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Robbie Deans wants Wallabies to copy All Blacks' game against Springboks
- Wayne Smith
- From: The Australian
- July 13, 2010 12:00AM
COACH Robbie Deans will ask his players to emulate the All Blacks' tactic of not allowing the Springboks to settle.
That will be Australia's mission when its Tri-Nations campaign begins against South Africa on July 24 in Brisbane, but first the Wallabies need to be settled themselves.
The Australian team has been in a constant state of flux over the past six weeks and while some things have become clearer _ for starters, hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau won't be back before the spring tour and instead will undergo surgery on his problem ankle next week _ even some of the intended solutions have become muddled.
Lachlan Turner was brought into the squad yesterday along with Drew Mitchell, Cameron Shepherd and Nick Cummins to help the Wallabies ride out injuries to wingers Peter Hynes and Digby Ioane, but there is every chance his own name might soon feature on the casualty list.
Turner, newly named in the Australian sevens squad for the Delhi Commonwealth Games, injured his hand in club rugby on the weekend and was scheduled for scans late yesterday to determine the extent of the damage.
With Ioane not expected to play the first Tri-Nations Test of his career before the July 31 Bledisloe clash in Melbourne and Hynes unsure when his problem knee will settle down, Australia's once-envious wing depth is now tissue-thin.
Deans will spend this week assessing how far advanced halfback Will Genia, loosehead Benn Robinson, hooker Stephen Moore, flanker Scott Higginbotham and lock Rob Simmons are in their journeys back from injury and whether they are sufficiently match-fit to tackle the Springboks at Suncorp Stadium.
But while Deans still is unclear about his roster, he has certainly sharpened his tactical focus after watching the All Blacks shut the world champion Springboks out of the Auckland Test on Saturday.
"The fact that the All Blacks essentially didn't allow them to settle for 70 minutes was what was impressive about it," Deans said. "They didn't allow the Springboks to get their game going."
That's what he wants the Wallabies to replicate in Brisbane, keeping the heavyweight Boks so off-balance they can't unload their usual hammer blows. "But we'd never underestimate what it takes to achieve that."
On the evidence of the Eden Park Test, the Wallabies should brace themselves for a deluge of high balls, but in Deans's opinion, it was the All Blacks' unrelenting pressure that forced the Springboks to revert to a kick-chase game so imprecise that veteran New Zealand fullback Mils Muliaina was able to run riot in reply.
"I wouldn't underestimate the Springboks' ability to carry the ball," Deans warned. "They were forced into that situation (of putting up the high ball). It wasn't as if that was a choice they made. They were forced into that choice."
Winger Adam Ashley-Cooper, one of the players steeling himself for a Springbok kicking barrage at Suncorp Stadium, gave thanks yesterday that the South Africans will be without their most dangerous kicker -- no, not Bakkies Botha, but injured maestro Fourie du Preez.
"They've got great depth at halfback but it won't give them 'the du Preez Factor' at Suncorp, which we're pretty happy about," said Ashley-Cooper. "He's a massive loss for them."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225890955785
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