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Wayne Smith | June 22, 2009
Article from: The Australian
WHEN Wallabies coach Robbie Deans announced yesterday he would select his full-strength team against France in Sydney on Saturday he meant his "real" full-strength team. And he will need it.
It was not that long ago that Wallabies coaches who used the "R" word -- rotation -- found themselves carpeted, but while the concept that players cannot be sent out for Test after Test without breaking down has become better understood and more acceptable, it seems the word itself has lost none of its taboo.
The French Test always was going to be the one Deans used as a full dress rehearsal for next month's Tri-Nations but events in New Zealand over the past nine days have taken a dryly considered plan and elevated it to an urgent necessity.
France's well-deserved Dunedin Test victory over the All Blacks on June 13 and its unlucky near-miss in Saturday's rematch in Wellington have put Deans and the Wallabies on notice that anything less than their best will not be good enough on Saturday at ANZ Stadium.
"This weekend is going to be a ripper, no two ways about that," warned Deans. "They've got a good side. You don't beat the All Blacks once and get that close twice without being that. And in recent times they have suffered at our hands."
In fact, three times in the past year France has gone down to Deans' Wallabies but from what he has observed of them against the All Blacks, Marc Lievremont's team has taken on a harder, sharper edge. "They've been quite brutal at the breakdowns. It's obviously a conscious ploy as well as a physical capability and I have no doubt they will be no different this week."
Precisely how Australia will combat this brutality at the breakdown remains to be seen, but Deans virtually ruled out any repeat of his extraordinary experiment for the final 13 minutes of the Melboune Test when he ran a backrow of three of the world's best openside flankers, George Smith, Phil Waugh and David Pocock.
Certainly, he said, he would never start a match with such a mobile if height-challenged combination, although he left open the slender possibility of finishing with them. Certainly Italian coach Nick Mallett, speaking after his side's five-tries-to-nil defeat at Melbourne's Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, was in no rush to anoint the Wallabies as favourites against France.
"I think Australia is going to have a very hard game," Mallett predicted. "I think Australia has a very good pack when they pick their best team. But these sides are very evenly matched. France have played well on this tour. They matched New Zealand physically, no problem and they have great backs with very good pace."
Although the Wallabies are already three matches into a 15-game season, they have been operating in something of a vacuum. Their runaway victory over the Barbarians was no gauge whatever and if the two Test victories over Italy taught them anything, it's that they might not have come as far as they have been telling themselves.
As Mallett said in his post-match press conference, there was a curious sameness about the Wallabies' winning scorelines in the three Tests against Italy over the past seven months, 30-20 in Padova last November, 31-8 in Canberra and 34-12 in Melbourne.
He had come away on tour expecting the worst, a repeat of the 69-21 thrashing the Wallabies handed Italy on its last visit to Australia in 2005, and he was nothing short of delighted that, as he put it, "by some way the weakest team in the Six Nations" got off so lightly in two away-Tests against the world number-three-ranked nation.
Admittedly the Wallabies put out their "other" full-strength team in Melbourne on Saturday night, but then so too did Italy.
Certainly Deans is not kidding himself that his team is where it needs to be. "We've got some elements that have been good for us, but we've also got some indicators that the French will look at and think: Gee, there's an opportunity there. But we're aware of that. It's how effectively we deal with it."
Certainly the pleasing elements outweigh the negative indicators. Foremost among them is halfback Luke Burgess who continues to reinforce the opinion that he is one of those rare players whose form improves against better quality opposition.
His sniping runs from the ruck base against Italy added another dimension to Australia's existing attack, but more than that, they made it easier for five-eighth Berrick Barnes and Quade Cooper to attack by slowing the line speed of the Italian defence.
"He creates doubt," said Deans of his halfback. "He gives them a lot more time and space because of the uncertainty in the defence."
Another significant plus for the Wallabies was the strong return to form of second-rower Dean Mumm who dramatically lifted his workrate after an unaccountably quiet match at blindside flanker in Canberra.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
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