Dwyer's View

ANZ Stadium, Sydney. 22^nd August, 2009.

The great teams of the world have great players playing quality rugby. I’ve always thought that there can sometimes be a huge difference between being a great player and playing great (if you’ll excuse the poor grammar). Maybe, one speaks of natural ability and potential and the other of execution.

This was the situation last night in Sydney when several of the world’s best players -Carter, McCaw, Sivivatu,Smith, Giteau, Elsom  -  took part in an exciting and committed, but less than world class encounter. I enjoyed the contest. The score was always close. The winner was never clear. the atmosphere was tense and held the capacity crowd on the edge of their seats.

However, whereas there was pace and power in abundance, there was a total lack of quality ‘ensemble’ play. Straight running and an appreciation of its benefits have disappeared. Changes of angle and their timing and a similar appreciation of their benefits, are also absent. In one ball-carry from a Wallaby back, the line of run took the player from 17m. from touch to 7m. from touch with a gain of about 10m., and this with a three-on-one outside of him. Needless to say, this huge opportunity disappeared also.

The game of rugby, in attack, is essentially about establishing a superiority in numbers - frequently called an ‘overlap’ -  and then converting that numerical superiority to a ‘one-on-none’ for a try. There are many ways to establish this required superiority. Physical power in the tight drive, pace (including speed of ball recycle), individual running skills, are all more than useful and these were in abundance last night. Conversion of these superior numbers into the desired ‘one-on-none’ however, seemed totally beyond these acknowledged quality players.

How can this be?

The fundamentals of alignment - both width and depth – and line of run and of support are absent from these two teams; and, might I add, from most others.

Is it that these are too simple and fundamental to occupy any of our abundant practice time? Maybe this is kid-stuff, and these players graduated from this level a long time ago. Such an attitude is a grave mistake. These skills, executed with accurate technique, are the essential building blocks of quality attack. They must be well taught and constantly revised, so that they become part of your DNA – to steal a Les Kiss phrase.

The All Blacks deserved their win. They were superior in the scrum from the outset. Their lineout held its own – a rare occurrence. They were dominant in the drive and at the tackle contest. Their kicking game was leagues ahead of that of the Wallabies. Courage and commitment, added to the All Blacks total refusal to play to the law of the game at the tackle contest, kept the Wallabies in the match.

I actually started to warm to referee, Jonathan Kaplan - don’t worry, I recovered my sanity – when he consistently penalised New Zealand at the tackle contest, but, by half-time and six penalties against them, for going over/sealing off/playing the ball on the ground, I began to despair. The last such penalty, on the stroke of half-time, was under the New Zealand posts, with them running back and under severe pressure. If this is not the very definition of a yellow card for (i) repeated and (ii) cynical and (iii) in the ‘red zone’ offences, then we should dispense with the card system altogether .

How can this scenario compare with the yellow card for Richard Brown, for at worst a medium-level dangerous tackle?

Not to worry, by the second half Jonathan had sorted all this out. He obviously decided to ignore this area of the game. Full marks to the All Blacks though; they outlasted him and took what they consider their right to do exactly as they wish at the tackle contest.

Back to the areas of clear All Black superiority.

The All Black scrum was on top from the start. Tony Woodcock is an excellent scrummager and he was ably assisted by Referee Kaplan, who had clearly decided well before the game that Al Baxter was going to be the culprit. He stood on the Wallabies’ tight-head side for virtually every feed and punished Baxter to such an extent that he was subbed off, incredibly, in the 31^st minute.

Their kicking game was excellent and was supported by a good chase. Significantly they eventually won the game after a great tactical kick from the great Daniel Carter. A good chase from the All Blacks and a poor chase back from the Wallabies had the defence under all sorts of pressure. Why is the chase always more urgent than the chase back?

 The penalty was warranted and awarded and, unsurprisingly, Carter was up to the task.

On the other hand, the Australian kicking game was poor. We had two possibilities. One was a kick fielded on the full by an opponent – not to worry; Muliaina, Sivivatu, Rokocoko and Carter aren’t up to much! The other was a charge down grubber from Mat Giteau; two more in this match – this is one area that he has perfected.

We were smashed at the tackle contest. New Zealand had numbers, body position, power and go-forward. The Wallabies had a lack of numbers and scrambled manfully. Quality support play and a clear understanding of our priorities are much needed. The Wallaby forwards are much more interested in the subsequent play than they are in the reality of the here and now. No such confusion on the part of the All Black forwards however.

In the end, the Wallabies could scramble no longer. An eventual missed tackle gave the hugely talented Sivivatu a telling break and he fed Nonu for the try for a short-lived lead. They came again, as seemed inevitable, and won the game near to the final whistle.

I have long been an unabashed fan of Robbie Deans, frequently praising the quality execution of his Crusaders teams. However, the time has come for some clear improvement in the performance of his Wallaby team. I had felt that, throughout last season, we had seen the beginnings of  the development of a powerful and clinical team. At long last, I felt, we would see again a Wallaby team capable of matching physically and then outsmarting any opposition. Alas, I feel that this season we have gone backwards.

Our kicking game we were told must improve. It is however just plain awful, both in its execution and in its imagination – or lack of! Giteau, our champion player, has gone backwards. Could it be that his instinct is fighting, subconsciously, against his coach’s direction?

The role of the coach, I believe, is to assist his players to become better players. Excellent technique and the accurate application of that technique to game situations are essential elements of that task. Our assistant coaches -Jim Williams, Richard Graham and Patricio Noriega – have the responsibility to provide this. I understand that Robbie Deans, himself, takes responsibility for defence and that is going pretty well, but, as head coach, he also has responsibility for the performance of his assistants.

They are not producing the goods!

Bob Dwyer.