Australia under the microscope
Rugby writer Vata Ngobeni looks at the strengths and weaknesses of Australia, one of the contenders for the World Cup
|||Australia must be doing something right at the Rugby World Cup for them to have featured in the knockout stages of every tournament.
Included in their World Cup campaigns are five semi-final appearances and three finals, and they were the first nation to become double world champions after lifting the Webb Ellis trophy in 1991 and 1999.
What the Australians have been able to do with aplomb at tournament rugby is mix their street smartness with the mental fortitude. They can rise above the high pressure that comes from representing their nation at the World Cup.
But often between tournaments their mental toughness has escaped them and they have fallen victim to an inability to find the consistency needed to remain on top of world rugby, unlike their neighbours New Zealand, who have dominated the sport over the years.
Like their southern hemisphere counterparts the All Blacks and the Springboks, the Wallabies have struggled with the depth of their player resources because the rugby union is not top of the country’s sporting pecking order.
The fact that their Super Rugby franchises have enjoyed little fortune in the competition since the heydays of the Brumbies in the mid-2000s has also impacted on them challenging for a place at rugby’s top table.
However, a belief in their abilities has often seen them rise to the occasion prior to and during a World Cup, and they have been the only team in the world to consistently threaten the All Blacks in the lead-up to the sport’s global showpiece.
They will be the first to acknowledge that their road to the 2011 World Cup semi-final was riddled with luck.
As all South Africans will remember, New Zealand referee, Bryce Lawrence, blew in their favour in a one-sided quarter-final encounter against the Springboks in Wellington, which allowed the Wallabies to escape with a narrow victory.
Since their semi-final exit in 2011, the Wallabies have struggled. A series loss to the British and Irish Lions in 2013 and a run of coaching upheavals have undermined their confidence.
Robbie Deans’s tenure as Wallaby coach came to an abrupt end in 2012 as player power won the day, but the failure of his successor, Ewen McKenzie, to replicate his winning culture also had many doubting that the Wallabies would be a factor come 2015.
But in stepped Michael Cheika, the charismatic coach who had won silverware with Leinster in the Heineken Cup in 2009 and with the Waratahs in Super Rugby last year.
Cheika has not only improved the fortunes of Australia in Super Rugby, but his boldness in bringing new minds into the Wallaby management set-up - like former Wallaby flyhalf Stephen Larkham, Nathan Grey as defence coach and former Argentinian international Mario Ledesma as forwards and set-piece coach - has proved to be a stroke of genius.
Cheika has not been scared to make some hard decisions for the benefit of the team. In similar fashion to the way he got rid of McKenzie’s management aides, so he has left out former captain James Horwill and in-form scrumhalf Nic White.
And it was Cheika who surprised all by recalling Matt Giteau from France for the Rugby Championship. He was repaid when Giteau showed his class by engineering the Boks’s demise this year.
To that must be added the prized scalp of the All Blacks - their first victory over their neighbours in 11 Tests and first since 2011 - and their first Rugby Championship title since 2011.
On the back of that the Wallabies will go into the World Cup with the belief that they have the ability and mental fortitude not only to emerge from their pool of death with hosts England and Wales, but also to go all the way and win an unprecedented third World Cup.
Strengths
If ever there was an award for a street-smart team, the Wallabies would win it.
What they lack in technical ability they surely make up for in their ability to figure a way out of trouble.
They often struggle to dominate the set pieces, but have always had masters at the breakdown, men such as the present side’s David Pocock, Michael Hooper and Scott Fardy.
They will surely be the team that gains possession from the breakdown, and from that they will unleash the might of their dangerous backline.
The recall of mercurial playmaker Giteau from the rugby wilderness has been a master stroke by Cheika.
Giteau could just be the spark to ignite one of rugby’s most lethal backlines. With good form shown by the likes of Adam Ashley-Cooper, Israel Folau, Rob Horne and Tevita Kuridrani this year, the Wallaby backline will be a handful for many teams.
Weaknesses
Their lack of grunt up front makes them vulnerable to being on the back foot, especially in the tight matches that they are likely to face in the knockout stages of the tournament.
Their scrum looks a lot steadier with Scott Sio, but they will need their entire tight five, in fact the entire pack, to scrum as a unit if they are to dominate at scrum time.
The line-out is another facet where the Wallabies have struggled over the years, and without good quality ball from that set piece, their potent backs will be rendered null and void.
If they have any ambitions of progressing far into the tournament, their pack of forwards will need to front up physically against heavier and better-drilled packs in the competition.
Analysis
The Wallabies do indeed do something right at World Cups, and with Cheika at the helm are more likely than ever to be serious contenders for the trophy.
Independent on Saturday