Australia v Italy Spiro's Perspective

Very little here that I don't agree with, pretty much bang on the money for mine!

Connolly's Wallabies dish up a comedy routine

Spiro Zavos
Tuesday, November 14, 2006

"DO YOU want to hear a joke?" comedian and sports tragic Vince Sorrenti asked a large gathering of supporters at a lunch to farewell the Wallabies on their way to winning the 1999 World Cup in Cardiff. A guttural roar from the suits encouraged Sorrenti to yell out his punchline: "The All Blacks!" The explosion of laughter lasted for more than a minute.

Now, less than a year before the next World Cup in France, the joke is on the Wallabies.

While Australia were dreadful on a sunny afternoon in Rome against a tough but skill-deficient Italian side, hours later on a wet night in Lyons the All Blacks gave a sublime demonstration of the terrible beauty of rugby played as a collision and running sport.

Let's go to the tape. The first sequence of scrums in the Test against Italy exposed the Wallabies as a sham scrumming unit. The first feed, from an Italian put-in, led to a steady scrum. The Italians had no problems, then or throughout the Test, in controlling their scrums.

The first Australian feed led to a collapsed scrum. This sort of shambles continued throughout. At one point, after awarding another scrum penalty against the Wallabies, referee Nigel Owens penalised Al Baxter. An exasperated Owens complained: "You made no attempt to bind."

Switch to the France-New Zealand Test. The first New Zealand scrum resulted in a short-arm penalty to the All Blacks. The first French scrum was turned 90 degrees, giving the All Blacks the scrum feed, which resulted in a try. In subsequent scrums the French pack was monstered.

This year we have been told the Wallabies scrum is "a work in progress". The work clearly is a demolition job, not a building job. This brings us to an important point. How effective has Michael Foley been as the restart coach? The scrum is probably worse now than it was last year.

There seems to be too much reliance on the props and not enough emphasis on the entire pack shoving. Is Nathan Sharpe, for instance, a weak link at scrum time? Why is Baxter retained when it is clear he cannot scrummage to an international level?

The time has arrived for the ARU to intervene. Somehow Andrew Blades, the scrum guru who was wasted by Eddie Jones, has to be made an offer he can't refuse to come back and do the same effective repair job on the Wallabies scrum that Mike Cron has done for New Zealand.

And another important point. When is Mat Rogers going to be dropped as starting five-eighth? After every Test he plays at five-eighth there are excuses for his woeful play. The fact is he does not have the skills to play as a Test five-eighth. His passing game is poor. His kicking game, except for long touch-finders, is limited.

And another important point. John Connolly, please don't play Stirling Mortlock and Lote Tuqiri in the centres. Two barging centres, neither of whom has a passing game, will clutter up the midfield. The best display by an Australian centre this season was given by Scott Staniforth for the Western Force against the Crusaders. Did any of the Wallabies selectors take in what happened that day in Perth?

This brings us back to the timing of Sorrenti's joke. In 1998, the year before the 1999 World Cup triumph, the Wallabies were in a similar state of disarray as they are now. Greg Smith had coached the Wallabies to a record loss against the Springboks at Pretoria. John O'Neill, the then chief executive of the ARU, sacked Smith and brought in Rod Macqueen. The coaching genius of Macqueen is demonstrated by the fact that 13 players involved in the 61-22 hiding at Pretoria were in the 22 that won the World Cup final against France a year later.

It is possible to turn around the Wallabies before the 2007 World Cup. But only in the wildest flights of fancy. So far Connolly and his coaching staff have not shown they are capable of creating any sort of Macqueen-like transformation. "Do you want to hear a rugby joke? … The Wallabies!"

Rating for the performance against Italy: three out of 10.

Couldn`t agree more with that one burgs, spiro is right on the money, and you have constantly called for Baxters head, now the chorus is getting deafening, so connolley has to turn on his hearing aid and ditch the useless pr*ck, I`ve scrummed against better golden oldies...