0
Wayne Smith | August 11, 2009
Article from: The Australian
FORMER Wallabies coach John Connolly says the moment has arrived for his successor Robbie Deans to consider reviving the promising 2006 experiment of using Matt Giteau at halfback.
Pressure is mounting on Deans for a change at halfback after Luke Burgess again put his side under unnecessary pressure with wayward passes in the weekend's Tri-Nations Test against the Springboks in Cape Town.
His erratic service directly cost the Wallabies three points at Newlands when hooker Stephen Moore was isolated having to scramble back to collect one of his errant passes in the 12th minute, allowing Morne Steyn to kick his third penalty goal. But the price could have been as high as 10 points, with another misdirected Burgess pass killing a highly promising attack early in the second half.
It was Deans who made Burgess a Wallaby and he has stuck to him, believing he can develop into a world-class halfback. But in the Wallabies' two Tri-Nations Tests so far this season, the Waratahs No 9 has struggled to provide any real direction from the ruckbase, and his combination with five-eighth Giteau is so laboured it creaks.
It would be unfair to lay the blame for Giteau's own unimposing form at the feet of Burgess, but the Wallabies cannot afford to have their point-of-difference player not making a difference.
The simplest option would be for Deans to substitute Will Genia for Burgess at halfback, a switch that worked well for Australia in the final 25 minutes in Cape Town.
Indeed, rather than limiting himself to that straight swap, Deans could go the whole way, installing this year's Reds pairing of Genia and Berrick Barnes as his new halves pairing and moving Giteau out to his original Test position, inside centre.
Barnes won a host of new admirers for the way he took charge of proceedings at key moments in Cape Town, most especially in the brief period Australia was down to 13 men on either side of halftime.
So well did he direct operations that the Springboks scarcely had a chance to exploit their numerical advantage.
Before his successor went down that path, Connolly said, he should at least re-examine restoring Giteau to halfback - the position he filled in all four Tests of the 2006 spring tour.
"The dilemma is that Giteau is the best 9 (halfback), 10 (five-eighth) and 12 (inside centre)," Connolly said. "But as a halfback, his good left boot means the Wallabies don't have to pass the ball backwards before putting it into touch."
As vital as Giteau's kicking game could yet be at halfback, especially with the box kick now, regrettably, dominating proceedings, the best argument that can be made for the switch is a statistical one.
If Giteau is, as most critics would agree, Australia's best and most dangerous player, he needs to have the ball in his hands more than any other player. And the place for that is halfback.
The IRB's Game Analysis of last year's Tri-Nations series reveals the Wallabies halfback had the ball in hand more than anyone else in the entire tournament. A total of 397 passes - 46 per cent of all passes thrown by the Wallabies in the series - were made by the halfback.
As for sceptics who think the best playmaker should always be at five-eighth, the Springboks are doing very nicely with the world's best player, Fourie du Preez, at halfback.
Ultimately, Connolly realised the best use of his slender resources was to stick with Giteau at inside centre for the 2007 World Cup and continue with George Gregan at halfback, but the 2006 experiment, while discontinued, was anything but a failure.
As radical as Connolly's suggestion might be, a Wallabies 9-10-12 combination of Giteau, Barnes and James O'Connor at inside centre would be a handful for opposing defences. All three pose a genuine running and kicking threat.
It may be that with Deans already having to find a new centre combination following the loss of injured skipper Stirling Mortlock he does not want to feed more changes than necessary into the system.
Even installing O'Connor at fullback to release Adam Ashley-Cooper to replace Mortlock at outside centre brings more than enough upheaval.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by jargan83
War is Gods may of teaching Americans Geography
