By Wayne Smith
August 25, 2009 Of all the many worrying aspects of the Wallabies' one-point loss to New Zealand in Sydney, perhaps the most disturbing is their failure to set up for a drop goal.
After Dan Carter steered over his nerveless penalty goal shot to put the All Blacks in front 19-18 with less than two minutes to play, it appears everyone except the Wallabies were thinking thinking "field goal".
Initially it seemed that captain George Smith was switched on to the possibility, as he thundered straight towards the posts after the All Blacks astonishingly turned over the ball not once but twice during this tiny sliver of time. But no.
"At that stage, I was looking at where their defence was and seeing if there was an opportunity to spread it wide or get an overlap," Smith said. "It wasn't intentional to go through the midfield."
Smith assumed "the directors", as he called them, would attend to the big picture. "As a forward, you're more looking at making a dent in the defensive line than consciously setting up for the directors to pot that field goal."
Trouble was, there was only one "director" left on the field when Berrick Barnes was replaced at half-time after taking a head knock - Matt Giteau. And he wasn't thinking drop goal either.
"Not till it was too late," Giteau admitted. "Initially we were looking to spread it wide. We thought we had numbers.
"In hindsight, I probably should have just gone back into the pocket and gone for a field goal. It wasn't until the pass was already made that I actually thought about it."
Small wonder Rocky Elsom questions how valuable all the "valuable lessons" the Wallabies have been handed in recent years really are.

With the clock ticking down, the All Blacks committed themselves to playing totally structured rugby to create a single match-winning opportunity. By contrast, with 1min 27sec remaining, the Wallabies threw themselves harum-scarum into a heroic mission to score a try, something they had been unable to do for the preceeding 78min 33sec.
There is no question that had Barnes been on the field, he instinctively would have recognised what the moment called for.

He proved that against Wales in the 2007 World Cup pool round and proved it again at Newlands a fortnight ago when he realised that with nothing else on, a drop goal was a three-point better return than no return at all.
For that reason alone, it would make sense for him to swap positions with Giteau against South Africa in Perth on Saturday. But there are other more pressing reasons why he needs to move into the playmaking five-eighth position.
Giteau, by his own admission, kicked poorly at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night. While he and Barnes were both on the field, the two of them cancelled out Carter's kicking game but in the second half, especially after the Wallabies lost their other right-footed kicking option in James O'Connor, the All Blacks maestro dominated proceedings.
"I guess the little things are missing ... our kicking for field position, especially mine," Giteau said. "A couple I hit too low and they got charged down. That's something individually I need to look at." Indeed.
Coach Robbie Deans' rationale for playing them in their present positions is that Barnes is able to do a lot more work off the ball at 12 - and there is no denying that. Right now, however, it's the work Barnes can do on the ball that may be the more important.