
