Analysis: The Wallabies don't seem to learn from their mistakes
A 37-18 loss to England put the final nail into coffin of the Wallabies 2018 season, sealing it as one of their worst ever with just four wins from 13 test matches. The records keep tumbling, but they are all of the unwanted variety.
There is no avoiding the fact that the Wallabies are just bad – tactically and technically. There are improvement areas everywhere and there is no quick fix solution. Whether they are achieving incremental improvements is still debatable, the Wallabies showed again at Twickenham that they are not learning from past mistakes.
Their opening possession against England was eerily similar to the one in Port Elizabeth, where Kurtley Beale threw an interception on his own goal line inside the first minute to gift the Springboks a try.
At Twickenham, Dane Haylett-Petty is charged down and the Wallabies concede a 5-metre scrum. Jonny May scores in the corner thirty seconds later down the blind side, conceding another try within the first couple of minutes.
In both cases, the Wallabies play to the middle of the field before looking to clear their lines, in the process achieving a poorer angle, reducing what distance can be achieved kicking to touch. The designated kickers fail to line up with protection, the forwards crowd around rucks and there is a lack of cohesion that results in a failure to exit efficiently.
Revisiting the start at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium
Michael Hooper (7) fields the kickoff and veers off in field, away from his support and is tackled around 27m infield. A pod-group of Adam Coleman (5) cleans and Scott Sio (1) and Taniela Tupou (3) join late.
They play another carry to the left with the second pod forming above, across the front of the posts and make a gain-line loss.
The forwards from the previous ruck, Sio (1), Tupou (3) and Coleman (5), head to the next ruck and seem lost as to what the play is.
Instead of setting a ‘wall’ on one side to block for a clearing kick they spread disjointedly on both sides. It seems as though half were expecting another carry around the corner but they have run out of room to do so.
The Wallabies have two kicking options either side of the ruck, but Matt Toomua is a bit late into position on the left side.
On the right side, instead of aligning in the pocket behind the ruck and kicking for the left-hand touch, Beale is wider, exposed to potential chargers with only Coleman in place to disrupt oncoming rushers.
Faced with pressure from Faf de Klerk, he bails from the kick and attempts a wild cutout pass and is picked off on the goal line by Aphiwe Dyantyi. The decision to throw a high-risk pass by Beale is only the cherry on top of bad all round rugby.
The Wallabies start the Twickenham test with the same exit play.
This time Hooper’s original carry is much more direct, setting up the ruck 15-metres infield, just inside the 22.
The same Wallabies forwards, the two props and lock Adam Coleman secure the first ruck. They will try to fold around the corner after the first carry.
Jack Dempsey (6) takes the first carry but is dominated in a two-man tackle and forced backward.
Izack Rodda (4) whiffs as the latcher, trying to remove Sam Underhill from the tackle, resulting in a gain line loss and a negative play for the Wallabies, pushing them back deeper.
The forwards from the last ruck bend around for another carry. The two kicking options, Matt Toomua (10) and Dane Haylett-Petty (14), start to position in the backfield, but not as receiving options for a pass from the pod.
Sio takes the next carry and sets a platform just inside the goal posts. This time, the previous pod re-loads and set protection on the right side of the ruck, ideal for a Toomua clearing kick.
Toomua’s hands are slightly raised, while Haylett-Petty is indicating he is not anticipating having to make a clearance with hands down.
Genia plays to Haylett-Petty, who has no protection, with four potential English kick chargers. Ben Youngs gets a hand to the kick and puts the Wallabies in a precarious situation, forcing them to ground the ball in the in-goal.
Again it costs the Wallabies seven points in the first 120 seconds, in what could have been completely avoidable.
This multi-phase exit strategy is inherently flawed in providing the Wallabies a decent platform to clear from. Each phase played infield sacrifices distance downfield, with the extra width of the field chewing up potential metres of a kick with the same power from the original position.
Inside the safety of the 22, each carry only needs to be used to re-position the side horizontally for a better angle. If you are already 15-metres in and on the edge of the 22-metres line, what point is there playing further one-out phases? Possibly one more might be desired, but not two or three past, or in front of, the posts.
In both these cases, the Wallabies are going both backwards and further infield, worsening the position in two ways.
Secondly, the Wallabies are in no pattern to utilise the passing option to exit. The rest of the backs are set deep to be onside for the kick, and the forwards do not have any immediate backdoor options, making the carrier easy targets for the rush defence.
Since this is the first play of the game, most sides will be fresh enough to generate good line speed, which both the Springboks and England did to hammer the ball carrier for net losses. Lukhan Tui also coughed up possession in the same situation by a targeted tackle by Sam Cane in the first Bledisloe test.
There is a difference between playing out of your 22 through organised passing in one phase and running carries aimlessly to waste time before an inevitable kick, which gets less likely to be effective with each further carry.
This is the perfect example of inefficiency and questionable game strategy in the Wallabies game, which has proven to be costly not once but twice in the same season. If they are going to improve as a group, these are the things they need to review, starting from something as basic as exit plays and questioning everything they do and who should be doing it.
In other news:
Comments on RugbyPass
An on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
24 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
24 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
11 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to comments