Irrepressible Tangent

Wallabies

Oh how the wheels of the rugby world turn. South Africa have gone from being World Champions, to defeating the All Blacks in New Zealand, to being on the verge of a hat-trick of home losses. The Wallabies have gone from being bundled out in the quarter finals of the Cup, to a team with new hope after the appointment of a new coach and a run of victories. They then flipped back to a team that doesn’t perform on the road but now it is attempting back to back victories in South Africa – at altitude no less. Not only that but they have a strong chance of winning back the Tri-nations title, with only the small matter of a Brisbane date with some team called the All Blacks still to come.

After last weeks test, one wonders what we will see from the Springboks. If they had any belief remaining in their camp it surely now would be smashed. That being said the Boks are a proud rugby nation, who this week have had to deal with talk of dissention in the camp, dissatisfaction with the coach and the style of rugby being played, and you can guarantee the men in green will be looking to have Wallaby for dinner.

Physically the South Africans were outplayed. Their team structure (with the lack of a specialist number 7) didn’t allow them to control the breakdown. Critically, given their quest for size in the pack, they couldn’t physically intimidate either. As true as it was that the Aussies struggled to get over the advantage line at times, the Boks couldn’t quite seal the deal and create turn-over ball. Even though they were on the back-foot, time and again the Wallabies were able to get a clearing kick away allowing them to win the battle for field position. When this is combined with the return to form of the Australian line-out, and a scrum which more than held its own, one can see why the Boks seemed to lack penetration.

Wallaby selections for this game are aggressive. Adam Ashley-Cooper will add to the kicking game while Tamana Tahu brings different abilities to inside centre as the replacement for the injured Berrick Barnes. The danger for Tahu is that he may attempt to overplay himself and risk being isolated in attack and turning the ball over. That being said, his individual brilliance will pose new issues for the Boks rush defence. Totafu Polota-Nau gets a start in the most important game of his career. Expect South Africa to exert maximum pressure at line-out time given his inexperience and the new line-out jumpers chosen by the Wallabies.

Given the selections two things are critical for Australia. First they must start well. This will take the crowd (a little) out of the game and allow the new players to keep composure and gain confidence. Secondly, they must be close at the 60 minute mark. The bench the Wallabies take into this Test must be one of their best in many, many years with players capable of making an impact in many positions. The team must be close enough to allow their injection to be match winning.

For the cynics out there, do any Wallaby fans want to return the favour to Jake White (former Springbok coach)? Maybe the Aussies could send out a ‘B’ team against the green machine who no doubt will be looking to inflict major damage on Australian Tri-nations hopes. Maybe we rest them, send the boys back to Brisbane and wait for the game that really counts!
It is appropriate to make some comment on the judiciary proceedings of the week. All football codes have issues with their judiciary system, rugby is no different. Unfortunately the rugby version is almost farcical. The fact is if you commit an offence at international level your sanction must be a loss of playing privilege at the same level – not a suspension for 4 weeks in which you miss 1 international. As for the suspension of Rocky Elsom (now overturned) all that matters is consistency. If his actions were worthy of a penalty and a week suspended, then surely he should have been given a yellow card. Similarly the actions of CJ Van Der Linde were worthy of a red card. In any event if Elsom’s actions were worthy of a suspension we will see lots of them in line-outs.

Even though the result won’t decide the Tri-nations, Australia must perform well to maintain its positive momentum. Regardless of the outcome, the men in Black are waiting.

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Tags: Rugby Union, Springboks, Tri-Nations, Wallabies

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.