Australia overcomes scrum deficiencies to down England in Cook Cup

[Timbo]

* Jim Morton
* From: AAP
* June 12, 2010 8:30PM



AUSTRALIA'S scrummaging deficiencies were terribly exposed as the Wallabies conceded two penalty tries but still survived for a tense 27-17 Cook Cup victory on Saturday night.

Sporting their most inexperienced front-row in 27 years, the depleted Wallabies scrum was completely outmuscled by the grizzled England pack at Subiaco Oval.

It was a demolition job of the same magnitude of harrowing losses to England at Twickenham in 2005 and Marseille at the 2007 World Cup.

But the brilliance of Australia's backline and their superiority in loose play ensured they took the opening Test in the two-match series.

Under-siege Wallabies halfback Luke Burgess gained redemption with a brilliant all-round display to be narrowly tipped out by two-try five-eighth Quade Cooper for the man-of-the-match award.

Burgess superbly set up Cooper's first try in the 31st minute for a 14-0 lead while Cooper sealed the deal by starting and finishing his second five-pointer, as well as kicking a late penalty goal.

The Wallabies' brick-wall defence on their line was also crucial to the result as it repelled wave after wave of close-quarters attack.

"You find out what you're made of down there when there's so many phases on your line,'' said skipper Rocky Elsom.

"There was some pleasing aspects - the fact they didn't cross the line is a plus.

"They got over it but they didn't put it down.''

Missing their four best front-rowers plus regular forwards Wycliff Palu and James Horwill, the Australian pack - boasting just two caps in the front-row - was obliterated in the scrums.

England knew they would never have a better opportunity to add to their mere two victories - both recorded by their world beating 2003 outfit - over the Wallabies on Australian soil.

Coach Robbie Deans' worst fears were realised in the 54th minute when the English pack smashed their rookie front-row repeatedly on their line and Welsh referee Nigel Owens whistled a penalty try.

The score closed to 14-10 but Cooper immediately hit back by putting Digby Ioane down the left touchline with a superb cut out pass.

Tighthead prop Salesi Ma'afu was sin-binned before Owens awarded the second penalty try in the 70th minute which drew England back to 21-17 down.

Ma'afu, Saia Faingaa and Ben Daley were given the searching examination they were expecting early on but by the end of the first half they were starting to gain some parity.

In every other facet of play, the Wallabies were superior and made a series of busts and half-breaks but last passes often went astray.

Australia: 27 (Q Cooper 2, R Elsom tries; J O'Connor 3/3 conversions, penalty goal; Cooper penalty goal)

England: 17 (2 penalty tries; T Flood 2/2 conversions, penalty goal)

---------- Post added at 21:04 ---------- Previous post was at 20:57 ----------

Two surprises for me:
1. Luke Burgess stood up
2. Ben Daley fell down

[tragic]

It's great to beat the Poms! And not a Johnny field goal in sight.
Nice to see Quade give and take tackles, too.
Watching those penalty tries was painful, though...

[Timbo]

Watching those penalty tries was painful, though...

Oh wasn't it????

But the fantastic indomitable defence was great to watch - and the ability to scythe through the total lack of Pommy defence - and we did OK at lineout and at the breakdown.....

Now - just let's find a solution to the scrums! And Trestle and Donut are not the answer.
Pek had to feel put out and surely Fairbrother is worth considering.

I need to watch the replay, but from my seat it seemed that Daley failed to stay on his feet in a single scrum. Maafu is probably worth another run - Slipper was not really on long enough to form an opinion.

[tragic]

Wallaby defence was excellent They must be sore as hell - there were a couple of marathons there.

[zimeric]

Slipper at tighthead with 7 in the scrum was better than Maafu with a full pack.. go figure?

Quade was good.. no excellent and Burgess was brilliant for a change. Digby still has butterfingers and Sharpe seemed to take over as captain with 10 to go... Captain my captain!!

[beige]

Sharpe seemed to take over as captain with 10 to go...

Odd wasn't it?

[jazza93]

Quade was good.. no excellent and Burgess was brilliant for a change. Digby still has butterfingers and Sharpe seemed to take over as captain with 10 to go... Captain my captain!!

Sums up the game well ^^

And all without Giteau, once we get him back the backs will be un stoppable. And while the front row also needs to be changed, Hynes needs to take a spot in the first XV next week. Maybe Digby could use a week off.

[GIGS20]

Agree with Jazza, but don't know where the new front row will come from......How are Steven Moore, TPN and Benn Robinson tracking with injuries?

Pekko needs to play next week, with some more experience as it gets fit.

The commentry said Digby played well, but for the life of me I can't think of anything he did (other than one long run in the first half setting up Quade for a try) Mitchell was more prominent for me, even though he didn't get a try assist.

[tic]

Jeez you blokes are hard on Digby - his performance was solid although he didn't see a lot of the ball. One howler on the negative side.

QC was MoM by a mile. Burgess had a good game for a change, but his passing is still crap.

Front row - well, at least they learnt a few lessons. That was virtually our third string front row - they kept their heads up and didn't stop trying. They were not supported enough by the back five at scrum time - probably because they had tackled themselves to a standstill.

[zimeric]

he had more than one howler... tic you always accuse the force crowd of having rose coloured glasses but seriously dude.. Digby had the worst game ive seen him have in a long time.. (and i do like him)

he totally fluffed that up & under and also butchered a certain try by trying to step at full sprint far too late and ended up falling over himself.. not to mention the dropped passes in the second half...

[tragic]

From The Times...

BIZARRE. Here we had two teams, which between them had all the rugby talents.

England had a scrum, nothing else. Not a sausage. No attack or defence or passion or rhythm. Meanwhile, the talented Australians had the rest. They had skills, gas, vision, craft — everything, in fact, bar a scrum.

England’s scrum forced two penalty tries and 11 penalties in all. Their authority up front saved them from a 50-point defeat and, in effect, assembled a screen around their rampaging deficiencies, like they do around a dead horse at a race track.

And England are still flogging that deceased animal. Let’s find perspective and remind ourselves that Australia played yesterday without nine first-choice men, at least seven of whom are core players. Their world-class props were absent and they fielded a front row with one Test start between them.
Related Links

The props, Ben Daley and Salesi Ma’afu, were tragic-comically out of their depth. It was as if Brazil had turned up for a football match with their shining lights and picked up Sid and Alf from the pub to make up the numbers.

England were execrable in the first half, with no kicking game, no kick-chase and a staggering number of missed tackles. But in the last 10 minutes of the half and through most of the second, powered on by their scrum, they had tons of field position and possession.

And yet it was here that the comparison between England and Australia as a footballing force became every bit as embarrassing as that between the teams up front. England’s hinge players, Nick Easter at 8, Danny Care at 9, Toby Flood at 10 and Shontayne Hape at 12, were desperately lacking in cohesion, invention and class. Flood has no armoury to lead a team into attack. Hape was a ludicrous selection and the Bath reserve spent the afternoon in a dream world of doubt.

Afterwards, England’s Steve Thompson courageously admitted that England had become fixated and drained by their endless attempts to push Australia over their own line. But Steve, how else were you going to score? It was impossible not to feel sorry for the giant figure of Martin Johnson afterwards as he listed England’s faults.

This England are in chains of the mind. They are earnest, but they are unable to play, to release themselves, to be exuberant. The coaches have lost them, if they ever had them. The backroom is well-populated but the door is shut. Not chasing kicks is not a technical shortcoming, it is a lack of passion.

Australia were beautifully marshalled by Quade Cooper at fly-half, who ensured that Matt Giteau was hardly missed. Young James O’Connor at full-back showed all the freedom of expression that was missing from Ben Foden, his opposite number. Australia could break England’s line at will, usually down Hape’s channel, and if they finished only three of about seven dangerous moves, then you fear that they can certainly improve in Sydney next weekend.

Australia scored two delightful tries by half-time, though this was a poor reward for their attacking brilliance. They had already blown a try when Cooper sliced though, found Barnes inside and all Barnes had to do was make one more inside pass to send O’Connor to the posts. Amazingly, Barnes opted to pass back towards defenders.

The first try came when Care put in a poor kick, although, at least, he bothered to chase it, arriving like the Lone Ranger with no Tonto or posse. Drew Mitchell ran it back through a disgracefully depopulated England defence, Australia moved it to the right, Daly set up the ball in midfield and Cooper, O’Connor and Mitchell put Elsom over.

Later in the half, England made a desperate mess of a defensive lineout and conceded the next lineout on their own throw. Australia sent long passes across midfield, set the ball up and the dangerous Luke Burgess, playing superbly in the absence of Will Genia, cut past Hape and Cooper came up the middle and scored. Australia butchered at least two more grand chances.

England then gathered themselves and gained their first attacking platform. Could England get something back by half-time? The move went on and on — through two penalties and a handful of scrums and linesout they tried to plod over from what seemed to be about 200 pick-and-drives, which made an average of a millimetre a time — but when they went wide the travails of Care, Flood and Hape saw it all peter out and Australia disappeared leading 14-0. It could have been 28-0 — not bad going for a team with no props.

The second half became an exercise in pushover tries. How many times could England force attacking scrums and convinced Mr Owens that they deserved penalty tries? Australia dipped as they lost composure and as series after series of scrums went crashing together.

Suddenly, there were signs of England life. Flood kicked a penalty after an Australian collapse and then, in the next wave of indeterminate England attacks ending in England attacking scrums, Australia collapsed and the first penalty try was awarded.

If England needed hours of attack to score, Australia needed one ball. They won a rare ball in the middle of the half, Cooper floated a long pass to Iaone on the left and followed up to reclaim the inside pass and score.

England put their noses down once again. There were more scrums, Ma’afu collapsed once too often and was sent to the sin-bin, and soon after that referee Owens was forced to award another penalty try. If only England had any kind of alternative attacking weapon they might even have come back to earn one one of the most unlikely victories of their rugby history.

O’Connor kicked two calming penalties as England tried to force the ball in attack and the battle of the extremes of style was over — ending in favour of the stylish team. Where do England go from here? Sydney on Saturday is the short answer. Whether this England as a team and coaching group have any further to travel after that is open to the most serious doubt. A scrum is something but it is not remotely enough.

Star man: Quade Cooper (Australia)

Scorers

Australia
Tries: Elsom 17, Cooper 30, 56
Con: O’Connor (3)
Pen: O’Connor, Cooper

England
Tries: Penalty 53, 70
Cons: Flood (2)
Pen: Flood
Yellow card: Australia: Ma’afu
Referee: N Owens (WRFU)

Attendance: 32,228

____
Where's my "original link" link?
Here 'tis again: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle7148998.ece

[Sheikh]

Fairly balanced article from the Times. England had one weapon and only got inventive once that started to become effective. But by then Australia should have been so far out of sight that England's scrum became irrelevant.

The Saffer and AB front-rows must have been watching last night and licking their lips. Getting Moore, Polota-Nua and Robinson back isn't the answer - Australia need more than three world-class front-rowers to survive a World Cup.

The thing is, during the Super 14 the Australian scrums weren't outclassed; not in the way the were last night. Picking a front-row who are used to each other, even if they aren't the best individual players, would help at the moment. (BTW, Fairbrother, Whittaker and Cowan are all fit! )

[todd4]

No-one can do humour like the English press....

[Burgs]

Our Front Row was not good, there is no denying it however, they weren't as bad as the Ref made them out to be either. It was blatantly clear that the Penalties were being milked by illegal scrummaging, almost always on the side he wasn't attending to.
In terms of staying on his feet, Daley probably achieved that more often than the fat bastard that was trying to drag him down!
There was debate going into the match about the preparedness of these fellas to be starting Test plays and I think that was fairly clearly demonstrated that the answer is "probably yes, but not all at one time".
I guess Deans has to stick with his Squad once selected however, all three of these guys would have been selected as development players to start off the bench and ease their way onto the big stage.
Once the extent of the injury toll was fully realized the call should have been made to a more senior player to at least fill one of the positions to sure up one part of the scrum.
Pretty sure all of the following where available:
Pek Cowan,
Tim Fairbrother,
Matt Dunning,
Nic Henderson,
Greg Holmes,
Guy Shepherdson.

Assuming fitness, I think they should have looked to go for an all Brumbies starting three by recalling Shepherdson and starting Edmonds with Salesi, or an all Reds combination by recalling Greg Holmes to join Faingaa and Slipper.
I don't think Salesi has the maturity to be expected to be the senior Prop.
However, my own "fix" would have been to go for Cowan-Whittaker-Fairbrother for the one match as a serviceable unit of first pick S14 teammates used to working together.
Whittaker and Fairbrother will both end up Test players and are both equally capable at that level than some of the other debutants.
I think 1-2-3, followed by 4-5 are the combinations that existing Club relationships should be recognised the most in making line call decisions on selection.

The rest of the Wallaby selection blew the poms off the park, though not very impressed with Mumm...again...

There was only one leader out there and he wasn't "wearing the Captains armband"

[travelling_gerry]

Totally agree about the Captain. Rocky should have been up to the Ref every time we were penalised and seeking accountability. Yet he would look dumb and walk back.

It was only late in the second half that Sharpie seemed to "take over'.