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LONG READ Ripper of a performance but Wallabies must ensure it’s not another one-off

Ripper of a performance but Wallabies must ensure it’s not another one-off
3 weeks ago

So Australian rugby is now all fixed, right? The Wallabies’ 42-37 win over England, ending a losing streak against their old rivals that went back to the 2015 Rugby World Cup, has presumably solved all remaining issues in the game in Australia. The rivers of gold should start flowing this week.

If winning really does change everything, then the Wallabies might be the change agents with the best possible highlights clips.

The pithy add-on here might be that it only took the five-million-dollar, high-profile repatriation of a schoolboy prodigy from rugby league to spark the change. But what a performance it was.

“I’ve enjoyed some good moments over 25 years of coaching but that might just take the cake. Brilliant,” said Laurie Fisher, the Wallabies assistant coach and colloquial godfather of Australian rugby, on social media minutes after the match.

Australia celebrate
Australia had lost 10 of their last 11 meetings with England before Saturday’s dramatic late victory (Photo Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images)

Certainly, it would have to rank as the best win for the current playing group. It was exactly the performance Wallabies fans had hoped was there somewhere among the incremental improvements, but that the team itself had only teased in spasmodic displays in 2024. Nothing in the last four or five seasons that might top it readily springs to mind.

“Oh man, it’s up there!” was Allan Ala’alatoa’s mother-of-all-understatement response, to the question of where the win rates for the players.

“I think the only one out of the playing group in that change room who’s beaten England at Twickenham was ‘Slips’ (James Slipper), so everyone else wearing that jersey, that’s their first taste of victory here. It just proves how hard it is to beat England here.”

Angus Bell was a colossus up front, carrying the ball superbly and busting tackles for fun, and showed a deft set of hands at times as well

And the most satisfying part of this win was that there were great performances across the board, from sideline to sideline, starting team to bench. For every Wallabies fan suggesting Rob Valetini was Australia’s best, there’s another one saying it was Len Ikitau, and two more separately pushing for Angus Bell and Fraser McReight.

In fact, it was such a team performance from Australia that prop Taniela Tupou might have been the only player who perhaps didn’t have the best time of it. His was a patchy showing, with every good thing he did undermined by some questionable decision-making at times. But if he can lift his game to match the rest of the team, then the Wallabies will be the big winners again.

Bell was a colossus up front, carrying the ball superbly and busting tackles for fun, and showed a deft set of hands at times as well. All that would be impressive enough in your standard front-rower shift of plus-or-minus 50 minutes, but the match clock read 70:31 when James Slipper ran on to replace the young loosehead.

Angus Bell
Bell was conspicuous in his contributions around the field as he took the game to England (Photo Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

It was a phenomenal shift for a prop in the modern game.

Valetini, similarly, put in what is fast becoming a bog-standard Valetini performance, which is to say he was absolutely outstanding. When Australia need their ball carriers to stand up and make metres, Valetini is very often the first or second carrier to charge into waiting (and fretting) defenders, and very often makes those metres beyond the first point of contact.

This was the case again at Twickenham and coupled with the quick ruck ball the Wallabies enjoyed throughout the game, so many attacking raids were launched off the back of platforms created by a Valetini carry.

Schmidt was quick to throw McReight and Wallabies skipper Harry Wilson into the mix when discussing Valetini’s performance, and it’s very clear he has found himself the back row that he can build an Australian team around.

“I was delighted with the loose trio… I thought Rob Valetini got gain line, Harry Wilson got gain line,” he said.

“They were really combative and Fraser McReight was a fantastic link for us up that left-hand touchline toward the end, through the middle another time. He was a guy in the right position to handle the ball and move it on.

Rob Valetini
Valetini and McReight (right) both excelled as part of a superb Wallabies back row (Photo Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

“I think between the tight five and the middies and edges, that loose trio were outstanding.”

In his whole International and Super Rugby career, Ikitau has only worn the No.12 jersey once, and you have to go all the way back to the aborted pre-Covid 2020 season, where he played inside Tevita Kuridrani at outside centre for the Brumbies early that season.

Long regarded as one of the best defensive 13s in the game, Ikitau has thrived on the slightly extra time and space that he enjoys in the outside channel. Moving him in one spot to accommodate Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was therefore going to carry risk, and it was clearly geared more toward creating some degree of familiarity for the young league convert on debut, rather than capitalising on any particular strengths of Ikitau.

But such was the fist he made of playing inside centre for the first time in five full seasons, Ikitau might not return to his favoured 13 jersey anytime soon.

One of the defining images of the Wallabies’ celebrations had Suaalii embracing Ikitau as he stood in midfield screaming to the heavens with joy

He certainly made life easy for Suaalii, but Ikitau added starch to the central defence and directness to the attack in the middle corridors, which in turn drew English defenders in and created more space for Suaalii and the outside backs to thrive out wider.

In truth, Ikitau and Suaalii swapped between the 12 and 13 channels throughout the match, especially in attack, and it’s already clear these two could have a prosperous career ahead of them as a centre pairing regardless of the numbers on their backs.

One of the defining images of the Wallabies’ celebrations had Suaalii embracing Ikitau as he stood in midfield screaming to the heavens with joy, having just thrown the flick-pass to put Max Jorgensen away down the left wing to score the winning try.

Len Ikitau
Len Ikitau’s sumptuous offload created the winning try for Max Jorgensen (Photo Adrian Dennis/ AFP via Getty Images)

Jorgensen is surrounded and embraced by triumphant team-mates in the background, but the sight of Ikitau and Suaalii in ecstatic jubilation, celebrating that overwhelming moment of victory together, will remain one of the great Wallabies images for a while yet.

Tom Wright and Andrew Kellaway were certainly among this group of Australia’s best players as well, and my recent conversation with Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham about Wright came flooding back as the full-back opened up another opposition defence at will.

Kellaway, too, was fantastic throughout the game, and showed a welcome turn of speed when running away from the desperate English defenders to score and regain the lead in the 75th minute. The former Melbourne Rebel has long been among the Wallabies’ most dependable and consistent players over the last few seasons, and being in the right square metre of grass as Ollie Lawrence spilt a George Ford pass was just reward.

Suaalii looks like a rugby player. And that didn’t look like his first game of rugby in several years.

Of this collection of players, you could flip a coin between Bell and Valetini as Australia’s best player, and the cases for other players are strong too. But the point is actually not who was the Wallabies’ best, but rather that there were so many well-performing players to choose from. That’s not always been the case over the course of the last few seasons, but long may it continue from here.

Which brings us to the obligatory praise of Suaalii on debut. Even in my small corner of the Australian sports media, I’m required to make mention of how good he was, despite being on debut, despite having not played rugby in several years, despite having only had a couple of training sessions in his new sport, etc, etc.

I could rate him anywhere in the range of ‘has plenty of upside’ up to ‘greatest debut in the history of sport, ever’ but I’m not going to follow the Australian player ratings on these pages which gave him a 9.5, noting “not just the best Wallaby on the pitch, the best player”.

Don’t get me wrong, he was very, very good. It’s clear the rugby instincts are still very strong, and that his fundamentals and muscle memories remain in place. It is absolutely exciting to think of the player he can be.

Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii
Suaalii oozed class on his Australia debut – his first senior game of rugby union (Photo David Rogers/Getty Images)

So I’ll just repeat the same compliment I gave on the 8-9 Combo Rugby Podcast after the match: He looks like a rugby player. And that didn’t look like his first game of rugby in several years.

Suaalii will take plenty of confidence from the win over England, as well he should, as should the whole Wallabies squad as they ramp up preparations for Wales this week.

After an up-and-down series of performances through The Rugby Championship, they will have arrived in Cardiff and will run out at the Principality Stadium with a very welcome addition to the team luggage: untapped confidence.

After winning the way they did in London, there will be a feeling of invincibility within the camp this week, that nothing Wales can throw at them can possibly stop them. If England couldn’t stop them with multiple attempts, then surely a Welsh side the Wallabies have already beaten twice this year can’t stop them either.

With maybe no more than four Tests before Australia face the Lions in Brisbane next July, there just won’t be room for anyone to think any job is done

But with that confidence comes two other variables they have to contend with – expectation, and possible complacency.

The former is something they should embrace; they should expect to play that well again themselves. The latter is something I just can’t see Joe Schmidt letting creep into their preparations.

One swallow doesn’t make a summer and all that. But with maybe no more than four Tests before Australia face the British & Irish Lions in Brisbane next July, there just won’t be room for anyone to think any job is done.

Indeed, Schmidt said post-match at Twickenham that every piece of analysis and preparation is being done with an eye toward the Lions tour next year.

The Wallabies should, and will, play with well-earned confidence this week. But it’s up to them to make sure their memorable England win is not yet another one-off.

Comments

29 Comments
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NH 26 days ago

Nice one brett, I saw this as the arrival/culmination of Schmidt's grand plan in attack/game management. Up tempo, high skill, high work rate, high phase count, lots of variety, lots of passes, shifting point of contact etc etc. And as you say the relief and joy on the players and coaches faces in applying the process and it working was clear to see. I certainly don't think they will be complacent, but it also wouldn't surprise me if they still struggle to show the same hunger as last week against Wales given the high they would've had on the weekend. What is still yet to arrive is their defence - I'm still waiting for them to shore up their defence before I consider this group capable of becoming a top 5 team. Final note: one area they shored up that has been an issue and largely glossed over given everyone's fawning over Sua'ali'i, is kick restarts thanks to Jeremy Williams who was superb in this area forcing england to kick elsewhere and with success in the final 10 minutes that led to their final try.

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Brett McKay 26 days ago

Great comments, NH, thanks so much.. 👍

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HiKa 26 days ago

Good comment. Another not-so-talked-of improvement was the maul defence. Whatever criticisms one makes of England, that pack knows how to do a lineout/maul-drive and they got next to nowhere out of every attempt, although the one that crabbed in-field a bit gave Smith just enough room to draw defenders and slip his kick through for Sleithholme. Given how bad the Wallabies' maul defence was against Wales and in the TRC, the improvement was stark. And that was without putting Skelton in the middle of it.

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BM 26 days ago

Can't disagree here Brett. The only thing worth highlighting was the look of joy on Joe Schmidt & Mike Cron's faces at full time. These are harden coaches who have enjoyed success at the highest level for years, seen it all, over the moon with a WBs win. These 2 seem fully invested in WB success and RA should pay what it takes to keep them until at least 2027


Billy Boy

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Brett McKay 26 days ago

And Laurie Fisher Billy - he was a very happy coach when he got down to ground level!

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Tom 26 days ago

Angus Bell and some of your backs were fantastic. Not many teams are going to leave such massive holes to run through though. Still, always an achievement to win at Twickenham and was well deserved but England were very poor so it's hard to judge where Australia are based on that match, I wouldn't get carried away just yet but certainly a step in the right direction.


I would like to add that as an Englishman I hope Australia get back to the top 3 in the world, it's healthy for the global game.

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JD Kiwi 26 days ago

Great write up Brett! At the start I thought they were too unstructured and how unlike Schmidt that was. But clearly they decided that they could find holes in the English rush defence and what a great strategy for the day it was.

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Brett McKay 26 days ago

We talked on the pod last week JD about the importance of the third pass, being the one that could get past the blitz defence and unlock the outside men, and it so good to see it play out exactly like that!

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NH 26 days ago

Agreed JD, I felt that early the wbs were trying to go wide too often and without earning the right so to speak. As soon as tate came on, he went straight up the guts and I think that brought some variety and put the poms in two minds and exposed some tired legs from their forwards. But you could see a clear plan from Aus to play uptempo with kicks taken promptly, keeping the ball in, running it back, a couple of quick taps etc. There were times where 3/4s of players on the field were totally out on their feet.

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BH 26 days ago

Angus Bell is one of the best ball-carrying props in the world. He's really exciting to watch. Puts in the hard yards and has a bit of x-factor about him.

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TI 23 days ago

Not just that, he can also pilfer, and tackle. The moment he becomes an elite scrummager is the moment he becomes the best loosehead on the planet.

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Derek Murray 26 days ago

Good read. Agree wimost of this. The one small thing I would question is the possibility this team could suffer from complacency - any of them who've watched Wallaby rugby in the last decade, and tht should be all of them, will know our form after pretty much every good performance and it's not good.


That old cliche about this win meaning nothing without backing it up couldn't be more pertinant. A game against a weaker opponent needs to be played and won. Don't let those recent standards of very short shelflife slip lads. Cardiff is critical. Get the job done.


As for JAS, somebody elsewhere said it and I liked it so much I shall steal it for re-use here - one Sua'ali'i does not a summer make. Great debut but, like all your teammates, more of the same please Joseph.

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Brett McKay 26 days ago

Ha, the very reason I mentioned complacency in the last few pars, Derek! 😆

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robbo 27 days ago

Thanks Brett, good article and I am totally rapt about the result. As I may have spoken about elsewhere, as a 70+ year old Scot with 30+ years on my Australian citizenship, when it comes to playing England at anything, I have a chip on each shoulder. But that won't stop me saying that the Man of the Match should have been Marcus Smith. Australia had many contributors to the win, but without Smith, England were nothing. He carved our defence up at least four times. His defensive misread at the end is excusable as he was playing out of position because of his coach's stupidty in bringing on Forde once again.


I can't wait for the next three weeks. Onward and upward!

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Brett McKay 26 days ago

Cheers Robbo, interesting thoughts around MOTM.


Smith was very, very good, don't get me wrong - but was he the best player on the field? I'm not sure about that..

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Tom 26 days ago

Couldn't agree more Robbo. Smith single handedly kept England in the game, he was phenomenal. Without his performance that game wouldn't have been close.

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Carlos 27 days ago

Wait for John to come to complain….about something. 🤷‍♂️

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SK 27 days ago

Hi Brett. The great thing about the England win was that every player seems to be coming into their own within Schmidts systems and they all seem to be improving in their roles. Everyone contributed to this victory as you so rightly put it in your column. Englands defence was woeful at times with the inside forwards on the rush over committing leaving generous gaps in the inside channels for Ikitau and Wright to gleefully run through but how good were they in actually spotting the space and taking it on? It was gorgeous to watch. Great to see the attacking systems coming through. If you ask me though who I fancied the most it wasnt Bell, Ikitau, Suaalii, Kellaway or Wright. It had to be Lolesio. This guy was in the Doldrums this time last year. Now he kicks, he passes, he controls, he links and on the odd occasion he runs it too. He looks more and more like a top drawer international 10 and I am so happy for him that he is taking his chance. Well done Schmidt for sticking with him. Next aspect the Wallabies must improve is discipline and their tendency to give up easy points to weak shoulders or bad defensive mistakes. They let England back into the game and had to rescue it in the end through a brilliant last play. They need to develop that killer instinct as well. 20 points up against Argentina earlier this year turned into a terrible rout. They put the AB's under pressure in the first half in NZ but didn't capitalise on their momentum and here they let a good lead slip against England only to clinch it at the end. Lets hope they can hone their killer instinct against what appears to be a rather pathetic Wales.

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Brett McKay 26 days ago

..that every player seems to be coming into their own within Schmidts systems and they all seem to be improving in their roles. Everyone contributed to this victory...

Great comments SK, and I love the shout for Lolesio. I mentioned on the pod somewhere over the last few days, this was a different game for NL, kicking tactically very well, but then distributing nicely to allow the attacking waves to come from 12-13-15 in midfield..

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cs 27 days ago

A wonderful tonic for old spirits Brett. Go the Wallabies!

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Brett McKay 26 days ago

Long may it continue!

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Mitch 27 days ago

Once the euphoria died down a touch, my mind did go back to the 2022 Rugby Championship where the Wallabies performances had a distinct pattern: good, bad, good, bad, good, bad.


I do rate Joe Schmidt higher than Dave Rennie and believe Joe will bring the players back down to earth in time for a positive performance and result against Wales.


I was listening to Ben Youngs' analysis of the match on his 'For The Love of Rugby' podcast while writing this comment. To his credit, Youngs was generous in his praise of the Wallabies and Joe Schmidt

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Brett McKay 26 days ago

He owned his dunderheadedness Mitch, certainly..

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BM 27 days ago

Australia would like some more good results here so Wallabies can assure Lions that they will be welcoming and more competitive next year with Joe Schmidt's wonderful coaching skills!😜

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