Greg Growden | July 24, 2009


THE Wallabies front-row has vowed that it has learnt from the errors of Eden Park, using it as an enormous wake-up call before the Springboks Test in Cape Town on August 8.

After enjoying a steady and strong improvement over the past year, the Australian scrum struggled in the opening Bledisloe Cup match, while tight-head prop Al Baxter was targeted by South African referee Craig Joubert.

On several occasions, the Wallabies lost the ascendancy when Joubert penalised Baxter for an incorrect bind. As well, the All Blacks succeeded in stifling the Wallabies set piece.

Wallabies loose-head prop Benn Robinson, who has had an excellent season in both the Super 14 and at Test level, said yesterday that the pack had over the past week closely analysed what went wrong in Auckland.

The end result has been several passionate scrummaging sessions during the Wallabies training camp in Sydney this week.

"What we need to do is be able to really adapt our scrummaging, especially if we are being penalised for contentious issues," Robinson said yesterday.
"We have to be able to adapt to the referee.

"It's about playing the conditions and the referee. What happened at Eden Park cannot happen again, because we can ill afford to give away as many penalties again, especially in tight times."

What exasperated Robinson and co was that the experience came after a lot of good lead-up work in the domestic Tests against Italy and France.

"Look at the Italians," Robinson said. "They really pride themselves on their scrummaging, and in years gone past have caused trouble to various Wallaby packs. The French caused a lot of damage when they were playing the Kiwis.

"You can take a lot out of how we performed against them, but in the end you're only as good as your last performance, and the one on the weekend wasn't up to par."

Robinson agreed that the episode had shaken the forwards up at the right time - just before one of their most difficult forward assignments of the season - the Springboks pack at home.

"After seeing their scrummaging performances against the Lions we need to be another step above to be able to deal with them," Robinson said.

He will be among a big group of Wallabies who will play club football in Sydney tomorrow, combining with Ben Alexander and Matt Dunning in the Eastwood front-row against Warringah.

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