Paris 2007: Bring it on!
Posted by Christopher Sheil on Friday, September 7, 2007
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Time allowing, I’m aiming to blog the Rugby World Cup, with a minimum of one post before each Wallaby match, updated with the result. For the duration, I will live in a Sydney Morning Herald free-zone, as I refuse to share the tournament with the bias of Fairfax CEO David Kirk and the loathsome Greg Growden. All rugby fans are urged to do likewise.
It felt strange. I’ve bought the Australian many times. Indeed, I bought all the Sydney and national papers daily, frequently along with papers from other states, for decades. Yet, never before have I gone out to buy, and only buy, the Australian, as I did this morning. I’m glad I did. The 20-page 2007 Rugby World Cup Souvenir Edition (not online) is of a quality well above the rubbish served up by the All Black Morning Herald earlier this week. Wayne Smith, Bret Harris and Mark Ella are a big cut above the appalling Kirk-Growden crew.
To the action. As we stand on the precipice of the 6th World Cup, let’s be clear. Australia is not expected to win its third William Webb Ellis trophy, or “Bill”. The All Blacks are, and are fully entitled to be, hot favourites. Behind them, I rate France because of the home ground advantage – provided it can get through its “pool of death”, where France faces both Ireland and Argentina. Although neither South Africa nor England can be written off, and while Wales, Ireland and the Argies are also to be fully respected, I rate the Wallabies the best outside chance.
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Following the coaching change from Crazy Eddie Jones last year, Australia’s international rugby form began to come back in 2007, when the Wallabies were the only team in the world to defeat the All Blacks. Defence is at a premium in the Cup, and the Wallaby defence is among the world’s best, if not the best. Likewise, our line-out is top class, thanks largely to Dan Vickerman (right), giving us an attacking set-piece. We also have valuable Cup-winning experience. The scrum is our weakness, but has improved such that we might now expect it to hold in top company.
The key to this Cup, I suspect, will be the contest at the breakdown. In attack, we have to offload in the tackle, or go into either rolling maul or pick and drive formations. The days of simply rolling over to set up quick phases are gone. Everyone is awake to this tactic, and hence the oppositions are refusing to commit players to Wallaby breakdowns, leaving them free to crowd our halves out. This means that we have to either keep our movements going through offloads, or purposefully force the oppositions to commit players. In defence, we must treat the breakdown as a base for launching counter-attacks.
But the grand strategies are for the weeks ahead. Tomorrow night the Wallabies face Japan in their pool opener. The bar should not be set too high. All the Wallabies need do first up is find their feet and feel out their combinations. A 20-30 points winning margin and an intact defensive performance will suffice. We can leave the 100-nil all guns blazing approach to the pool games for the All Blacks. The rhythm the Wallabies should be looking for is a gradual building of momentum through the tournament, with our standard lifting to meet the competition as it intensifies.
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Knuckles has made a smart decision in giving young Berrick Barnes a start off the bench. There’s no question that the Wallaby ace is the wizard named Stephen “Bernie” Larkham at No 10 (right). But watching Bernie play is in equal parts enthralling and nerve-wracking, given that he’s both injury prone and heavily targeted by the opposition defence. An early shower for the maestro in favour of his Cup understudy is the way to go first up, especially as Barnes won his selection despite poor form this year and needs time on the paddock. I also hope Stephen Hoiles and Adam Freier get at least the lion’s share of the second half.
After a promising 2006, Barnes’ poor recent form was almost certainly due to Queensland having had the grave misfortune of being coached by Crazy Eddie. In this light, a story about Al Baxter in today’s Australian is one of the most heartening to come out of the Wallaby camp. Like a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder, Baxter has become one of the first players to speak publicly about the harrowing experience of the Crazy Eddie era. It’s a fascinating glimpse of what I expect will be a lot more to come. With “the Wallaby Work Index” now mercifully in the bin, the “feeling amongst the squad at the moment” says Baxter, “is the best I’ve ever felt.”
The story augers well. Let the great battle commence. Go the Wallabies!
Update: Whacko! In a sensational tournament opener, Argentina smacked host nation France 17-12! Go the Pumas! The pool of death, indeed! Go Ireland!
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Update: A good Wallaby opener. 91-3 and 13 tries to – more importantly – nil. This was the leg stretch that the Wallabies needed. The rampaging Rocky Elsom (right) was a great sight. The Rock had a sensational Super 14 followed by a less spectacular Test season. Tonight, he looked set for the big Cup that he has to have. The forwards showed discipline. Smithy scored the try of the match for mine, with a tackle and a steal in which he freakily never left his feet. So far, so excellent.
Update: Justin Harrison assesses the Wales match.
Update: Growden-Haters Unite! You can sign the Bone Growden Petition here.
This entry was posted on Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 1:21 PM and filed under Sport - rugby.
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Have a good one, Chris.
We certainly have the defence – what was it? the final 12 minutes non stop defending a huge onslaught from the heavy South Africans, hit after hit. Amazing.
One thing which is invigorating about this Cup is that for Australia to win, without the likes of a points machine Matt Burke or overly dominating forwards, the players have to rise to higher levels within themselves, and they have to do extraordinary things. No better place than France for that to happen, as we expect the unexpected from ourselves as well.
And watch Mortlock all but die on the paddock for the honour of it.
Posted on 07-Sep-07 at 2:52 pm | PermalinkThe “Wallaby Work Index”, eh? It certainly explains some of the bizarre, constipated rugby the team played under Eddie Jones. Of course, if you have to drill a team to keep most of the pigs lined out across the field in defence rather than committing themselves at the breakdown (and you certainly do to combat the All Blacks), then it also makes sense to drill into them some method of making sure that the less nimble and creative tight forwards realise that they’re nevertheless supposed to keep out of the backline play in attack. But surely there are ways of doing that which don’t simply require tight forwards to be told that they’re not allowed to attack or even touch the ball in the open!!! Maybe instead we need a rule that says props and hookers aren’t allowed to be coaches because there’s too big a risk that they’ve suffered irreparable brain damage from their playing days. Then again Michael Foley seems quite sensible, and I played under Slaggy Miller at Warringah Green Rats and he certainly wasn’t a brick short the load despite packing into more scrums than almost anyone. So maybe it’s just Eddie.
Posted on 07-Sep-07 at 2:53 pm | Permalinkif you are lucky the Wallabies might get past the quarterfianls in this mickey mouse cup. This is assuming they leave the nightclubs at 3 am.
Posted on 07-Sep-07 at 3:36 pm | PermalinkI don’t think France are as good a chance as you think. They let in 4 or 5 penalties per game against England and Wales, which is fine when you are scoring a try every 20 minutes at the other end.
When you are playing the southern hemisphere teams, you won’t be scoring those tries, and then each penalty you give away will be a boulder to carry, and ultimately if after 80 minutes you have given away 4 or 5 penalties against Aust, RSA or NZ, you will have lost.
Tonight’s match against Argentinia is France’s litmus test.
That said, I expect them to win, and against Ireland as well. The beauty of the pool stages will then be the matches on the 30 September and 1 October, when Ireland v Argentinia and Italy v Scotland respectively should see two closely matched teams playing in the last match of the pool with winner alone to progress.
They will be magnificent games of rugby to watch, as will tonight’s France v Argentinia.
The semis will be France v RSA and Aust v NZ. Who wins I don’t know, but I expect France to lose to the winner of Aust v NZ in the final.
PS: We should beat Japan by at least 50 points. Anything else will be a real concern.
PPS I agree re the subs, and defence. I think the line-outs will be crucial in the know-out stages because it will be much more likely to rain then. Especially against Ireland (whom we won’t play) and RSA, (neither) you will need to be able to defend aggressively in the lineouts to survive.
For us, it might be our key to knocking over NZ in a semi-final.
Posted on 07-Sep-07 at 3:46 pm | PermalinkYeah well you RU people have convenient memories,when the FRU says sorry to the FRL and returns the grounds and money the French Rugby Union Stole off Rugby League during the war when the FRU collaborators with the NAZIS and Vichy had Rugy League banned and confiscated there assets.
Posted on 07-Sep-07 at 3:59 pm | PermalinkUntil then Rugby Union is to me just a weak 2nd rate game,played by a bunch of blokes not fit enough to play in the NRL,which will outrate the Collaborators Cup by a mile.
Pretty much most of France collaborated. If you want to harp on about it, by all means do – it was a national disgrace.
But if you want to make it out to be some kind of rugby v rugby thing, get a life. Hey, didn’t Australia turn back Jewish applications for refuge? Damn us!
Posted on 07-Sep-07 at 4:22 pm | PermalinkI like to support the new minor sides. This year that honour goes to Portugal, who will face Scotland, Romania, Italy and New Zealand. What will be the measure of their success? Then there are the amateurs such as the Canadians, the Eagles and the Georgians, running up against the professionals. The Italians have beaten the Scots this year, so they can dream of going through. The Americans believe they can beat the Samoans and the Tongans.
And the dream team to the win the tournament is, of course, France. With a 100,000 people in the Stade de France in St Denis, if they are in the final, they will have a chance. Of course, in the short term the French will have to get past the Irish and the Argentinians in their pool matches. As Zinedine Zidane said to the French coach, Bernard Laporte they “are about to live a powerful but difficult moment”, which Laporte commented, “went straight to the heart of our players”. May the best and most courageous team win.
Posted on 07-Sep-07 at 7:21 pm | PermalinkThe Berrick Barnes move was very clever. They need Larkham fit and it will help to build Barnes’ confidence.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Latham fares against Japan. Playing him in this match is a very good call.
Anyone know a good pub in Bristol for watching the Rugby tonight? I could go to the “Walkabout” but it seems tragically stereotypical.
Oh, and I’ll be writing World Cup stories at Sidelined and maybe at LP in the coming weeks.
Posted on 07-Sep-07 at 9:24 pm | PermalinkWho is the French neanderthal looking (in a good way) player with the long brown hair and beard?
Posted on 08-Sep-07 at 6:58 am | PermalinkNever mind slowpokes. Found him myself. Intrigues
Posted on 08-Sep-07 at 10:56 am | PermalinkGo, the Argies. Cop that mon ameeees.
Posted on 08-Sep-07 at 11:28 am | PermalinkThe opening match was a ripper, highlighting several key factors in play this Cup. With all teams committed in defence, as it has in the past, the result may well be decided by the quality of the rival kicking games. (Discuss, re Wallabies.) There will be no point complaining about refereeing. There is a wide margin for discretion in officiating over the rules and a good deal of chance. We have to play the referee, whoever it is. (Discuss, re Mortlock’s capacities.) Again, the unique nature of the Cup was apparent, as even the home ground advantage is borderline. The cheese-eaters are now staring right down the barrel of a full-blown domestic rugby catastrophe. It is one thing to be at home against a single opponent; quite another to have the expectations of your whole country and the rest of the world weighing on your shoulders. (Ditto with overall Cup favouritism. Discuss re All Blacks.)
The Pumas played in a style that basically by-passed the set-pieces, using vibrant counter-attack to go around the French structure. Much of the credit for this seems to belong to the Argies’ 33-year old number 9, Agustin Pichot, reminding us again of the importance of experience in the cup atmosphere. France also looked better to me when they bought on the more experienced Fr
Posted on 08-Sep-07 at 3:51 pm | Permalinkcs, from what I saw of Japan’s performance in the Pacific Cup there is very little hope for them to not blow out to at least fifty. Kirwin was doing his best but there was clearly a communication problem, with staccato gestures being most common, not counting that he seemed like something from out of the Land of the Giants. Japan lacked structure and purpose, failing in the basics of ball capture and control.
Your point is good, though, where the Wallabies have to see this in an entirely new light, and remain on their game (per tournament agenda and campaign development) and not turn it into a tryfest every man for himself thing.
The Japanese in previous Cups from memory have played with incredible valour and the Pacific Cup can’t be relied upon as form guide. Yet they do get some big scores against them if recollection serves. They’ll be kamikaze tonight, so Australia must go in hard to silence that early.
Wales at home is going to be a very different story – they’re trap-setting one imagines, and they’ll be regarding their contest against the Wallabies as though a Cup Final, knowing that an all in win will lift and carry them – our role as said is to develop through the tournament so that match is set for fire as two very different agendas meet.
Speaking of Wales, how good was it to see the sparkling intelligent face of that Great Master, in the Opening Ceremony, Gareth Edwards once again. Maturing, written into with half back experience world’s apart, a beacon of light undimmed for halfbacks for years to come. His acknowledged presence there will carry the Welshmen through to our game, and they live on the spirit of their greats.
Apart from that it was a bloody awful ceremony.
The worry now is if the French pack up, lock up, turn out the lights and take the gate keys with them. “Ees over,” and we have better things to do, fuck off, that sort of thing.
Posted on 08-Sep-07 at 4:14 pm | PermalinkDon’t get me wrong. 100 points, 80 points, 50 points, 20 points … I don’t care. Points are not the point, tonight. All we really need out of tonight is to get the outfit going, and in the right direction.
And yep, Frog interest in their own World Cup will now be on a knife edge.
Posted on 08-Sep-07 at 6:22 pm | PermalinkThe Japanese openly say on their official website they will be fielding a B team tonight to “minimise the damage and save some face” and saving their big shot for Fiji.
Posted on 08-Sep-07 at 6:32 pm | PermalinkThat was a seriously good match.
Like cs said, tactical kicking was where it was at last night. The French had no answer for the barrage of bombs that was sent their way. It was really a clever tactic, when you are faced with an opposition with excellent defence that makes it a 50/50 contest at the breakdown, why not go for a 50/50 shot with the high kick and gain 20 meters? Brilliant.
Pichot is a force of nature. It annoys the hell out of me that when people are gushing about the brilliance of Gregan and other halfbacks they regularly forget about Pichot. (It also bugs me that the forget about the Fijian/Queenslander Rauluni brothers, both of which have been known to turn more than a few matches on their own)
Posted on 08-Sep-07 at 7:01 pm | PermalinkJust backing up acknowledgment for Pisshot. Didn’t he want to claim it, from the toss! Didn’t he split the forwards and backs of Argentina into two specifically energised units so each may focus more on their task at hand (where the trend has been to merge them), and didn’t he prove to be a force of his own. That sheer will of pivotal force, stated emphatically, provides and allows his forwards and backs time and space, regardless of his involvement in a particular play. (But where were the French loosies to counter that? Three minutes in and there should have been a quiet edict within the French backrow to put a stop to it).
May the fine art of halfback play shine gloriously this Cup, and lay out a path for the youngsters which otherwise, as Mick alludes to, has been lost to Australian rugby for too long now.
Though halfback play is always symbolic of where a team or indeed the code is at, perhaps one shouldn’t harp on it. Still, a tantalising thought some may share would be to consider the stratospheric levels Bernie Larkham would have risen to had he played outside Mr Edwards.
That said, and in line with cs’ primary posts, Larkham taking on roles ushered him due to poorer service finds him dangerously vulnerable, and for a couple of bobs worth here, if Australia were to prepare properly, should have in place a complete alternative backline based on the assumption Larkham will get injured. We know the Wallabies have alternative preparations, my bobs is that this time around it should be much more than that, where there is a parallel backline fully formed and ready to fly. Eddie didn’t understand anything of this: he knew nothing of combination, merely piecemeal alternative. If Larkham is injured – which if you think from other teams’ perspective that is high on the list of must haves – we’ll know if Australian rugby has advanced by the swooping in of a liquid magic oily smooth alternative backline.
Berrick Barnes is too young and too green to take that alternative place of command right now. That Connelly is playing him tonight shows he is either very confident of an alternative Larkham-less backline if needed as the tournament progresses, or very confident team spirit is high enough to slot Barnes in with his youth covered elsewise. This speaks of either a less ideal preparation, or a very good one having gone on behind word view.
Posted on 08-Sep-07 at 10:11 pm | PermalinkEarly predictions:
England won’t make it. Ireland won’t make it. Italy, against the odds, will make it. Australia will thrash Wales something like 50-0. South Africa will beat Argentina in the semi, and Australia will beat NZ in the other.
Ok, that last is as much wishing as predicting
The French were terrible, and Laporte bears the principal part of the blame. It is hard to imagine that Chabal couldn’t have crashed through for a try when the French spent five minutes camped on the line. But he wasn’t there to do it. Also, presumably he picked Skrela hoping for a rout. But in fact, France played much better with Michalak – a pity he didn’t come on until it was already over, and even then only because Skrela was injured.
Also, the French lineout was dominant, and they were being consistently driven backwards in the tackle. Logic and primary-school intelligence dictates that in that case, you kick the stupid thing as far down the pitch and out as you can, and then when you get it back, repeat plan A. They didn’t display any intention of doing something so sensibly ten-man as that all day. Happily for them that Ireland don’t seem to have turned out their best. If Ireland get their act together and France continue like that, France are dead ducks. Unless they select Michalak and Chabal in the starting team.
Also, Italy scored three times against NZ (so the last was disallowed – who cares, I’ll bet Graham Henry doesn’t). I think we can beat NZ, on the strength of that alone. At least they did the old Haka. If they do the new Haka, and not the Ka Mate, against Australia, I hope Gregan sticks his finger up at them. The new Haka is so unexciting you start to think you’ve gone to the filming of Beau Travail Pt II by mistake (although I liked the film rather more than the new Haka!).
Posted on 10-Sep-07 at 8:31 am | PermalinkAll the European teams have started poorly. I expect them to quickly lift.
I was also distinctly unimpressed by the Boks, with the exception of Victor Matfield, despite the big score-line. Confirming my impression watching, one commentator said that it was not until well into the second-half that the Samoans won only the second line-out on their own throw. Any decent team will destroy an opposition if it can dominate the line-outs against the throw, as the Boks did last night. All you need do is simply keep kicking it up, as the Boks did, win the line-outs, and then crush the opposition through sheer tackle exhaustion. When opposition fatigue sets in, a big Boks score becomes automatic by feeding it to Habana, who will run riot when all the tacklers are out on their legs.
If any team can stop Matfield in the line-out on their own throw, I suspect that the Boks will be open game. If the Wallabies or the All Blacks can actually take ball off the Boks in the line-out, I suspect South Africa will be destroyed.
All very simple in theory, but stopping Matfield will be a damnably hard thing for any team to do.
Go Vicks!
Posted on 10-Sep-07 at 2:48 pm | PermalinkOoops, there goes France! Probably the most damning thing is that they stole two of the first six lineouts but still didn’t kick the ball out (note to France: the ball being out is a pre-requisite to winning lineouts).
Ordinarily, this is not quite so. Matfield’s greatest quality is the four other jumpers in the line. No team, except France and sometimes NZ, fields five jumpers (although with Hoiles at eight we field four + Smith at the back, which is much of a muchness).
That is why South Africa are so strong in the line-outs. You might be as good as their number one, and you might be as good as their number two (eg Bakkies) but who is as good as their three, four and five jumpers?
Also they are genuinely good at it – they seem able to throw very quickly and change the call very quickly without for as much missing the throw.
Posted on 10-Sep-07 at 5:16 pm | PermalinkFair enough, although Matfield is clearly the boss. They obviously put a helluva lot of work into it, and I imagine enjoy doing so. Matfield seemed to know which Samoan was going to get the throw before it occurred. I guess intensive video study and analysis allows you to do this, given there are only so many options.
Let me amend my comment to: any of the superpowers who can stop Matfield Line-Out Inc will destroy the Boks.
Posted on 10-Sep-07 at 9:10 pm | PermalinkI expected to find the South Africans impressive and was disappointed, at least for most of the first half. It’s early days though, and I put their performance down to a combination of several things: very fired up for the first hit out, an aggressive fighting (eager punchy) spirit meeting a bunch of blokes physically capable of hurting them and who which is diametrically opposed to them in manner. Rugby suffered while other things played out.
Could be just whim, but I can’t shake the feeling this World Cup is going to be a wild ride, and that it’s due to the French hosting. You’d have to be there to check it out fully, and even then it could be misleading. It’s the unexpected, unpredictable thing. Imagine the Cup played in, say, Wales, or England, where the established atmosphere or vibe is deeply ingrained in established, set piece rugby, rooted-in crowds, solid songsheets… all traditional rugby solids. In France, that whimsy, that flare, that unpredictability, that devil may care (and he may care for us: the French, ie), that Gaelic fight, that originator of the three-day growth and how’s-my-haircut-being-just-as-important-as-my-flying tackle, that whole environment feels like it’s going to throw up something(s) very different.
Mind games (within the team) will be more than a big part of this one: keeping the team on task, blocking out the distractions and harnessing the good energies. (Great to hear the boys are happy with their camp).
And on Samoa – you have to love them. I doubt the full contingent would be able to buy their own boots; some would be playing in cuz’s. Never are they a pushover, at least until they’re battle or strategy weary. Champions the lot of them.
Posted on 10-Sep-07 at 9:39 pm | PermalinkCould be just whim, but I cant shake the feeling this World Cup is going to be a wild ride, and that its due to the French hosting
I’m with you R. Maybe it’s like all World Cups, and we forget too easily; but it feels real odd, and is pressing my work schedule. Questions are being asked all over the place, tumbling over each other in a collosal French meal. Host nation loses opener; rest of the globe gets fascinated. What a stunt!
The South Africa-Samoan match touched the edge of scary at the start. The dirty guys met the brave guys. How were those charges into the line? Every Samoan a super Coopster! Then the Boks pulled their hair, and got away with it. Bastards. The disallowed try was tragedy. It’s hard to escape the feeling that, if the ref had given that one, anything was on the cards. The drama is as intense as it’s shockingly emphemeral – unless you’re one of the players, of course, who’ll never forget.
Posted on 11-Sep-07 at 12:07 am | PermalinkHave to say it would be an unmentionable let down if those commitments disallow the posts, at least. One wonders how a team could be introduced, for that particular historical moment, and run on with purpose, and set up the try…and the coverage goes blank.
Whatever you’re doing, cs, while you no doubt play out with your typefingers something of an unforeseen richness on the national pathway… spare a couple of impressions and hit a few keys for us here along the way, if you will.
Those beers from a few – obviously intelligent and good looking people – will go cold, if you don’t.
Posted on 11-Sep-07 at 1:00 am | Permalink[...] Sheil quivers in anticipation for the opening game of the World Cup, and reveals a hitherto unexpressed dislike of Greg [...]
Posted on 11-Sep-07 at 8:55 pm | PermalinkMate, it’s not blogging but watching that’s the big threat to my productivity!
Note also that the movement among Sydney’s rugby fans to remove the blight of Greg Growden from our lives is spontaneously gathering pace. As noted in the update, every rugby fan can sign the internet’s Bone Growden Petition here.
Posted on 12-Sep-07 at 1:23 am | PermalinkJust caught this, Chris – how unreal! Never seen anything like it.
Posted on 12-Sep-07 at 1:47 am | PermalinkA spontaneous uprising of the rugby masses!
Posted on 12-Sep-07 at 2:07 am | PermalinkIt’s not all bad news for Growden. There’s a perfect seat for him beside Eddie in turn beside Jake White. Happy chums, thick as thieves.
Posted on 12-Sep-07 at 9:07 am | PermalinkNot a good week for the cheese eaters vis a vis relative minnows. Scotland just beat them in a Euro 2008 qualifier. Le HA!
Posted on 13-Sep-07 at 7:06 am | PermalinkWell underdogs rather than minnows I guess, but still.
Posted on 13-Sep-07 at 7:23 am | Permalink