What The Wallabies Need To Do

After their excellent performances in their pool games, including a momentous victory over England at Twickenham and soul-stirring defence of their goal-line with 13 men against the 15 of Wales before winning that game too, the Wallabies had a narrow quarter-final escape against Scotland.

Scotland played out of their skins while the Wallabies under-performed, and while all that is now consigned to history, there have been invaluable lessons for the Wallabies.

Australia will be much the wiser – both in skill execution and emotionally – after the quarter-final near calamity.  

Argentina were wonderful in their comprehensive defeat of Ireland, in a performance of skill and goose-pimples inducing passion. After that inspirational display, no-one will write off Los Pumas chances of causing mayhem with pre-tournament predictions.

What do Australia need to do to win their semi-final? Detail on their game-plan will come from their coaches and analyst, but among the essentials to winning their semi-final are…

*     Going into the game with the superb attitude with which they approached England and Wales, and not the over-confident complacency of their approach to Scotland.

*     The physical intensity they showed against England, and with which they defended their goal-line with 13 men against Wales, was light years away from their quarter-final letdown. Against the ferocious Argentina, tentative physicality will lead to downfall.

*     Craig Joubert and Glen Jackson may perhaps have erred in penalising the Wallaby scrum against Scotland but the Puma scrum is potent and the Wallaby pack will need to be at their cohesive best.

*     Bernard Foley, a villain for much of the quarter-final and hero at the end, needs to improve his composure and decision-making and goal-kicking.

*     Matt Giteau exerted too little influence on Sunday; his experience and skill is too crucial to Wallaby excellence for him to be a low profile player.

*     The return of David Pocock (if he recovers timeously from his calf injury) brings an entirely different complexion to Australia’s performance. He is right now probably the single most influential player in world rugby. And Michael Hooper is much more effective a player when in tandem with Pocock.

*     James Slipper’s long pass that gifted Scotland’s intercept try and all but put the Wallabies on an aeroplane back to Australia, was more than ill-advised; it was ridiculous. He would be better off doing what he is capable of doing competently.

*     Organised defence at rucks/mauls/tackles is essential. The easy try scored by Scotland from breakdown close to Australia’s goal-line came from a strange organisational error by the Wallaby defence.

*     Executing their lineout driving maul accurately, and defending the Pumas lineout driving maul, will be try-scoring or try-saving plays.

One last thought: Michael Cheika is a committed Scott Fardy fan, but is he a more effective blindside flank than Ben McCalman or Sean McMahon?