What a game!
An advertisement for rugby, for sure.
The confidence and composure the AB showed after being totally bamboozled by the Wallabies and the referee in the first quarter was astonishing.
They looked done and out and then with persistent targeting of the Wallaby scrum and some help from the referee -in terms of blowing penalties at each scrum for infringements that I had a hard time to see (agreed I am not a Prop)- they were back in the game in the blink of an eye.
Just few turn arounds at scrums time and suddenly the AB were back and ahead with two quick tries.
Awesome rugby!
Why the hell can’t the boks play like that?
Here are a couple of observations I had watching the game and afterwards while listening to Robbie Deans during the post match conference.
Coaching philosophy
Deans calm relaxed exterior impressed me. When asked how big is this win for you his answer: “It’s got no more meaning other than the fact we got up. This is just a game along the way.” He is saying in effect it is no bigger than any other win. This is just part of a process.
I often see people shouting for change (and have been one myself) when their team lose but this remark by Deans made me think. Success in sport is a process it doesn’t come overnight no matter how talented you are.
Clearly Deans have a long term development strategy with his coaching. He knows where he wants to get with the team and he and the players have certain markers or criteria on which they evaluate each performance irrespective of whether they win or lose. It is hard to get the media and supporters to understand that Deans admitted: “I don’t live in a bubble and do feel the pressure but in the end it is a process and I am happy with the progress we’ve shown tonight.”
I think everyone outside Australia (and some in the country) can see that this Aussie team is improving game by game. This is still young team with an average age of just 25 (with the average bumped-up by some outliers which are in their early thirties) which Deans is developing with meticulous precision and patience.
How I wish I could have said the same of the Springbok side and coach where there is no evidence of a process; no evidence of a long term plan or proactive planning and development. The coaching and team selections all seem reactive.
Influence of the referee on the match
I got a distinct feeling that the referee went into the match with some preconceived plans to stamp out certain things in both teams. In the first quarter he targeted the All Blacks at the breakdown blowing them up repeatedly for just about everything they did at the breakdowns. This put the Wallabies right into the match producing two tries for the Wallabies because it allowed them to get flow and contingency on attack.
He then targeted the Wallaby scrum and for the next 10 to 15 minutes blew-up the Wallabies for everything they did in the scrum. This broke the Wallaby momentum and created turnover ball for the All Blacks putting them right back into the match. This for me was an extremely irritating part of the game and I am not sure whether there really was anything wrong in the scrum or whether the referee was just trying to establish his authority and set the operating procedures at the scrum.
The result of this was that the scrums became a very carefully orchestrated “non-contest” with the Wallabies too scared to do anything in the scrum other than just taking meticilous care to do nothing wrong. All credit to the ref that when the AB’s tried to push their luck at the scrums he pounded on them as well and that sorted out all the hassle and bustle at the scrum.
The result of all this was that the game only really started to become a “non-referee-trying-to-establish-his-authority-contest” -as it should be- in the last 30 minutes of the first half.
Aussie playing style
The Aussie style of playing was quite interesting. They have a significantly different approach than the AB. Deans is clearly not following the AB 2010 tri-nations style of hitting the gain line and blowing-over.
The Aussies played the ball wide on almost every occasion with the Cooper lying flat; receiving flat ball but then passed the ball behind a dummy runner -lying flat- to a runner coming from behind angling sideways and running with speed onto the ball. This created space on the outside for the Aussie back line. Cooper scored the Aussies first try by being the deeper runner with somebody else acting at the first flat lying receiver. The second try came when they suddenly altered this practice (going flat and then deep behind a dummy runner) with Cooper sending a second flat pass to Gitau who left it for the Aussie No13, who run a clever line slightly against the traffic but straight into space between the two NZ centers. Like a hot knife through soft butter, he went before stepping past Corey Jane for a brilliant try.
The most important thing for me is that the Aussies showed that you don’t need to play like the AB’s to be successful in the modern game. The Aussies can of course do this because they have precision at the breakdowns; few teams in world rugby can recycle a ball and maintain phases like they do.
Kicking by the flyhalf’s
Kicking has become an art in the modern game. Kicking to re-arrange the back field and how the wingers defend is crucial to keeping the ball and attacking with purpose. The Kiwis initially in the Tri-nations basically ran everything. Then, tactically, they introduced the short kick – grubber and chip kick behind to push the wingers back and make the 9 defend out of the line. This reduced the front line to 11 defenders, creating space.
Then, they (the AB’s) started kicking long – forcing the wingers further back – and therefore taking 2 defenders right out of the line which meant the next time they receive the ball they can explore this space by running and passing. They kept the defence guessing allowing them to have various attacking options – run, pass or kick plays.
A kick or run philosophy in attack is now vital. Look at how the defence position, then use kicks or running, passing plays to manipulate the defence.
Both the Aussies and the All Blacks used the kick quite a lot this weekend; grubbers and long kicks to push the defenders back. It was not all just smash-up and blow-over. The latest tendency seems to be to play what is in front of you; read the defence and apply counter tactics to manipulate changed defensive patterns which then create space.
Fetchers
The role that Pocock played in this game was also for me quite fascinating showing that the fetcher can still be influential towards the outcome of a game. Pocock made at least three crucial turnovers mostly arriving as the second man at the tackle. This allowed him to immediately go for the ball.
It seems to me that teams need to practice this namely hunting in pairs with the first player going for the tackle and withdrawing immediately allowing the next player to almost instantly graph the ball; the first player can then re-enter the contest by helping to stabilise the second player. If the tackler withdrew by charging over the player (tackle and then drive forward when he gets up) on the ground he prevents the opposition to get to the ball.
Lineouts
There were very few lineouts (so it seemed to me – I didn’t really count it) in the match. Furthermore, the lineouts were not used as an attacking platform; no driving mauls. In general the lineouts were avoided and those that did took place was a bit sloppy at times.
With the emphasis on keeping the ball alive the sideline is no longer the safety sanctuary of yesteryear but something that is avoided especially by teams –like Australia- who are not particularly strong in the set piece part of the game.
It will be interesting to see whether Australia will start using the lineout more often once their top locks like Vickerman returns.
Mackie you sum up a game properly , it takes me 2 or 3 reads to absorb all your points, thanks it is always a great read.
If i think back at the week and the game this is how i see this great game.
Lot of talk before the game about the All Blacks playing half a match as preparation and the Wallabies having a intense 3 week camp. The first 20-30 minutes you could see how well drilled the Australians were. Then the AB machine started up. But at the end the never say die attitude of the Wallabies pulled this one through.
Your opinion on the scrums i share, not only in this game but in many games i find that at scrum time the refs try and assert their authority. It baffles me , why penalize teams so much at engagement time, 😆 it is a thousand tons of force and meat hitting each other at engagement and sometimes a guy slips or it is just timing that goes wrong. Is it worth penalties? How many times does the time delay of touch , crouch engage differ from ref to ref and what influence does that have?
I feel that the engagement must be more lenient , penalize the guys when they go down under pressure. Let me rather leave this part of the game to guys who knows better.
My other observation in this game was the comeback abilities of the Wallabies, they have incredible guts and self belief. I can see them winning a few more against the All Blacks, they just keep coming back , and at speed.
That article was phenomenal,your knowledge of rugby is amazing. I think yourself and Morne know the most about rugby on these blogs. James O Connor showed some serious Bmt to get that kick over. Sorry New Zealand but somebody had to stop your winning streak because if they didnt lose today it may have gone to 20 odd games unbeaten.
I watched this game with great interest as I thought beforehand that the Aussies were in with a chance here.
Your assessment is spot on.
Getting blown up for early engagement at the scrums is a major problem and something has to be done about the refs power at scrum time.
I suspect nothing will be done as the refs answer to a part of the game that they cannot understand is to murder it be showing that they are in charge.
Of course we cannot compare the coaching philosophy of Deans to how we go about making decisions game by game as you say!
In my view we cannot blame public expectation for that but rather the poor quality of coach that we have.
superBul wrote:
From a New Zealand match report
Having spent three weeks in camp prior to their tour, the impatient Wallabies had signalled their intent to get launch their northern journey with a victory; and the early signs looked looked positive, too, when Quade Cooper and Adam Ashley-Cooper ran in early five-pointers as their opponents continued their worrying trend of nodding off soon following the opening bell.
Last night it was referee Alain Rolland who was whistling the lullaby and even the Irishman must have been stunned to see the New Zealanders make such a sluggish start as they gave away penalties and slipped off tackles to trail 12-0 mid-way through the first half.
Intresting scoring
First 12 for Aussies
then 24 for All Blacks
and then 14 for Australia
But one must remember how many points were missed in between.
Have a look at the live commentary on PR and decide how you see this match. Looking at it it looks for me that the All Blacks were beaten comprehensively. i only extracted the highlights were both teams had a chance to score.
Kicks missed by Australia
2 Kurtley Beale pulls his long-range effort wide.
4 Beale is way off the mark with his second attempt at goal – that’s six points left by the wayside already.
10 Giteau’s conversion kick sails wide. The restart we be the All Blacks’ first chance to venture into Wallaby territory.
38 Matt Giteau is way off the mark with a penalty attempt. Don’t be surprised if O’Connor or Cooper takes over soon…
48 Giteau misses AGAIN! That was an easy penalty (NZ hands on the deck). Surely someone else will take over the kicking duties?
Kicks missed by New Zealand
20 Dan Carter’s kick from 40m out hits the post! It bounces back into play and Cooper finds touch near half-way.
22 Carter has another crack at goal….but it’s just wide. The Wallabies still lead by 5.
76 Donald misses a penalty from 30m – that means Australia are still within seven points. Hold onto your seats, we’re in for a big finish.
Possible try opportunities missed by Australia
12 The All Blacks first keep it tight. Nonu breaks through! His pass to Muliaina is knocked down by Elsom. The ball is hacked up field and Cory Jane does brilliant to get back and get the ball into touch to prevent a try!
14 The surface is breaking up already which is a concern as the Wallabies have a scrum 5m from the All Blacks’ try-line. Jimmy Cowan steals the ball from out of McCalman’s hands and hacks it up field to relieve the pressure!
27 Massive trouble for New Zealand here as McCaw tries to offload in midfield but his pass goes to ground. Beale toes the ball forward and sprints 70m…O’Connor is there in support. The ball come wide now…the cavalry arrives for the All Blacks.
45 The Wallabies have a full go at the NZ line. Elsom muscles his way over the try-line….but he’s held up. Cowan wretches the ball away and clears. Close one!
46 Trouble here for NZ and O’Connor breaks clear. Cowan makes the tackle. Now Cooper tries to chip into the corner for Mitchell to chase…but Cowan gets there first! The All Blacks scrum-half is having a huge game.
68 Aaaaaaah! The Wallabies butcher a sure try. Berrick Barnes makes a brilliant break with some neat stepping but then throws a terrible pass out to O’Connor, who can’t hold on. Instead of a Wallaby try, it’s an All Black line-out.
70 Donald looks for territory with a flat kick, only to find Mitchell but the Wallaby wing makes a bad mistake as he kicks it over the dead-ball line.
Possible try opportunities missed by New Zealand
29 Conrad Smith breaks the line! The All Blacks pour forward. The ball goes left to Keven Mealamu who charges over! No! Beale got his knee under the ball…what a let off for Australia!
see it all here- http://live.planet-rugby.com/2010/10/30/4130.shtml
superBul wrote:
Worth 14 points
superBul wrote:
Worth 9 points
This game is so similar to the Aus vs SA game in Bloemfontein for me.
Australia went out with a bang Boks fought hard clawed their way back , but the Wallabies kept going and snatched the game , legal or not.
Afterwards the poor Springboks were fried, will some one try it with the All Blacks?
Yes, Aussie kept NZ in the game with poor place kicking.
I was also impressed with Elsom keeping his cool with the referee this time round.
He lost it in some of the tri-nations games when there scrum got blown up. Elsom is maturing into a good captain.
NZ is just a bit too complacent at the moment but the depth and ability in that team is just on such a nature that I don’t think they will have any problems on the rest of their EOYT.
I’m pretty sure that New Zealand will win the Grand slam quite easily this year. I wonder if this Sonny Bill Williams is going to win us to his hype or not?
Sorry,I meant live up to his hype.
tight head wrote:
I think this season their has been some imrpovement with scrums starting as compared to last year. Still way to much penalties and I think they should change it to a short-arm penalty (does that still exists) namely a penalty that you can’t use to kick for goal.
Interesting that there is always issues with the Aussie scrum at set-up.
Winston wrote:
Yip, think the AB will get a grand slam with no problems. SBW make this years tour quite interesting for the NZ public. Lots of opposing view about him but everyone is keen to see how he goes some wanting him to fail and other (majority) believing he will be the next big thing.
I was dissapointed that he was not selected for this match. In hindsight now I am glad he wasn’t as it would have been an extremely hard first match for him.
So by the way thanks for the compliment @ 2.
@ McLook:
In that article earlier this week about the way refs must blow by Andre Watson i think he has a good point. Dont breathe through your whistle is the whole point.
superBul wrote:
Don’t you just hate it when the won a match right at the end? I didn’t mind this time round as I was cheering them on against the AB’s but I just hate it if they win that way against us.
No problem McLook,you just really know your stuff about rugby. You also called the Sharks win in a previous article of yours and the way you explained it is the way it happened almost to the tee unlike other sites that said that the Sharks didnt have a hope in hell and Wp were going to walk it.
superBul wrote:
Hahahaha, good one. Love it.
Winston wrote:
I haven’t seen the final yet and are extremely curious to see whether it panned out the way I tought it would, so thanks for that info. First replay of the final will be Wednesday here in NZ; I am so frustarted I can pull my hair out.
I will chat later again. Wife is calling for dinner so I better get going.
@ McLook:
18
Eishhh by then everyone had his opinion, it was a hard game and you will enjoy it, cant we post it there faster?
Brad Thorn had this to say about Robbie Deans.
“He’s been under a whole heap of heat and you can really see a young side developing.
“There’s 21 and 22-year olds with 20 test caps under their belt, that’s going to pay off.”
This is stuff Peter must read, motivation is a big part at this level.
“Putting a stake in the ground and saying, ‘Enough, we can do this’. And they got it done.”
Deans said his men were learning how to respond to periods of poor play rather than give in to them.
“That’s the biggest step that they’ve taken, that they haven’t let those moments impact on their thought processes, they’ve kept going,” he said.
“The reality is, if your mindset’s right you can overcome those moments.”
Even the body language, on display as they linked arms and in five-eighth Quade Cooper’s running battle with All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, left the Wallabies coach quietly pleased.
“It’s a sign of the fact they’re respecting what they’re doing and respecting the opportunity they got.”
Deans is cautious, though, about trumpeting the Wallabies as a side now capable of beating anyone as they head towards the 2011 tournament in New Zealand.
“You’ve got to do the things that you did (against the All Blacks) to put yourself in that position in every instance,” he said.
Five-eighth Dan Carter sounded an ominous warning that the loss represented more of a hiccup than a turning point for the world No 1 team.
“You never want to lose, we’re pretty gutted,” he said.
“But from my experience you learn a lot more from losses and we will bounce back, I’m confident of that.”
I will make a wild prediction/statement-
The McCaw honeymoon is over.
Read in it whatever you want
i will see at the end of the EOYT how mad my statement was.
Signed Superbul.
@ McLook:
I felt for the Aussie front row because after they had conceded several penalties for early engagement they simply stood back at the hit out of fear of conceding another penalty and effectively gave the scrum advantage to the Kiwis.
Refs have to understand that you simply cannot be late on the hit, and it is imperative that both front rows hit in at the same time or better still you gain a split second over the opposition.
We need to find a better way to officiate the scrum, so that the advantage of a good hit is not taken out of the game.
Maybe the pause and engage call by the ref should be done away with.
” Crouch, touch, hit” is the way to go.
@ tight head:
what is the real point of this, i know they dont want you to charge in , that might break a neck. But missing a bind, cant they just reset. They give a penalty or a free kick and 80% they take the scrum anyway again.
Why would you deliberately miss your bind? Were you allowed by the opponent to bind fairly?
tight head wrote:
I did feel for them too. You could just see the frustration in the Aussie front rowers. They stopped competing in the end being scared to get penalised.
This is propbably the weakest part of the Aussie game and something that they need to sort.
I tend to agree with you view on the crouch, pause, engage thing. It is like a 100 meter start. You need to try and beat the opposition by reading the off-setter (is that and english word I am looking for an English word for “afsittter”) and each one have different time delay’s between on-your-marks/get-ready/go.
In this case with 900kg beef behind you it is even harder to get the timing. Maybe they should go back to the props binding first then the locks and then the back three and then the referee goes ready/set/go. In other words no hitting into the scrum.
@ McLook:
McLook, agree with your binding suggestion. Speaking as a former prop I think the current protocol is too dangerous. It also wastes a lot of time in the game. I’ve never understood how the IRB arrived at the current arrangement. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?
I’m still waiting here to find out if this game will be broadcast. Very frustrating even though my favourites lost. 🙁
McLook wrote:
Not many will support this. Is this almost like a un-contested scrum?
But if so then allow them to wrestle properly, give the strong players the opportunity to make a impact.
or
Just have uncontested scrums. I would hate rugby if we do that.
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