Bob Dwyer Rugby Workshops

The ongoing comparison between the North and the South continued over this weekend – with the usual result! Only Scotland carried the flag for the North with their admirable victory over Argentina, as Ireland, then England, and finally, France, went down to their highly rated Southern Hemisphere opponents.

In the week leading in to the Australia-England match, my opinion of ‘our’ chances was the popular topic of conversation amongst my many English friends living in Australia. “This looks a very good England team”, was my consistent reply. “They played very well in their loss to France, in the Six Nations, and they look to me like a team on the rise. They will surely develop in the image of Martin Johnson. The Wallabies will need to play well, to be in with a chance.”

As usual, my predictions were sadly astray!

I thought that England were good in the set-plays of scrum and lineout and scrambled back in defence most of the time, but were very average elsewhere. Remember that this was a Wallaby team decimated by injury. They were without eleven (11) players – including five (5) front-row forwards – who would, in my opinion, have been in the twenty-two man squad for this match. Robinson, Alexander, Kepu, Moore, Poloto-Nau, Horwill, Higginbotham, Palu, Genia, Giteau, Ashley-Cooper were all unavailable for selection, and their unavailability should have given England a rare opportunity for victory in Australia. That they were not able to do so, or even to impose themselves for significant periods, must be cause for grave concern.

Indeed, England’s performance highlighted for me one of the reasons why rugby remains one of the truly great sports which engages so many of us with such fervor. The selection of the team, the balance of the team, is crucial. There are many tasks to be performed, many contests to be fought, and different skills are required for each. Indeed, the skills required for one task are frequently the opposite of those required for another, and herein lies the problem with the ‘balance’ required.

England’s front-row were excellent at the scrum – although the inability of the refereeing trio to insist on the laws of the game gave them some assistance – but the very assets which they brought to the scrum contest made them extremely vulnerable in the defensive line. Their lack of pace and agility were frequently targeted by the Wallaby attack and numerous line-breaks – and three tries – resulted. The totally inexperienced Wallaby front-row were decimated in the set-piece, but made valuable contributions elsewhere, both in attack and defence, and even late in the game. At another time, England’s scrum dominance will give them the victory – indeed scrum superiority has been at the very core of many successes in major matches this year – but additional qualities are required at the very top level.

Australia’s attack was much improved. Last week, against Fiji, I commented that their attacking success derived solely from the ability of the individual – this is not bad, mind you, but more is required against top quality opposition. This week, their attack asked a lot more questions. The ball-carrier attacked the defence with options, sometimes with three or four. The lack of speed and agility in the England defensive line meant that they were forced to commit more numbers to the line as the game wore on. This left space in behind which the Wallabies were easily able to exploit. Quade Cooper delivered some nice touches here but that, after all, is an essential part of the fly-half role. He is progressing well and, obviously, has some rare qualities.

Last season, on occasion, I was scathing in my comment about the lack of coaching influence from the Wallaby coaching team. I think that this criticism was deserved – I want my coaches to correct errors in technique and, thereby, to influence performance. On this occasion, I must congratulate them. The improvement in the basic techniques required for quality scrum-half play has been remarkable for Luke Burgess. The coaches must be given credit. All quality play requires quality technique. In the case of Luke Burgess, he now delivers the ball directly from the ground, without a step or a ‘wind-up’. He is immediately behind the ball at most of the tackle contests. I’ll be very pleased when he is at ALL of them. This sounds simple. It is, but it is not common. The result was there for all to see. Burgess’ contribution was significant to his team’s victory, indeed, I thought that he was the man of the match.

I would summarise the match as follows.

The Wallaby attack was good; the England defence was average, and at times, poor.

The England attack was, more often than not, poor; the Wallaby defence was very good. Their tackling was low and decisive, with numbers to prevent off-loads and quick recycles.

All of the Wallaby backs have speed and, importantly, good footwork. A few – Cooper and Mitchell, for example - are outstanding. All of the Wallaby players were conscious of ‘keeping the ball alive’ and this contributed significantly to their performance and victory.

England, as I have already noted, were slow. They were slow off the line in both attack and defence. They were slow to realign in both attack – making for a disjointed attack, even after multiple phases - and in defence – presenting opportunity for their more agile opponents.

The Wallaby front-row played their hearts out and contributed to the maximum of their ability. Faingaa looks to me to ‘have the goods’ and should become a quality international player. I don’t have the same confidence in our props; they’re brave and willing, but that, unfortunately, is not enough. Elsom was much better and more is to come. Brown and Mumm need to show much more. All of the backs were good and, if the coaching staff continue to deliver, should become outstanding. They, the coaches, need to be brave and vigilant.

You’ve already seen that I was disappointed with England. I expected Lewis Moody to play a significant role, but this was not the case. Palmer was good and Shaw contributed. I saw Foden and Ashton debut against France and was most impressed but they were innocuous yesterday. I expected a lot from Hape, but got nothing.

Only the scrum, where, courtesy of the refereeing trio, you could do what you liked, kept them in the game. For the second penalty try, the England loose-head had his left hand on the ground and England should have been penalised! As Martin Johnson commented, “We can’t expect to get two penalty tries every week!”  Indeed!