The rise of Benn Robinson has been quite spectacular and a credit to those who first stuck by him in his early Test career.

Grand plans are dashed in a flash but scrum rises from ashes

Phil Wilkins | November 18, 2009

DUBLIN: The thought at the back of every Australian's mind - the ambition of a 2009 grand slam - flashed before the Wallabies' eyes when the shaven-headed monster of Ireland's pack of a decade was twisted and lifted like an oyster from its shell at Croke Park in Dublin.

Ireland's scrum shuddered and staggered back, and the resultant penalty gave Australia a 13-6 lead, a 55th-minute spectacle to draw delight and disbelief from the gold-coated travelling patriots, a tribute rarely heard since the World Cup-winning hey-days of Ewen McKenzie and Andrew Blades.

And then in two late moments of tangled confusion and flawed defence, the dream was gone, leaving Andrew Slack's 1984 Wallabies alone and unchallenged in legendary status in Australian rugby union. They know John Hayes, Ireland's 125-kilogram and 193-centimetre British & Irish Lions tight-head, as "Bull". All the publicity before the game was about Brian O'Driscoll appearing in his 100th international, 94 for Ireland and six for the British & Irish Lions.

Hayes, 36, has one more cap for Ireland than his celebrated captain. He has a cupboard stuffed with 95 of them, but props rarely get the medals they deserve, just more cotton wool to stem the claret from a cauliflower ear.

Benn Robinson, 25, did it to South Africa's John Smit in Brisbane, and he did it to Hayes at Croke Park, driving, overpowering, and breaking apart the concrete corner of the opposition scrum. It was worth the flight from Australia merely to see the Six Nations champions' foundations crumble.

Robinson is an innocent enough type at short distance, a subdued, physically undaunting, 113kg of comfortably padded furniture, ambling about without drama, a good kid from Eastwood club. Don't believe it. His attitude is intense. He is superbly focused, his innocence concealing the work in the weights room, preparing for the scrummaging and lineout lifting of the modern game.

Jim Williams is Robbie Deans's coaching sidekick, a strong-running centre before he turned to the back row where he became a formidable No.8 for the Wallabies.

But for all his playing and overseas coaching experience, Williams was not a tight forward. Without fanfare, into the Australian camp came a man from Argentina, no mean feat with the size of his shoulders. His name is Patricio Noriega, a dual international prop for both the Pumas and then the Wallabies. And it is to him much of the credit must go for the enhancement of Australia's scrum, an example being the transformation of a mobile 117kg loose-head in Ben Alexander to a hard, eyes-wide-open tight-head.

The scrum was fine, the lineout adequate without being marvellous but defensive lapses in the back line were inevitable and fatal.

The loss of Berrick Barnes's midfield tackling was always a concern, of greater importance than the rampaging of Stirling Mortlock. At best, the centre pairing of Quade Cooper, essentially a five-eighth, and Digby Ioane, a winger, was experimental.

Just when the Wallabies looked home, the Irish capitalised on their midfield insecurity and scored two Test-saving tries. Perhaps it was weariness of the mind. More likely it was the alternating of Matt Giteau and Cooper at five-eighth that caused the momentary confusion for O'Driscoll to career through untouched. Whatever, the dream of repeating the 1984 Wallabies' performances was gone.

David Pocock was man-of-the-match but once again it was Robinson who provided the stimulation and inspiration for the future for the Wallabies to win their last two Tests.