Can the flower of victory surprise, growing from the bare rock of certain defeat? So recently, the silverware overflowed, as the Wallabies knocked off everyone in sight. In 2001 we were world champions, the first side to win the William Webb Ellis trophy twice. We held the Bledisloe Cup and the Mandela plate. We held the Tri Nations. And we enjoyed our first ever victory over the British and Irish Lions.
Now it’s all gone. And this Saturday we go to Auckland’s Eden Park to conclude the 2005 Tri Nations, certain competition losers for the first time since 1997. Australia is reduced to a miserable sideshow, a foil for deciding whether New Zealand’s All Blacks can take victory from South Africa’s Springboks.
It’s hard to see anything coming up for the Wallabies bar a hiding, our fifth on the trot. I’m hoping the boys can at least do better than the 50-21 massacre inflicted by the Blacks in 2003, and an improvement on the 30-13 walloping we got from this lot a few weeks ago might provoke scenes of wild celebration around my parts.
Of interest is Mat Rogers starting at fly-half. This is a move many rugby fans have been urging on Coach Eddie Jones for years. Rogers is a very good all-round footballer who has never found his position, as competent as he is in virtually every position. He has a good kicking game, is a deceptive runner with play-making skill, and had one hell of an early 2005 season with the Tahs. Luckily, NZ super-pivot Dan Carter isn’t playing. It could just work.
On the other hand, the right way to introduce the guy to the trickiest job in all rugby against the hardest team in all rugby would have been to start him in the fly-half spot at Super 12 level and then the weaker internationals. Rogers is injury prone, is going to get to know Richie McCaw very closely on Saturday, and will be lucky to make it to half-time against a rampaging Black side.
Likewise, moving George Smith to number eight is a switch many have been long urging, allowing for Rocky Elsom to balance Phil Waugh on the flanks. Australia was clearly out-muscled against the Blacks last time, and it will be interesting to see if our two great flyers together with the restored Elsom can stiffen the resistance.
Mark Chisolm has a big afternoon in front of him, replacing Dan Vickerman. Good to see Brendan Cannon back in the run-on team, and a further bonus is that the Blacks’ Jerry Collins is suspended, after a run of foul play, including taking Morgan Turinui out last time. Morgs is, incidentally, continuing his great season in being appointed vice captain (with Nathan Sharpe), and I like combining him in the centres with the exciting Clyde Rathbone. Drew Mitchell at full-back is also still one to watch.
But of course it is the Australian captain who has all the pressure on him, mostly unfairly in my view (for it is surely Coach Crazy Eddie Eyebrows Jones who has wrecked the erstwhile champions). On Saturday George Gregan reputedly joins some pommie as the most capped rugby player ever. He’s had a magnificent career. I pray this isn’t to be his ugly end.
Good luck to the poor bastards. Go the Wallabies!
There’s certainly a bit of interest in this game, if nothing else to see how the several forced positional changes go. As you say, it will be especially interesting to see how Rogers goes at fly half. We need someone as a reliable backup to Larkham. Flatley certainly hasn’t got it, and Giteau when uninjured is solid rather than injecting the necessary flair and variety into the backline. I don’t really know about (what’s his name?) Lachlan MacKay. I still reckon they should try to poach a top rugby league half or 5/8. I don’t agree with you that the games are so utterly different as to make it an impossibly difficult transition for a really talented player.
I still agree that it’s time for Jones to be shown the door (although apparently he won’t be), but I disagree on George Gregan. His time is up too. Henjak is a better bet to develop as half with a view to 2007. In fact they should have blooded him this time against the All Blacks, and started Gregan from the bench so he could make a token farewell appearance before being sent to the rugby knackery.
Very hard on the captain there Ken, I feel, although many evidently share your view.
For my money, I agree Gits is probably short of fly-half and definitely centre (good little man vs good big man logic), but I think a potentially fabulous half-back, where he’s ideally sized.
Another consideration Crazy Eddie appears to have completely overlooked is the goal-kicking job. This will go to Rogers in the first instance, even though he’s not quite top-shelf in this department and faces a tough task in Auckland. But what happens if Rogers has to be carried off, or is hooked for discovering he’s all at sea? Yes, again Eddie’s crazy stubborn resistance to selecting goal-kicking, record breaking, rookie of the year, Peter Hewat, on the bench surfaces. Tough times.
I reckon a lot of the flack Gregan has copped should be directed elsewhere. It’s very hard for any half to look good if the pack in front of him is going backwards, and anyway the backline seems far too keen on choreographed plays and also a tad lacking in pace to use such quick ball as he gets to them.
Having said that, he’s clearly not quite the dominant player he was and at his age he’s not likely to ever get back to that peak. Now would be a good time to train someone else up with the World Cup campaign in mind.
I agree with Ken on Gregan. Compare Gregan’s recent performances with that of Weepu against the Boks last week. I can’t remember the last time Gregan made an incisive run from the base of the ruck. And the number of times he has the ball pilfered/spoilt from under his nose while he’s busy arguing the toss with the ref is rather infuriating.
cs has convinced me that Jones should probably go, but I’m not sure who should replace him.
Don’t know that Lachy MacKay is quite up to test standard yet. Watching him in the S12 I thought he had very slow hands. But he is big, and has a good step.
Yeah, Lachlan had a good season for the Tahs, breaking the line pretty regularly at unexpected moments, but I feel the same Andrew – too early to put him in front of the Blacks, who could well murder him.
Once were backline.
OK, 34-24 and the the worst Wallaby losing streak in 36 years. Let’s be crystal clear about who is responsible, and it is Coach Crazy Eddie Eyebrows Jones.
Two glaring coaching mistakes cost the Wallabies this match. The first was the selection of Drew Mitchell instead of Peter Hewat at full-back. Mitchell was targeted for turnover balls by the All Blacks and they took the pill off him at will, and he cracked under the pressure to spill the ball and give the Blacks their final try. OK, he is a player with promise on his feet, but he’s not ready yet for the top class, and moreover needs to go to the gym for the off-season. I’ve pointed out before (over at Larvatus Prodeo in the post “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” of July 5) that Mitchell had a mixed game for Australia A (the alleged basis of his selection) and has simply not earned his spot over Hewat, who brained them in Australia A – scoring 25 points, including two tries, and winning the rare honour of being awarded man of the match honours despite being in the losing team.
Jones’ error in not selecting Hewat is worse than this, for Australia still scored four tries to match the Blacks on Saturday. Yes, goal-kicking was the difference. Let me repeat the bleeding obvious. In his initial year in first class rugby in 2005, rookie of the year Peter Hewat smashed the great Matt Burke’s record for the most points in a season and a match. While Mat Rogers was missing the posts on Saturday, Hewat was going over the black dot for Manly. Read about it (at http://www.rugbyheaven.smh.com.au/articles/2005/09/04/1125772398003.html) and weep – here’s one quote from the opposition coach:
“When there’s someone out there like Peter Hewat, someone with that sort of confidence who makes the right decisions and then puts in perfect kicks all day, that certainly makes a difference.”
Jones is an idiot and a fool – someone who knows everything and nothing. His second big selection blunder was to pull honest Bill Young for Matt Dunning, who played like a complete and utter dunderhead, handing over vital penalties needlessly. He should be left to stew for some time before he gets another look at test level. Again, this isn’t rocket science. I pointed out after the last Blacks match (here: http://troppoarmadillo.ubersportingpundit.com/archives/009386.html#049243) that Dunning is not a world class prop, and if a mug like me can see it, a bloke paid some hundreds of thousands of dollars to coach the team should be tripping over it. Dunning does not have the maturity, physically or mentally, to be a Wallaby, and perhaps he never will.
That said, and the blame for this loss sheeted home to where it unquestionably exclusively belongs, the Wallabies had some good performers. Mat Rogers will now have the unequivocal respect of all rugby fans for his performance at fly-half. He didn’t brain them, but he did his job very well indeed, and is without a shadow of doubt a world class all-round footballer. Captain George Gregan will also make his critics think again after a solid game. Turinui, Rathbone, Gerard, Smithy and Waugh also played well.
On the other hand, Sharpe had a poor game, spilling the ball at a crucial moment and failing to manage the line-out. Baxter and Chisolm did OK, but are not yet quite in this class. Tiquiri had a mixed game.
But let there be no mistake. This game was there to be won. Only one bloke is finally to blame for the loss, and he’s the bloke with the crazy eyebrows who should be shown the door, without further delay.
I sense a certain implied synergy in the eyebrows fixation …
Gregan made me think when he forgot to put his top on before running out onto Eden Park.
The looks on the player’s faces said it all. Per usual for decades (but a season or two some years ago) the All Black’s faces told of do or die, commitment and confidence beyond physical boundary or restraint, complete cutting eye focus, exhilaration for all those things – and the belief they were representing something. I say something, because it appears they represent more than their country out there, as though their country is an excuse for it. Nothing unusual all this for the All Blacks: it’s their natural test state.
The Australian faces have lost all that. We’ve had it sporadically in past decades: the appearance of invincibility. The least we’ve had, if not that, was the appearance of “one in, all in”. A team. Sadly, we don’t even have that: a sense of team evidence even in appearance.
This is indeed Jones’ fault. And the captain. Their combination has been a failure. One complements the other in the worst possible way. It’s an arrogance or contempt.
This is not rugby. Rugby is and always was, spiritual. It’s a game of spirit. The nature of each position serves to require and blend individual spirits into a cohesive, beautiful oneness. Fluid when required, stonewall too, sharp at momentary times.. it’s sheer greatness.
Nothing of that with these guys, and yet each man is so promising, so willing, for it to be made of them.
That’s the truly sad part.