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By Wayne Smith
June 11, 2007
AUSTRALIA'S attack coach, Scott Johnson, has hit back at critics who have deemed him a failure because, after two seasons of experimenting, Australia has arrived back at basically the same backline it started with.
And he rejected the notion that the inside back quartet of George Gregan, Steve Larkham, Matt Giteau and Stirling Mortlock has been analysed so minutely by Australia's rivals that it has no more surprises left to spring.
"By that analogy, Shane Warne should never have got a Test wicket," Johnson said.
Former Wallabies captain Mark Ella, writing in his column in The Weekend Australian on Saturday, questioned Johnson's contribution to Australia's team since joining John Connolly's coaching staff last year.
Ella suggested that Johnson might as well put his feet up in the weeks remaining before the Rugby World Cup because there was no way he could teach the "old dogs" of the backline any new tricks.
"So does that mean Giteau doesn't make any more breaks because he's back at inside centre?" Johnson replied.
"It just doesn't work that way.
"Everyone's job is easy until you have to do it. It's ironic, for instance, that the same people who were crying out for George Gregan's demise are now asking for him to be back."
Gregan also refuted the theory that Australia had not progressed simply because it will field against South Africa in Cape Town on Saturday the core of the backline that was used virtually unchanged throughout the Eddie Jones era.
"We've definitely given people opportunities but you pick your best people going into (big) games, based on form," Gregan said.
"You don't just hand (Test jumpers) out."
But while the world's most capped player insisted the Wallabies were still some distance away from "solidifying" their Rugby World Cup squad, he made no apologies for the settled "back to the future" look about the back division.
"If you look at all team sports, combinations are very important and they're one of those things that take time," he said.
Johnson acknowledged that Australia does not have players who fit the standard specifications in a spot such as inside centre.
"We don't have prototypes in certain areas but what we've got is a lot of great players," he asid.
"We've just got to find out how they fit."
Johnson was full of enthusiasm for Australia's experimental midfield against Fiji of Scott Staniforth and Adam Ashley-Cooper.
The question is, of course, how Ashley-Cooper or, for that matter Staniforth, get game time now that Connolly has called an end to the experimental phase of Australia's Rugby World Cup build-up.
But Johnson saved his most lavish praise for Julian Huxley, who began this international series as no more than a spare-parts fill-in at full back only to quickly emerge as a late-blooming sensation.
"In that, he's a little like Chris Latham or Matty Hayden in cricket," Johnson said.
"Having waited in the wings for a long time, I can see him getting better and better."
There was vindication, too, for Johnson in his decision to stand down Lote Tuqiri for the Wales series to sharpen him up, after the wing claimed two tries and almost a third to set the stage for a mouth-watering duel against Bryan Habana at Newlands.
"Habana will know he's up against a quality player and Lote will know the same," Johnson said.
If the Wallabies attacks coach was feeling upbeat after the Fiji Test, the defence coach, John Muggleton, was positively chuffed after Australia, for what is believed to be the first time in its history, went two Tests in succession without conceding a point.
"The best thing is we didn't give South Africa any information to work on next weekend," Muggleton said.
"What we're doing might surprise them a little."
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23217,00.html
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