A new Wallabies era under a new head coach has finally begun, and even if it wasn’t overly convincing, at least it started with a win.
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Australia’s 35-32 victory over Japan was a whole lot more free-flowing and open in steamy Osaka than their 19-15 win in cold, wet Tokyo last season, but the contest left us in the odd situation where both teams will head into Saturday’s return leg in Townsville with a good degree of confidence.
The first encounter was an entertaining game to watch, frustratingly so at times for Wallabies fans, and it really sets up a mouth-watering contest this weekend.
While Les Kiss and his coaching team will take positives from the three-point win, there were also more than a few things that need some urgent attention this week.
Once Australia took the lead, they never lost it
The worst-case scenario that would have kept Kiss up at night last week was an opening defeat. A win was important not just for the playing group, but for the different messaging and approach that would have been required heading into the second game.
A loss could easily have led to a whole new set of processes from a new coaching staff as they come to grips with what happened, which could also have led to new levels of stress and anxiety among the squad. A win will still be thoroughly reviewed, and that process could still have been different. But any coach will tell you it’s a lot easier to make small changes after a win than a loss.
The Wallabies gained the lead after 26 minutes, though they had drawn level with Japan in the 16th minute. Despite everything that happened in the game thereafter, they never trailed from there. The Brave Blossoms drew level again just before half-time, and were within two points at one point, and three points on two other occasions.
Japan’s final score aside, the Wallabies always managed to score next, and that will be something Kiss will take confidence from. There were numerous times when Japan looked like they could run down and even go past the Wallabies, but somehow, they never could. That’s certainly something to build on.
However…
Defensive tweaks a way off being settled
We know there were defensive tweaks being applied in the lead-in to the game in Osaka, and a new defence coach in Scott McLeod meant lots of questions were asked as the new coaching team took charge.
Will the Wallabies use a rush or blitz defence? Will it be something similar to what the All Blacks used during McLeod’s time there, under Steve Hansen and Ian Foster? Will it be noticeably different to how the Wallabies defended under Joe Schmidt?
Whatever was in place was easily pulled apart by the Japanese attack that put the foot down as they entered the Australian half, and put it down even harder as they entered the 22.
The timeframes involved in the succession meant that there was never going to be any drastic overhaul.
In fact, it was difficult to see any great difference in defensive shape or alignment at all. There may well have been subtle differences, but in a game highlighted by high-speed turnover attack and unstructured play from one end to the other, identifying any discernible structure or positioning proved rather difficult.
But whatever was in place was easily pulled apart by the Japanese attack that put the foot down as they entered the Australian half, and put it down even harder as they entered the 22. Any chance they had to create broken-field play, they jumped at it and lifted their tempo in an instant.
Ultimately, the stats read 11 turnovers, 10 entries into the 22 and nine clean breaks conceded, along with 22 Wallabies defenders beaten, with a large chunk of those coming in a first half which finished with Japan doing all the running.
An 88% tackle efficiency isn’t a huge red flag, but the way Japan’s attack was able to isolate Wallabies defenders will be a work-on this week ahead of the Townsville Test.
Disconnections amplified by Japanese tempo
Japan have a real future star on their hands in fly-half Ryunosuke Ito, and it’s impossible to watch a talent like that without a whole lot of envy, given Australia’s eternal quest for the next great No.10 over recent years. Imagine what he’ll be like when he starts playing professionally…
But he was quick to spot and take advantage of those isolated Australian defenders, maybe before some of them even realised they were isolated. His link-up with inside centre Samisoni Tua was excellent and both prospered annoyingly well.
That’s going to be an urgent item to address for the Wallabies this week. Kiss spoke specifically during the pre-Japan camp in Sydney of wanting the defence to remain connected. It was when they weren’t able to maintain this that the Brave Blossoms were quick to pounce as they lifted the tempo on attack.
“What we’ll do is just look back through the skillsets and the structure that we had worked on to date, certainly a couple of little things to work with for sure,” Kiss told Stan Sport immediately after the win.
“They attacked back over the ruck a little bit, so we’ve got to make sure that’s right, but generally we’ll just go through the process. What was our structure, what are the skillsets that serve our structure, and we’ll go back and look at that closely. We’re going to need to be good next week.”
The ‘what was our structure?’ question feels like a key one, because at times it didn’t feel like there was a lot of it on the field – or that it could be reset as swiftly as they needed. It will need to be a lot better in Townsville on Saturday.
Composure gave way to chaos too often
It might be a circular argument as to whether Australia losing their composure led to the Brave Blossoms creating the chaos on which they thrived, or whether the chaos created caused the loss of composure. Either way, composure was not something the Wallabies had in abundant supply for large periods of the game.
For about 50 minutes either side of half-time, they seemed hell-bent on trying to out-Japan Japan, and that’s as bad an idea as trying to out-Fiji the Fijians. The more Australia tried to match Japan’s tempo, the more passes started missing their marks, the more defenders started over-reading and the more they invited the opposition to control territory and possession.
A quick tap going wrong, the captain being marched for throwing the ball away; they’re all little glimpses into a mindset that is struggling for clarity when they most need it.
And maybe that will be one benefit of being back on home turf this week. Everyone can relax, the routines will feel normal again, ‘let’s just get back to trying to play our game the best we can’.
The sooner they can convert off-field comfort into on-field composure, the much better team will they become.
They proved that to themselves through the last 20 minutes of the game, when they got out by 10 points on the back of a dominant scrum and less chaotic rugby. They certainly can be, and hopefully will be, better this Saturday.
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Les will be pleased that it has been Japan twice and no team in the top 9 .
The leadership in the side is clearly not functioning properly and there's a catastrophically low level of nous and rugby IQ on display a lot of the time.
Players seem to panic the moment that their rehearsed move from training doesn't eventuate on the field and they don't seem to have any fallback other than to shovel a pass to no one or kick it away.
Either the coaching has been terribad for nigh on 25 years or the players for some reason shackle themselves the moment they're under contract to SR and for the Wallabies.
What's so infuriating about matches like that against Italy is that it plainly shows that the team possesses all the skills and ability required to take hold of games and dominate.
They just do it so consistently infrequently that there has to be a structural reason for why they don't. And until that gets resolved they're going to continue turning in these sorts of performances.
That is to take nothing away from Japan who I thought were the more convincing of the two sides when they had the ball. Their defence was just mercifully softer than the Wallabies, making all the difference.
And while you afford a new coaching ticket some leeway with respect to getting their system bedded in, you don't expect the players they have available to them, who are all professionals with most if not having more than 25 SR caps, to lack basic skills the way the Wallabies unfathomably always seem to show.
Aside from a few passages of play everything they did against Japan both with and without the ball was mindless and showed a total lack of general awareness across the team about what's happening in the game.
That quick tap is a particular case in point but certainly not the only sample from the game or from any other they've recently played. Why McReight thought there was anything on is anyone's guess but he didn't even look around before taking off to see if anyone was seeing things as he was and therefore would be following him up in support.
And there were constant defensive periods where players would go missing from key spots around the ruck, leaving gaping holes for the lightning fast Japanese halves and their highly reactive back row and captain to waltz through.
That's part of why the post contact metres were so disparate between the teams. Australia's cover was better so when Japan made a line break they were usually eventually contained while when Australia broke through they went through.
Such things are a product of a chronic lack of communication which goes back to leadership and who can and who will speak up. Any player should be able to back themselves to do something in the full knowledge and expectation that their teammates will be there to support them.
If that means they then are out of position because they've gone into a ruck or recycled out expecting to cover for a box kick or whatever it happens to be, that shouldn't result in gaps existing everywhere in the line because someone else should be reading what's going on and plugging that gap.
This is exactly an example of what I mean when I say they lack basic skills. This fundamental level of game reading is something you learn and develop through junior rugby and by the time you're a professional as these guys are it should be totally second nature to do. But for some inexplicable reason it isn't.
If Australia are serious about becoming champions and even genuine contenders again, they must fix this.
In the last 25 years it has only been under Ewen McKenzie that we started to play with verve and confidence. The try Quade Cooper scored against Ireland on the northern tour was a sight to behold.
So yes, the coaching has been rubbish otherwise.
I think sometimes we forget where things are at and subconsciously expect the Wallabies to be playing like they did in the 80’s when they were in the top 3 or so in world rankings against a Japanese side that is way below them. This game was No 8 in world rankings playing No 10 in world rankings at the home of the 10th place. It was always going to be difficult especially as the gap between the teams from 5 to 12 has narrowed a lot and that on their day they can challenge the top 4 a lot more than they used to.
The game was actually about as close as could be expected, with the mistakes that demonstrate why both teams are where they are. This week should be a lot better from the Wallabies, but there’s a lot of areas in the decision making under pressure that needs to be better if they want to rise in the world rankings.
I think Wilson looked tired in last 20. Are we so short of no. 8's he has to play full 90?
There’s generally only one lock and one backrow cover on the bench, you’re not going to cover everyone..
“out Japan Japan…” that was one of the most frustrating things about last weeks performance. We had the license to play from Les, but that doesn't mean we had to up tempo everything. We would have been better off with a little more route 1, set piece control to ice the game first, then let lose. I hope this week we can play early with same forward focus we had against Italy, and lay the foundations before anything else.
Spot on TMT. Which makes the immediate post-match reaction, that they didn’t get sucked in, quite surprising..
The Wallabies were on a hiding to nothing on Saturday night. Win by anything under 30 points and the narrative is “it’s only Japan”. Lose, and it’s the most calamitous start imaginable for a new coach, so it was really a case of get out of there with a win and take the learnings from it.
The frustrating thing with the red card wasn’t the decision to upgrade it from yellow to red because I thought that was fair enough, but the incident happened just as I felt the Wallabies were getting some control of the match.
If it wasn't for the send-off, the half time score might have got out to 21-7, and perhaps the 2nd half was more comfortable for a side finding their way under a new coach against tricky opponents away from home.
I disagree with the narrative around Japan Mitch. They’re nothing like the minnows getting towelled in RWCs these days.
But I certainly agree around the card incident. It just wasn’t needed - a 14pt lead at HT would definitely have changed how the 2H played out..
I had a chaotic viewing experience with a Stan subscription for a month and VPN being the only option from UK. That Sky picked up full coverage of the provincial matches on the AB tour and the full SA v Argentina game tells us where the Wallabies are in world rugby.
I got around to watching a full replay and you’ve covered things well. I’d be a little sympathetic to our defensive effort though as it felt like the biggest issues were from the base of breakdowns and that largely from fatigue. I expect a way better effort this week.
Good things from the game - stacking the bench works (going back to Lions 3 and Joburg finally), Wright’s form continues to grow, Potter is remarkably good (Joe saw something the rest of us missed), Canham continues to shine (Joe, again), Lonergan continues to be excellent (and his defence was better), Meredith isn’t a test flyhalf, and Gordon is fit again.
I can agree with that to a degree Derek, but there were a lot of holes and Japanese line breaks in the first half an hour still. I do take your point though..