Australia 43, England 18
Saturday 17th June
Melbourne

Wallabies vs England [Melbourne]
What a rabble England were, HG Nelson would call them a disgrace, a sick hopeless joke and demand that that they go to the room full of mirrors and have a good long look at themselves. Their woeful play was epitomised by the mincing Tom Varndell, there was an uproarious laugh every time he got near the ball, he did everything possible to avoid contact, he shimmied, he shammied and basically dogged it all night. I can’t believe England would send away such a dud side with the World Cup so close, very much a lost opportunity for them.

There were more positives for the Wallabies from this match; the scrum took another step up. I thought Holmes improved on the week before; Rodzilla was again strong. Too bad the big fella injured his ankle he is improving with every match. I can’t believe the Poms went to uncontested scrums for the second half. Spiro Zavros could be right when he suggested that they got their two pedestrian props off and put on two flankers to try and stem the tide of the Wallabies attacking raids. After the Poms said we were an international embarrassment last year for going to uncontested scrums for just 20 minutes or less, here we have the Poms going to no push in the scrums for a whole half. They were probably hoping that no one was watching back home.

Our lineout was shaky with too many losses on our throw in. Hooker is a position that Knuckles and his coaching team are having a problem with. No hooker has really put his hand up yet; all the Hookers tried Jeremy Paul, Tai McIsaac and Adam Freier all have faults in their game. I am sure Knuckles would just love a hooker like an Axel Foley with a perfect lineout throw and rock solid in the scrum.

Ireland will have watched with interest the few facets of play that actually functioned reasonably well for the England. The Poms made very easy yards straight through the middle of the ruck with pick & go, I was surprised they did not do more of it. The English had some reasonable driving mauls off the lineouts. The Poms were absolutely belted when they tried to shovel the ball across the field when they had no go forward in the ruck area. Ireland will take note of this, after playing the Kiwis they will be used to the Super 14 style rush defence from rucks, they will have to develop a pattern to pull in the Wallaby defenders. Pick & go seemed to work very well, look to see the Irish use it this week against the Wallabies.

Scott Johnson is working his magic on the Wallaby backline, they are starting to fire. The Wallabies have some real strike power in the backs and it was great to see them having a run. They were unable to get started last year because the forwards were getting belted. Amazing what a difference a forward pack, which is going forward and doing the basics well makes to the performance of the backline. I spoke to Scott during the week and he thought the Wallabies simply lacked confidence in themselves because of the disastrous year last year. He also stated that they have thrown out the manual of backline plays used previously and they are simple concentrating on the basics with minimal plays called.

This will be the hallmark of the Connolly era, simple basics done well and players confident in themselves and playing with passion and pride. Knuckles mantra is that rugby is not rocket science; keep it simple get the basics right and everything else will follow on. The Poms were so bad that the public and scribes have not been overly effusive in their praise of the Wallabies. It will be a great Test for the Wallabies this week against the Irish. After the match we will have a real indication of how the Wallabies will fare in the Tr-Nations this year.

A Bit of Go Forward
Wallabies vs England [Telstra Stadium]
We are not going to win the World Cup yet but it was a reasonable start to the John Connolly era. The score certainly flattered the Wallabies they were not a 30-point better side, but the Poms were ordinary. Great to see the Wallaby forwards actually getting numbers to the breakdown and having a go at driving the opposition backwards, something we have had not seen for a few years. England did play with 14 men though, their winger Varndel was a disgrace he should be playing touch rugby he was so scared of contact, he was running 10.7 to stay out of the tough stuff.

The Wallaby scrum was outpointed but not disgraced, as was the case in the UK last year. I think Rodzilla has the goods to go on to be a really good tight head prop, not so sure about Holmes though, Julian White had him bent up double on a couple of occasions. It was only because Blake was just hanging on, that the roller skates were not reapplied to the whole Wallaby scrum. I would like to see Knuckles give Benn Robinson a go at loose head prop; I think he will do a better job.

The Wallaby lineout was surprisingly good and what was really great was the drive generated. The Poms could not get a roll on as we had some very committed forwards hitting the Pommy’s as they tried to get a drive rolling forward. Amazing how a bit of cleanout in the rucks gets the team moving forward as well. After watching the abysmal breakdown work of Australian Super 14 teams it was actually a pleasure to watch forwards trying to belt the opposition in the rucks. Full marks to Axel Foley for getting back to basics here and getting the Australian forwards a bit fired up and willing to go forward.

The defence was excellent, the Poms thew everything at the Wallabies with a number of sets of multiple phases. The Wallabies kept making the tackles and also getting the turnovers, a big improvement here.

Let’s not get carried away though, the Wallabies did look disjointed at stages. The backline certainly did not function very well. If you were honest and matched the Wallabies on Sunday against the All Blacks at their peak form you would be looking at a very big win for the Kiwis. But it is certainly a reasonable start and with the Kiwis also having a slow start against the Irish, Wallaby supporters can remain positive.

Tonga vs Fiji
It was great to have international Rugby again at Gosford; I just wish it were a better game. Only 3,500 people braved the freezing conditions and rain, and like me, I bet they all wished they stayed at home in front of the heater. It was a low quality game and to be honest the two top clubs in Sydney, University and Eastwood would have put 30 to 40 points on both teams. For me watching Fiji was like being back at Suncorp Stadium for the World Cup - it was again a real nothing performance. They appeared to have no game plan, no tactics, and no idea of how to construct a try. Tonga was slightly better, and with their forward pack getting the edge, they deserved the win. Fiji was in front 23-17 with just 5 minutes to go when replacement Tongan hooker Aleki Lutui crashed over for a try. Like most people at the ground, I thought Tonga were the more constructive team and deserved the win.

Telling point for me was when Fiji had multiple phases in Tonga’s half. They won phase after phase but went nowhere. Have coaches forgotten that forwards have to drive past the ball and clear defenders out? Fiji fell into the Super 14 malaise of stopping at the breakdown and not driving past the ball, and not taking out and committing defenders. Like the Super 14, Tonga found this very easy to defend against - you only commit two forwards to the ruck the rest stand out and tackle. Easy stuff. I am just looking forward to the next game when I see a pack of forwards hit rucks like exocet missiles and demolish all before them. Might be waiting a long time I think, especially with the non-confrontational approach of Southern Hemisphere teams.

With the forwards not going forward in the ruck area, Fiji tended to shovel the ball wide off phase play. The few times the Fiji forwards got a roll on and made some yards around the ruck, they looked good. They actually looked like they were constructive and had a plan for setting up a line break. It’s not rocket science; you simply must go forward with the ball before you go across in Rugby. Shovelling the ball wide across the field against a well-set up defence does not make sense. Going wide with the ball when they had gone forward and pulled in defenders led to the one Fijian try that was not opportunistic. The Fijian overlap on the open was a result of someone going forward around the ruck area that pulled in the Tongan defenders.

The Tongan scrum got a TKO on the Fijian scrum and made life tough at the scrum base. Tonga wheeled Fiji almost at will, and this was a real telling point in the game, with Fiji getting virtually no clean ball from the scrum base. This did not help their cause in wet, slippery conditions. The Tongan scrum was rock solid and did not budge an inch, making life very easy for the halves. The Fijian lineout was good, and they had no problem winning their own ball. The only problem that occurred was when the jumper got to the ground and they tried to drive the lineout ball forward. This was very ineffective, with only one good drive resulting from multiple attempts. If you are attempting to drive lineout ball forward get the basics right, - keep the front of the maul narrow, get in motion forward before the jumper hits the ground, and get as many players as you can hitting onto the ball.

The Tongan stand off Pierre Hola was my man of the match. His kicking game was exceptional and he was the real difference between the two teams. He would not look out of place in any Test Team. His high balls to his wingers was some of the best I have seen.

Below are excerpts from my World Cup analysis that were similar to what I saw in the match last night against Tonga. Looking at that World Cup analysis and this Tongan match, ball retention is still a major problem for the Fiji Team. There was definitely a big improvement on the World Cup performances but still a long way to go. Read on – I would appreciate any comments, especially from those of you in Fiji who watched the game live.

Ruck/Maul– Attack

• Fiji could not retain the ball in the tackle; they appeared not to have a Team Ball Retention Policy.

• Ball Retention Policy Example (Very simple but won’t happen in a game unless practised at training)

• Ball Carrier to stay on feet for as long as possible and wait for support players’ call before going to ground with the ball.

• First support player to target opposition player closest to the ball (opposition player must be cleaned out as far past the ball as possible)

• Second support player to secure ball by again targeting opposition players or listening to halfback’s call for Pick and Go.

• Fiji seemed to have limited options from Ruck/Maul slow ball.

• Fiji appeared to have no plan to get in behind a modern well-organised defensive line.

• Fiji appeared to have no concept of Go Forward before you Go Across. The Fijian strength is on the wings yet they displayed no pattern to use this strength.

• Fiji needed a pattern of simple Go Forward plays to get in behind the defensive line, then use the width of the field.

Scrums

• Fiji could not combat the wheel by the French and USA. Both props had no concept off combating a wheel. The lose head prop must break his bind and not allow the tight head prop to pull him backwards. The tight head prop must close off the loosehead and not allow him turn the corner and drive across him at an angle.

• Fiji did not appear to have a portfolio of back row plays even simple 8 – 9 or 9 feeding 8 looping.

Backline Attack

• What was under utilised were the blind side and inside running lines such as fullback entering the backline between the centres.

• Team plays off set pieces will also help the backline to vary their options.

Backline Defence

• Man on man defence appeared to be reasonable but the drift defence was poor.

• When drifting, the backline appeared to start drifting sideways immediately instead of going forward in their initial steps. This was done in attempt to cover the extra players entering the opposition’s backline especially against the French.