It was rough enough for Wallabies fans watching the game on the other side of the world a few hours before the start of the working week. But there wasn’t enough coffee in the country to deal with the hassle and frustration he brought with another disappointing display.
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In the third game on the bounce, the Wallabies conceded tries in quick succession to lose control of the contest, turning the match into a scoreboard chase that inevitably resulted in unforced errors and turnovers, and more tries.
In the first Bledisloe Cup Test in Auckland, they shelled four tries in 23 second-half minutes when trailing by just three. In the return Test in Sydney, there were four tries in the first 26 minutes. Against England at Twickenham on Sunday, they conceded three converted tries in 15 minutes after the break.
The Wallabies continue to fail in the same areas: the defense leaked seven more tries and England found stress points all too easily; the breakdown work was not urgent enough or able to produce a fast rack ball; carrying the ball provided a slight edge in the gain line and no overall going forward, all that plus a kicking game with no distance combined to ensure the Wallabies had nearly two-thirds of the match on their side at the halfway mark.
Worryingly, all of this seemed possible when the team was announced.
“I wanted to see what we looked like with two big strands in our squad,” Les Keys said last week after moving Jeremy Williams to the blindside to accommodate Josh Canham and Lukhan Salakaia-Lotto in the second row, and relegating Rob Valetini to the bench. It was like a huge gamble, letting go of what was surely the best ball carrier on the team.
The outcome was not surprising. Three locks as a 4-5-6 unit combined for 21 carries and 43 yards. When Valetini did, he made 20m from six catches in just over half an hour, but with the Wallabies already trailing 26-10 and their share of possession at that point in the game hovering around 40%.
A Scottish team awaits at Murrayfield which was the latest ‘best chance’ to finally beat New Zealand. Looking All black people and now England are methodically breaking down the Wallabies’ defense by playing straight into their faces, the Scot’s preferred approach can do exactly the same thing.
We just can’t sit back and control it without having an answer somewhere.
“Yeah, well, that’s the reality,” Kiss said in response to an obvious question about the reversal of the Wallabies’ woes in a week. “Test rugby will be upon us before we know it. We just can’t sit back and deal with it without getting an answer somewhere.”
“We train well, but it has to be better than training. I’d rather train terribly and put in 80 minutes. That’s more important.
“But we have to find a solution to fix it. I can’t fault the guys and their effort and their ambition to make sure they work hard to fix the little things that we want in that game. But we have to pass it on.”
“Is a week enough? It has to be.”
The Australian rugby public is waiting for an answer.
While the first weekend is back Nations Championship Modus produced mostly excellent rugby in six games, none of which is possible without excellent refereeing performances. The best whistlers in the game have what everyone knows is the best ‘feel’ for the game, which of course is a completely immeasurable trait.
Andrew Brace was very good Edinburgh for Scotland-New Zealand, and is quick to admit an inadvertent mistake late in the game. After awarding Damian McKenzie’s pass, he went forward and heard the All Black’s instant suggestion that he had failed Scotland center Huw Jones, Brace could be heard telling McKenzie: “It was going forward but I could have made a mistake”.
And what he meant he explained further that he had to call live, and if he was wrong, the TMO would quickly tell him. Just seconds later with the message received, he had to admit, “Sorry guys, I was wrong. Blue brought it back,” switching the Scrum feed back to New Zealand.
No, I don’t mean yellow, it’s not a cynical play. I don’t think he knows what he’s doing
Luke Pearce had a similar moment of clarity in the first half in Dublin on Friday night, when his playing instincts overrode a possible penalty attempt that the laws of the game would surely have allowed, and instantly overturned a possible yellow card for Argentina substitute whore Leonel Oviedo.
Ireland Captain Dan Sheehan peeled a line drive down the short side, and was brought to ground but not held as it rolled towards the try line. His leg did make contact, but Pearce and his team on the field correctly concluded that Oviedo had fallen to Sheehan on the ground. And since it was a foul in the act of scoring, despite the foot coming into contact, a penalty attempt then became an option.
“And based on that likelihood (of the foot making contact), I don’t think a penalty attempt seems fair,” Pearce explained.
“I think it’s definitely illegal, but I don’t see how it’s a penalty attempt, and I’m going to punish the number 16 (Oviedo) for what he’s doing. Does that seem fair?” he asked his team, who all agreed.
TMO Andrew Jackson asked if a yellow card should be considered, being so close to the line, but again Pearce was thinking clearly.
“No, I don’t mean the yellow, it’s not a cynical play. I don’t think he knows what he’s doing, it’s all instinct. But it’s illegal. Everyone okay with that?” Pearce said, and TMO Jackson fully agrees.
A victory for common sense, exactly what coaches, fans and writers have been asking for at various times.
And given that criticism can fly so quickly, and so often be inaccurate, it’s only fair that arbitrators should be praised for thinking and acting on their feet.