Bob Dwyer Rugby Workshops

It’s been a tough few weeks for the Wallabies. We’d all hoped that we could beat both the Springboks and the All Blacks in consecutive weeks – after all, we’d done it to win the Tri Nations – but it was always going to be right up there in the “real hard” class. I’d like to think that Aussies never say die and this team certainly lived up to that expectation. Phenomenal courage and determination just held the Boks at bay and the same limited the All Blacks to just one try, despite their all round dominance. All of this takes its toll.

    Wales had won loads of supporters in this World Cup with the quality and intent of their play and, indeed, many thought that they should have been in the final against New Zealand. Add the Aussie injury list to the equation and this was never going to be an easy match. The selection of the Wallabies team gave us hope. Barnes was there at last and Beale had recovered (?) from his hamstring injury. It looked like our best attacking backline.

    The Wallabies were positive from the start, with Cooper playing in his selected spot, on attack, and, for the most part, acting as first receiver for both backs or forwards runners. This is a much better arrangement and gives maximum opportunity to ask questions of the defence. It had clearly been a mistake in the earlier matches to leave our No.1 playmaker, once selected, out of the play-making role for so much of the play. The Welsh defence was holding on, but only just. I was surrounded by ex-international players and all were amazed at the performance – and previous exclusion – of Barnes. Will Greenwood, a world-class midfielder and England World Cup winner, declared the game “a one man Berrick Barnes show”.

    Disaster struck with early injuries to Beale and Sharpe, although Sharpe played on for as long as he could – and played well. The horror injury to Quade Cooper shocked and disappointed us all, both for the man himself and the team. It seemed like he was warming to his new/old role and might eventually tear the Welsh apart. Barnes was a great foil and support for Cooper – just as Greenwood was for Wilkinson in that great England team. Higginbotham had at last heeded the message from the coach that he must play closer to the ball and played excellently. We need his size and pace off the ball at the tackle and, if he continues in this role, he will become a valuable international player. A few games back, Horwill had also moved to a tighter role and is beginning to look like the Horwill who first came into the team a couple of years back. He also played well.

   After our almost unbelievable performance against the Boks in the quarter-final, I wrote about the Wallabies amazing courage and determination and one reader replied that he expected this from them in every game. Could I say in response that we expect the same from our soldiers in battle, yet occasionally we award VC’s. I know that it is stretching things a bit, but the defence against the Boks was in the “VC class”. The following games, against New Zealand and Wales, showed the same. In fact, I thought that our defence against Wales went up another level in terms of accuracy. Our tackling was low and decisive, with a second player over the top to tie up the ball. Our “reads” from outside to in were also decisive and immediate, and generally most effective.

   We had kept the dominant Boks at bay. We had restricted the equally dominant All Blacks to a single, early try and we allowed this quality Welsh attack only the 81^st minute consolation. (I’m completely ignoring the totally ludicrous decision to award the earlier try to Shane Williams!) This was the great positive for us in this campaign and will be the foundation of our success going forward. Phil Blake certainly has done the job! I cannot say the same for the other assistant coaches. I keep questioning the absence of the fundamentals of our game, especially in our attacking game. We lack “catch and pass” skills. We ignore the importance of “realignment” – Berrick Barnes understands and at one stage early in the game was frantically, but unsuccessfully, waving players into position outside him, to take advantage of an attacking opportunity. Our “support lines” are way off the mark. Cooper rarely, if ever, gets a “second touch”. Our “kicking game” is totally inaccurate – although Genia did get a final box-kick which rolled on and on, end over end, a la Nick Farr-Jones. These are not rocket science, but are absent from our game. After four years – that is a long time – our coach, Robbie Deans, must be asked to account.

  Running third in the RWC is not failure. In fact, I believe in the words, “The measure of success is not in winning or losing; it’s what you do with what you’ve got that counts.” Our failure, over the last four years, is a lack of development in the fundamentals of the game. Equally, we have made no progress whatsoever in our scrummaging, perhaps gone backwards in our lineout and make no impact at all at the tackle contest. These are things which can – and must – be fixed. The question must be asked. Do we have the right people in place to fix them?

   A few weeks back, I suggested the selection of Slipper, Moore, Alexander, Sharpe, Vickerman, Horwill (6), Elsom (8), Pocock, Genia, Barnes, O’Connor, Horne, Ashley-Cooper, Ioane, Beale – maybe for the quarter-final. After the subsequent games, it still looks worth a try to me! Selection is a vital part of the coaching role and, dare I use the term again, Deans’ pig-headedness in his continued omission of Barnes is unforgivable!

   Maybe, we could have done a little better in our finishing position. Maybe! But, certainly, we could have played better “with what we’ve got”.