Australia - State Of The Nation
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As the form team of Rugby World Cup 2015 through the four-week pool stage, Australia go into their quarter-final clash with Scotland at Twickenham on Sunday as firm favourites.
Barring a sudden drop in quality of performance or Scotland delivering a level of performance they haven’t up to now seemed capable of offering, the Wallabies should go through to a semi-final against Ireland or Argentina on 25 October.
David Pocock
Pocock escaped with an off-field yellow card for using his knee on Wales hooker
Scott Baldwin, when a prone Baldwin held him back off the ball and Pocock was
trying to rejoin play. Baldwin deserved a yellow card too for his cynical,
professional foul, but the lesson for Pocock and the Wallabies was to leave
sanction to the officials. Pocock’s calf strain remains a concern – perhaps it
would be wise for the Wallabies to rest him ahead of their semi-final.
Michael Hooper
Hooper will be back on Sunday after his one-game suspension and with Pocock
doubtful, his return is critical. Whether Australia can go all the way in RWC
2015 depends to a fair extent on having the Pocock-Hooper
constructive-destructive tandem team operating at full throttle.
Giteau and Moore
On Sunday Matt Giteau and Stephen Moore will join teammate Adam Ashley-Cooper, assistant
coach Stephen Larcombe, plus George Gregan, George Smith, Nathan Sharpe, and
David Campese as Wallaby Test centurions – added incentive, if any were needed,
for their teammates to deliver a memorable performance.
Sio, Kepu,
Slipper, Holmes
One of the revelations of the World Cup has been Australia’s
scrummaging, long considered a weakness but now earning respect. Mario
Ledesma’s coaching is paying dividends, and while scrummaging remains an
eight-man assignment, the four props, Scott Sio, Sekope Kepu, James Slipper,
and Greg Holmes deserve huge accolades.
James O’Connor
Back home in Brisbane, the prodigiously skilful but personal troubled James
O’Connor has been released with immediate effect by the Queensland Reds. It’s
an amicable departure, apparently, to allow O’Connor to return to playing in
Europe, where he is less scrutinised under a harsh spotlight. There are very
few players in the world more skilful than O’Connor and at age 25 it would be a great pity if he were not still to
go on to leave a major mark on the game.