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I have a hunch that Mr Hinton may not be the most impartial of reporters
Woodcock shrugs off dodgy scrum tactics
Marc Hinton
Monday, July 16, 2007
It's not Tony Woodcock's way to complicate things. So he certainly wasn't intending to spend too much time scratching his head this week over the thorny issue of those cunning Wallabies managing to negate the All Black scrum advantage last time they banged heads in anger.
In many ways it was the story of the match that night in Melbourne back at the end of June when the Australians managed to pull the equivalent of the Great Heist. Or the Great Con as some would prefer to think of it.
In short they pulled a brilliant swifty on referee Marius Jonker, effectively taking the All Blacks' scrum dominance out of the equation. Operating under the principle that if every scrum went to the deck there was a 50-50 chance they would get calls their way, the Wallabies forced the match official to award a succession of short-arm penalties.
And their plan worked a treat. The referee basically dished the penalties out evenly and to all intents and purposes there were very few, if any, legitimate scrums in the match.
It was a brilliant ploy by the Australians, and well executed by halfback George Gregan who refused to put the ball in while the Wallabies scrum was under anything resembling pressure. Which tends to be the case every time they engage against the All Blacks these days. He also chirped endlessly at Jonker (as he does) to place further pressure on the embattled whistle-blower.
What happened was that a key facet of the New Zealand game was effectively blunted, and undoubtedly this aided the Wallabies, hardly world-beaters at scrum time themselves, in securing one of the great Bledisloe upsets, downing Graham Henry's hot favourites 20-15.
Saturday night's return fixture at Eden Park not only has both key pieces of silverware for this part of the year - the Bledisloe and Tri-Nations trophies - up for grabs, but it is sure to bring the scrum contests back under the spotlight.
The Aussies will whine this week about illegal aspects of the All Blacks' set piece, and will no doubt be keen for it again to be a non-factor in the match. Let's face it Matt Dunning against Carl Hayman head-to-head is no fair contest.
But if the All Blacks are getting set to wheel out some different tactics to call the Wallabies' bluff at Eden park this weekend, then loosehead prop Tony Woodcock certainly wasn't letting on.
Where he stands - and it's pretty close to the coalface - Melbourne was just one of those nights when the right sort of adjustments weren't made.
"I think we've just got to be patient,? said Woodcock who will earn his 33rd test cap on Saturday night. "Obviously there were a couple of calls [in Melbourne] everyone was pretty unsure about from the ref. But you've just got to deal with whatever way it's called on the night."
"At times it was [puzzling], but you've just got to adapt to what the ref's seen. Sometimes you might not agree, but you've still got to adapt."
Woodcock, the most under-rated of the All Blacks' scrummaging weapons, did concede that the Wallabies' plan had worked to a large degree. He didn't say so, but the New Zealanders' reponse on Saturday night could be worth the price of admission alone.
"I suppose they conjured up a strategy there and we were possibly a wee bit slow to react to what they were doing," Said Woodcock. "We've just got to be patient and not push the ref too far with what we're doing."
Asked if he felt Gregan was influencing decisions with his reluctance to put the ball into the scrum, Woodcock pledged the fifth. "It's pretty hard to tell when you've got your head buried. You've just got to trust what the ref calls is right."
Yeah, right.
One thing's for sure - there's not a hint of panic in the All Black camp about form which has been, well, pretty ordinary thus far.
"We've slowly been trying to improve and we're slowly getting there. But we're going to have to be on our game this week and play better.
"Especially in the second half [against the Springboks at the weekend] we showed a bit more patience. We constructed quite a lot but we just didn't quite finish it.
"We realise we're not quite right there. But hopefully in the next wee while we can put things right." Besides, as Woodcock noted, why would anyone be panicking at this stage of events anyway?
"If you recall the last time there was a World Cup we thrashed teams at this time of the year and everyone said we peaked too early. Maybe it's time to tighten up a wee bit, but we've still got to express ourselves and play some footy."
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