Opinion
Respect regained, now polish is needed for Wallabies
Paul Cully
Rugby columnistHad the Wallabies managed to get over the line in their 22-19 loss to Ireland in Dublin, it would have been their finest defensive performance since the memorable effort against Wales in the 2015 World Cup group stages.
That’s how worthy the effort was as they repeatedly countered Ireland’s noted multiphase approach with a mixture of grit and intelligence.
Micro moments ultimately hurt them – Taniela Tupou’s failure to find Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in space (a try was begging) and a Suaalii late charge that gave the Irish a better angle to kick to touch and launch their match-winning maul.
The margins are small, but the Wallabies have definitely narrowed them this year and Joe Schmidt should throw this stat at his players before they head off for summer: the Wallabies and All Blacks played the British and Irish Lions unions a combined nine times this year, and only lost twice. The Anzacs can still play footy.
2. Good teams are already adapting for Suaalii
The young midfielder should take it as a compliment and a challenge, but smart teams are already finding a way to counter him. In Ireland’s case, it was their ability to negate his aerial prowess from restarts – especially in the second half. The Irish would have watched Suaalii dominate England and had clearly done a lot of work on it, using 198cm No.6 Tadhg Beirne as the jumper in a three-man pod to receive Noah Lolesio’s kicks. The window for using the element of surprise shuts pretty quickly in rugby.
Taniela Tupou on the burst against Ireland.Credit: Getty Images
3. Interfering TMOs do it again
World Rugby talked up their “shape of the game” summit and has introduced some decent changes to speed up the game, but the influence of the TMO seems to be growing. That’s a bit like filling up a V8 with petrol but still allowing some bloke in the passenger seat to pull the handbrake every minute. There were three instances during the Test when the TMO got involved, play was halted, replays were watched and the flow was killed – and all for a penalty. Rugby is self-sabotaging in a futile search for perfection, and it has opened a can of worms: you can clearly hear through the referees’ mic that players are now asking for replays at every other ruck in the hope of getting a penalty.
4. Good signs for Waratahs
The Dan McKellar era started with an encouraging 43-17 win against the Kubota Spears in Japan on Friday, but the development of Max Jorgensen during the Wallabies tour – and of course Suaalii’s arrival – must have delighted the new coach. Jorgensen is going from top Super Rugby prospect to genuine Test outside back at a rate of knots. He looks robust, composed and fast – he still had a lot of work to do for that try against Ireland even though the space had been created by Lolesio and Tom Wright. A Waratahs back line of Jake Gordon, Tane Edmed, Darby Lancaster, Lalakai Foketi, Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii, Jorgensen and Andrew Kellaway looks like it has a lot of points in it.
Ireland’s $30m loss another wake-up call
In the build-up to the Wallabies Test, the IRFU announced they had lost $30 million in the past year, in the latest sign of the code’s financial issues. Of course, all unions lose revenue in a World Cup year, but it’s not as if the tournament is a one-off, unexpected event.
If successful unions such as Ireland – who would have pocketed about $10m from winning the Six Nations – are losing tens of millions every four years, there are clearly issues that go far beyond Australian rugby’s own financial problems.
Where will all this end up? Probably Qatar as part of the new Nations Cup.
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