Wallabies coach won't wield the axe ahead of next Tri Nations match

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By Jim Morton
August 30, 2009 Wallabies coach Robbie Deans will resist calls for mass changes to protect his rebuilding team, which is staring at a Tri Nations whitewash.
Deans looks set to make some adjustments to the outfit smashed by a four-try Springbok onslaught at Subiaco Oval but fears the damage that tampering too much could bring to inexperienced players.

Queensland halfback Will Genia looks set to replace the erratic Luke Burgess while Berrick Barnes (concussion) has declared his fitness to give selectors the option of bringing him into five-eighth and moving Matt Giteau to inside centre.

Giteau looked far more effective when he moved to his original No.12 position late in the game as Quade Cooper made a big impact at flyhalf for the Wallabies to score two late consolation tries.

But Cooper's fine cameo outside the sharp Genia was tarnished by a strained medial ligament which has him in serious doubt for Saturday night's return match at Suncorp Stadium.

Veteran lock Nathan Sharpe (shoulder) is expected to be fit but is no certainty to return after a solid comeback by Mark Chisholm.

A 32-25 scoreline belied South Africa's dominance as they outplayed and outmuscled the home side for a record high scoreline on Australian soil.

The Wallabies fourth straight loss leaves them vulnerable to a winless Tri-Nations with two Tests left, concluding with their September 20 clash with New Zealand in Wellington.

Deans admitted he was considering changes but, with very few experienced players waiting in the wings, indicated he was reluctant to move into experimentation mode.

He's already been badly bitten once by making wholesale changes with an eye to future - in Johannesburg 12 months ago when thumped 53-8 by the Springboks.

"We don't want to expose everyone all at once," Deans said on Sunday.

"You can say 'look to the future, this is where we'll be in five years, let's go there now'.

"But you can actually burn the future if you don't manage the arrivals.

"We saw what happened at Ellis Park last year and we don't want to go back there thanks."

But it appears it will be Genia's time to make his first Test start in front of his home crowd after impressing in his four initial games off the bench.

The Reds youngster once again provided slick service and looked at home in the Test arena after replacing Burgess, who continued to struggle with his passing.

Worst of all, Burgess turned his back on rival Fourie du Preez when South Africa were awarded a penalty near the line, allowing him to scoot past to score after taking a quick tap.

"(Genia) has shown that he's got what (he) needs to do well at Test level," Deans said.

"He looked himself and that's great."

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-32464,00.html

[travelling_gerry]

Wayne Smith | August 31, 2009
Article from: The Australian
THE Tri-Nations and Bledisloe cups might be lost, and now the Mandela Plate along with them, but Wallabies coach Robbie Deans insisted yesterday he would not be making changes to his side because of that.

Memories of Ellis Park last year, when Deans completely overhauled his side and thrust a host of young and inexperienced players into what was essentially a dead-rubber Test match continue to haunt him.

South Africa, sensing blood, went on a rampage, scoring eight tries in a 53-8 landslide victory, both the try totals and the losing margin being records.

"The teams we play (in the Tri-Nations) would water at the mouth at the thought of dealing with an inexperienced line-up," Deans said.

"We saw that at Ellis Park last year. We don't want to go back there, thanks. Tampering for tampering's sake is not appropriate.

"Obviously we'll contemplate everything but I can't give guarantees that anyone we bring in will be any older or more experienced. We're going through generational change, that's evident. But there are also tasks that aren't that difficult that aren't being fulfilled. Essentially we're finding different ways to lose."

The loss was the sixth Tri- Nations Test in succession for Australia, but Deans was adamant yesterday that, far from demoralising the side, the string of narrow defeats was actually helping to build character and resolve.

"I'm confident that with every outing, although we're not getting the results, this group will be better for it," he said.

If change is coming, the most obvious place for the selectors to start is halfback, where Luke Burgess compounded the generally slow service provided by his forwards by spraying his passes all over the place, jolting five-eighth Matt Giteau's attack and the backline generally.

It wasn't just that Burgess's understudy, Will Genia, came on and immediately brought a crispness to the ball distribution, but he also - for the first time in a Test match - began to express his skills, even attempting his trademark inside flick pass.

Alas, there was no Digby Ioane steaming on to it, as there was during the Reds' Super 14 campaign, but it heartened Deans to see the diminutive halfback looking more himself in the Test arena.

"That's the essence," Deans said. "When these guys get to the point where they approach Test rugby like a club game, then they're good to go because they bring what they've got.

"But we've still got a number who are putting their own barriers up unnecessarily."

Not Quade Cooper. Admittedly by the time he came on, the South Africans were unfurling their Mission Accomplished banner after securing a four-try bonus point but, even allowing for some possible Springboks complacency, he still made a huge difference at five-eighth.

His wide passing game, so reminiscent of Steve Larkham's, allowed the Wallabies to change their point of attack, moving away from the fringes of the ruck, where they were being cut down by a highly organised and motivated defence.

Suddenly, too, Giteau began to look a whole lot more dangerous, latching on to Cooper's wide passes to attack the South African flanks.

Much will depend on fitness reports, with Cooper finishing the match with a grade-one medial strain and Berrick Barnes pushing for a return after missing the Perth Test because of a head knock, but the time seemingly is ripe for one of them to start at five-eighth, with Giteau reverting to inside centre.

Giteau, admittedly, is no fan of that proposal. "I prefer 10 (five-eighth) but if I'm picked at 12, well, as the cliche goes, I'm happy to play in any position as long as I'm representing my country," he said.

Had Australian supporters been told before the match that the Wallabies would only concede four penalties to the Springboks' 15, that they would dominate the scrums and all but break even in the lineouts, conceding four throws of their own but clawing back two of the South Africans, they could not have made it to the betting shop fast enough.

But, unlike in the Cape Town Test four weeks ago, that was not what the match at Subiaco Oval turned on. Instead, the Wallabies were skewered by their own mistakes, conceding a ludicrous try to 50-cap man of the match Fourie du Preez by turning their backs on him as he took a quick tap, and then giving up two more tries to Jaque Fourie and Bryan Habana from inexplicable scrum defence lapses.

Giteau insisted it wasn't that he and his new inside centre Adam Ashley-Cooper were not talking in defence. "It's not as though there was no communication," he said. "There was just miscommunication. I thought he had the runner and he thought I did."

The Springboks labour under their Jurassic Pack image but no team gets to rule world rugby by being anything but smart, and Fourie gave an insight after the match into just how switched-on the South Africans are in their preparation.

"It's not easy coming into a Test match with a new centre pairing and we knew we had to exploit that aspect of the game," Fourie said.

"And we knew we had to exploit it very early before they settled down. We did it quite effectively.

"It was a surprise," racing through untouched to score in the 10th minute, he said.

"I thought the defence would be much more structured, but it wasn't."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html

[travelling_gerry]

By Jim Tucker From: The Daily Telegraph August 31, 2009 12:00AM

MISFIRING halfback Luke Burgess and No. 8 Richard Brown are certain to pay for the Wallabies' four-Test losing crash and the axe must cut deeper unless lame excuses are replaced by victory at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.

For all his energy, Burgess too often passes erratically, as if his shoelaces are tied together.

The service to money-man Matt Giteau is compromised and that could no longer be tolerated even before the 32-25 tumble to South Africa in Perth.

In must come Queensland rookie Will Genia, just 21 but with a far more natural pass.

He has played just 63 minutes of Test rugby over his four cameos from the bench but that must now be enough for the breakdown battle zone of a Test's opening minutes.

Wallaby prop Benn Robinson and fly-half Matt Giteau spelt out Australia's Tri-Nations moment-of-truth bluntly as they face the world champion Springboks again in five days for redemption.

"It (losing) is tough emotionally and physically," Robinson said.

"You can see areas in our performances where we are making steps forward but it is still not acceptable losing these games.

"We can't be making excuses for ourselves all the time."

Non-stop worker Giteau was a leader and his input two tries and 20 points admirably responded to the public pressure he heaped on himself last week to really step up.

Not enough teammates did likewise apart from scrum force Robinson, who had South African tight-head John Smit rattled, James O'Connor, Rocky Elsom, after a muffed early catch, comeback lock Mark Chisholm and bench sparks Genia and Quade Cooper.

Giteau said the Wallabies had "mentally failed to stay the distance" in their four Tri-Nations losses. "We turned our backs at a quick tap when we should be switched on," Giteau said.

"We miscommunicated in the backs on who had who (and gave up two tries).

"Mentally, it is an individual thing where each of us really has to own our individual responsibilities. Stay that committed for 80 and we'll turn this around in Brisbane."

The backs' embarrassment in defence, that so easily conceded the South Africans the momentum of the opening try from a quick tap, is indicative of the lazy mental moments that are diminishing Wallaby improvements elsewhere - like the scrum.

Burgess and centre Adam Ashley-Cooper were the prime culprits there. Brown bungling two kick receptions into touch either side of that try to South African sniper Fourie du Preez were glaring skill failures.

Why the improved Australian lineout should blow a prime attacking chance by throwing long, instead of shorter to Elsom, was another mental brushfire. The Wallabies cured their ill-discipline by conceding only four penalties. Unfortunately, they traded conceding soft penalty goals for conceding soft tries because defensive trust in the midfield evaporated under fire.

As gritty as the Wallabies were in rallying in the second half from the calamity of 32-13 down, the Test was gone.

It's only sticking the passes and tactics under the blowtorch that counts. Coach Robbie Deans stressed the same point.

"It's easy to respond when under the hammer. We need to be tougher proactively," he said.

Deans was coy about team changes.

"Obviously, they'll be contemplated but I can't guarantee anyone coming in will be older or more experienced," he said.

"If we go that way, Will has shown he's got what he needs to do well at Test level."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...-1225767710235