Wallabies 34 – France development XV 13
Aussie Robbie’s been telling us that progress to a Deans-afied Wallabies would be one step at a time, and in so many ways this first test win over France at Stadium Australia proved to be just that. As an example, last week there were a measly 20 minutes of flowing attack, this week there were 30. While this is obviously an improvement, for many Aussie fans it means the glass is less than half-full (3/8ths to be exact).
In the first 30 minutes of the game the Wallabies had upwards of 60% possession and close to 70% territory, yet the score was still 3-3 until Cam Shepherd took a gamble allowing Giteau to isolate Captain Caveman in the line and scoot around him. The telling stat for that pre-try period was the turnovers, 12-6 against Australia – in the first half an hour! And this doesn’t count the free’s given against for early engagment at the scrum to go with the bungled re-starts.
But it wasn’t just the period of dominance or number of tries that marked an evolution today, but also the style in which it was done. I’ve heard it said already – that it was decidedly Crusader-ish – but dammit, that’s exactly what it looked like to me. How so?
- The complete switch of gears from the kick off in the second half. Out was the touch rugby, and in was the pick, drive and offload. How many times (and how recently!) have you seen the evil men in red and black do that when the free-flowing mojo ain’t working? In a recording stuff up, I didn’t see the second half for several hours. During that time, I’d imagined just how the Wallabies of old could have continued on in a directionless fashion to blow this game. Thankfully, not last night.
- Support play and offloading. Over recent years, how many times did someone make a break to be on his jack jones? Now there are supporting runners all over the show taking defence busting inside angles off passes out of the tackle. The Wallabies are scoring ties in seconds that would have taken 15 phases not long ago.
- The first and second five-eighth malarky. I’d never really got the idea of a weedy 12 before, but it’s just starting to grow on me. Having another ball player in Barnes to make shit happen is starting to pay off, especially with runners like Horwill and Robinson looking for work.
So, while it was 5/8ths disappointing (although did I mention the D was again awesome?) against a lackluster French development squad there are the early inklings of the hand of Robbie. Big question is, with only one more run-out before the real games start, can the Wallabies shape up fast enough?
PS. How hard did Jonker and Kaplan try to fcuk up the reffing with pedantic calls?
The scorers:
For Australia:
Tries: Giteau, Sharpe, Elsom, Mortlock
Cons: Giteau 4
Pens: Giteau 2
For France:
Try: Palisson
Con: Trinh-Duc
Pens: Yachvili 2
Australia: 15 Cameron Shepherd, 14 Peter Hynes, 13 Stirling Mortlock (c), 12 Berrick Barnes, 11 Lote Tuqiri, 10 Matt Giteau, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 George Smith, 6 Rocky Elsom, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 James Horwill, 3 Al Baxter, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 Adam Freier, 17 Ben Alexander, 18 Dean Mumm, 19 Phil Waugh, 20 Sam Cordingley, 21 Ryan Cross, 22 Adam Ashley-Cooper.
France: 15 Pepito Elhorga, 14 Alexis Palisson, 13 Damien Traille, 12 François Trinh-Duc, 11 Benjamin Thiéry, 10 Benjamin Boyet, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Louis Picamoles, 6 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 5 Sébastien Chabal, 4 Lionel Nallet (c), 3 Benoît Lecouls, 2 Sébastien Bruno, 1 Lionel Faure.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Kayser, 17 Renaud Boyoud, 18 David Couzinet, 19 Mathieu Lièvremont, 20 Sébastien Tillous-Borde, 21 Thibault Lacroix, 22 David Janin.
Referee: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Touch judges: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)
Television match official: Johann Meuwesen (South Africa)
Assessor: Wayne Erickson (Australia).
Tags: 28 June, adam ashley-cooper, adam freier, al baxter, australia, ben alexander, benn robinson, berrick barnes, cameron shepherd, dean mumm, first match debut, France, george smith, james horwill, jonathan kaplan, lote tuqiri, luke burgess, matt giteau, nathan sharpe, peter hynes, phil waugh, rocky elsom, ryan cross, sam cordingley, stephen moore, stirling mortlock, sydney, sydney football stadium, Wallabies
Matt a.k.a Gagger or GAGR (short for GreenAndGoldRugby, not a fetish)
Matt started G&GR just before the 2007 Rugby World Cup and has been enslaved ever since. You can follow him on Twitter here http://www.twitter.com/Matt_Gagger 
Jonker and Kaplan were smirking at each other as if they were chuffed to stop the game have a chat and get another close up for their watching families.
I disagree with you though Matt, only technically though. I don’t know if these aforementioned clowns tried to fudge up the refereeing, the simple truth is they did very nearly fudge up the game.
Remember with seconds to go they were warning the wallabies about a possible send off? France were pushing over the advantage line at the time and they weren’t allowed the quick tap.
This is just one of the many reasons to bring in the ELV’s. At least with short arms overcalling wouldn’t need to slow the momentum of an attacking team.
Miserable first half-although Gitau’s try was nice…but the Wallabys found a second gear in the second half. I don’t know, I think there was more improvement with this Wallaby team than what I saw from South Africa after looking sluggish against Italy in South Africa.
Bottom line, there is still a lot to play out before Tri Nations matches. A few weeks ago, I thought the AB’s were going to be THE team to beat, now I am not so sure. Maybe, Matt, it’s too easy to read too much into these friendlies…
seems like they are so intent on playing running rugby (to please those rugby league types) that they forgot the basics. establish solid set pieces and then have that turn into attacking rugby.
If the the wallabies play like this in the tri-nations, they will come last. The SA italy game can be exused as SA picked a weaker squad in the rain (italy did end up beating 3rd ranked argentina the next week btw), and weather hurt the ab’s against ireland.
I’d rather see the some of the aussie a guys in the backline, they seem to be playing out of there skins at the momement.
Owen
I agree Owen, and I reckon (and hope) that Aussie Robbie must be seeing this as well. Crusaders have never been powder puff up front.
Good write up mate, as usual I didn’t see or hear the game and had to rely on the Beeb scores after the fact and the Times the Next day – when Jones was in surprisingly mild mood with his attacks on SH rugby.
I’d be very pleased if Dingo took the team in a Crusaders type direction, very pleased.
Scotty in Purley.