Dwyer's View

SOS For Dan Vickerman

Tokyo, Japan

Saturday 31st October 2009

All good international rugby teams need a quality second-row. South Africa, currently the world’s top-ranked team, have Botha and Matfield. New Zealand fielded Haden and Whetton for many years and ruled the roost. Australia have, during recent periods of dominance, been able to call on a succession of world standard locks, like Eales, Morgan, Giffin, Harrison and Vickerman.

The Wallabies have no pairing of this standard in their squad and, as they discovered, you can’t control a game and or impose yourself without them.

It is time for the ARU to eat humble pie and send out an SOS to Dan Vickerman. He is world class – a great lineout technician and scrummager, who always makes his bulk felt at the tackle contest. We can do with all of those qualities. He is currently playing club rugby in the Guinness Premiership, with Northampton, and will therefore be match-fit. It should not be outside of Australian rugby policy to select players, if they wish, who are playing outside of Australia. Of all of the major rugby nations, only Australia and New Zealand follow such a policy of non-selection, so it’s hardly an earth shattering move. The long-term value that his inclusion would bring to this young, developing squad would be immense.

Anyway back to the game.

Despite the fact that the score remained close, with Australia only one score behind, until the 72^nd minute, I felt that New Zealand always held the upper hand. Try as I might throughout the match, I couldn’t see how Australia were going to be able to win. I couldn’t see any area of dominance that they could exploit and eventually gain some ascendancy.

The All Blacks were clearly superior at the lineout – and it’s a long while since they’ve been able to say that. The Wallabies were so poor here, that loose-head prop, Ben Robinson, at approx. 177cms, was our equal top performer with two clean wins!

The scrum was an even contest until Tatafu Polota-Nau came on and his presence gave the Wallabies a late edge. Before that, the All Blacks didn’t even need the support of flankers Richie McCaw and Adam Thompson, who sent most of the match illegally dangling of the edge of their scrum. Never mind, this wasn’t the only law of the game which referee Mark Lawrence saw fit to ignore. 

The Wallabies at last provided numbers at the tackle contest. It has taken them the complete season to understand this priority and now their coaching staff can move forward to the execution of the quality technique required to be effective. We were way too high, had no leg-drive and seemingly no interest in getting past the ball, to provide quality possession for the attack. It’s no surprise then that we rarely looked like threatening the All Black defence.

Our defence had no sting; their’s often caused turnovers with the impact of the tackle. On three occasions, with the Wallabies attacking in the five-metre zone, their big hits jolted the ball loose. There were no such results for us. More often than not, good footwork and powerful running took All Black attackers halfway, at least, through our defensive line allowing the pass or the off-load. Conrad Smith’s try was a perfect example. Their ability to scramble back in defence was also admirable, with Jimmy Cowan very much to the fore.

Our kicking game was poor again and, on more than one occasion, the commentary team used the term “pop gun”. Poor second-half clearing kicks gave the opportunities for Conrad Smith’s converted try and yet another penalty from Dan Carter – a ten point haul in a thirteen point win for New Zealand.

The All Black backline, at times, looked dangerous, with threats pretty much across the park. On the other hand, the Wallaby backs lacked fluency. They seem incapable of maintaining any depth or shape, big problems for a group that doesn’t display loads of passing accuracy. Centres frequently over-run the fly-half; wingers frequently over-run the centres.

We’ve at last found someone who can provide a quality kick chase of a quality restart, but it seems a bit tough if Digby Ioane has to do it on both sides of the pitch. How hard can this possibly be anyway?

Australia actually had their chances and went close on a number of occasions. In the eight or so minutes, just before half-time, with Sivivatu in the sin-bin, Peter Hynes got one try and Wycliffe Palu went horribly close to another. On this latter occasion, McCaw was clearly not bound (yet again) at the scrum and was able, therefore, to do just enough to allow Cowan and Carter to prevent the touchdown.

With over a quarter of the game still to play, and Australia attacking under New Zealand’s posts, Nonu deliberately knocked the pass down. Tom Donnelly then deliberately played the ball in an off-side position, denying the Wallabies possession. Mark Lawrence inexplicably ruled a scrum for Nonu’s knock on and then rubbed salt into the wound by penalising Australia on the feed at the scrum. This denied Australia a vital opportunity with the score at the time 20-16 to New Zealand.

At the other end of the pitch, about five minutes later, the referee ruled a five metre scrum feed to New Zealand after they had touched down. For me, this ruling could only have been (i) a try to the All Blacks, if Australia had played the ball back, or (ii) a five metre scrum to the Wallabies, if New Zealand had played the ball forward. 

I was disappointed with the referee. As you can see from above, I don’t think that the Wallabies could have won, but I do think that they deserve a much better application of the laws of the game than I saw last night.

All Black forwards were constantly allowed to roll around the attacking Wallaby ball-carrier to finish on the ground, often in numbers, beyond the ball. This blocked arriving Wallabies from the ball and resulted in turnovers of possession.

After having spent the season watching All Black loose-head prop, Tony Woodcock, with his left hand on the ground at nearly every scrum, prior to this match, I was dismayed when referee Lawrence penalised Ben Robinson for momentarily having his hand down. He hadn’t found fault with this previously, but now he found it worth (yet another) three points to Dan Carter.

It must have been gut wrenching for the Wallabies to see the scoreline go from a deficit of four to a final thirteen, with four finicky, at best, penalties in the last twenty minutes.  This team doesn’t lack courage. They were well beaten, I thought, but hung in determinedly, and, if a couple of things had gone their way, they may well have gone close. They did well to cover their many shortcomings, but they won’t be able to continue that for much longer.

Remedies; (i) get Dan Vickerman, (ii) get George Smith back at #7, David Pocock may be able to cover for #6,7 &8, (iii) find a fullback, Turner and Mitchell can both play there and they can kick and tackle!

Man of the Match. Clearly Brad Thorn. He did plenty, a lot not entirely legal, but his tackle on James O’Connor, after chasing back some 30-40 metres , says it all.

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