News

State of the nation - Australia

Tuesday 02nd December 2008

Matt Giteau: Australia's golden child

The Wallabies will board their flight back Down Under from Europe on Thursday with mixed feelings: Despite wins over England and France, all free in-flight drinks in the world will not wash away the bitter flavour of being the only SANZAR nation to taste defeat during November.

Of course the Wallabies still have one match left this year - against Jake White's All Stars, er, I mean the Barbarians in London on Wednesday. But since the festival at Wembley should be just that, a feast of entertainment, now is an appropriate time to reflect on the state of Australia's national side.

A positive win-loss ratio would have made the number crunchers happy but Robbie Deans will be the first to admit that his team are not yet the finished product.

Let's call a spade a spade. Australia were a little fortunate to beat Italy and just plain lucky to beat France. Considering the scorelines when the Springboks and then the All Blacks visited Twickenham, victory over England should be taken with a pinch of salt.

They say the mark of a great team is when it wins, even when it doesn't play its best rugby. So we'll give the men in gold the benefit of the doubt... but doubt there is.

However negative the naysayers would like to be about Australia's wins in Europe this November, it must be said that the 2008 tour was a marked improvement on many of the past. Going down to Wales was obviously a massive disappointment but the Six Nations champions are a very good side and, unlike against the Springboks and All Blacks, played to their full potential when Australia visited Cardiff.

But enterprising as the Aussies were, lose they did. In light of that loss, in addition to the lucky-streak mentioned above, their tour of Europe was a touch unconvincing.

Just one week after the highlight of the tour - toppling the English in Twickenham - the French pack scratched past the surface veneer, shoved their way straight through the centre of the Wallaby scrum and exposed it for the 'work in progress' that it is.

Don't get me wrong. It's clear that Robbie Deans is doing a good job and no one can dispute that the current Wallabies are a step up from the team that stumbled out of the World Cup. Australia won in Paris because their mistakes were few and far between. Despite being on the back foot, they remained calm, did the basics right and struck while the iron was hot - hallmarks of a side under Deans' tutelage.

However, the creativity and attacking flair that made the Crusaders unstoppable when Deans was at the helm in Canterbury were missing. While Australia could profit from their opponents' errors in London and Paris, their lack of ability to break down the opposing team's defence was shown up in Cardiff.

Teams around the world have worked out that if they can stop Matt Giteau, half the battle has been won. It was a shame that Berrick Barnes was injured against Italy and could take no further part in the tour. While Giteau remains the undisputed number one choice at fly-half, we were denied the possibility of seeing a Giteau-Barnes tandem in full flight.

This tour also highlighted a crucial question that will need to be answered in the not too distant future: Is there life after Stirling Mortlock?

Is it a coincidence that Australia's only loss this November came in the game that saw Mortlock leave the field after two minutes? That Wales' tries came through his channel after he'd gone? The Wallaby skipper - like his Southern Hemisphere counterparts Richie McCaw and John Smit - has illustrated how priceless a true leader can be, especially one who knows how to push the limits of legality for his team's benefit. (I invite you to cast your mind back to how Mortlock saved the game in Padova with some 'creative positioning' that left Sergio Parisse unable to tackle soon-to-be try-scorer Quade Cooper).

Some would argue that it is unfair to compare the Wallabies' tour with those of the other Southern Hemisphere giants since neither South Africa or New Zealand played France or Italy, but against both Wales and England, Australia were not on par with their Tri-Nations rivals. Their tour gets a pass mark, but was not worth a distinction.

The Tri-Nations is, of course, an entirely different kettle of fish and while progress has been made in the Wallaby camp, amongst the forwards especially, another step forward needs to be taken if they are to seriously threaten the reign of their foes across the ditch.

Star Player: Though most of the Wallaby squad can be fairly happy, few players stood out. Mark Chisholm must be commended for his work rate and Quade Cooper, at only 20, showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has a bright future ahead of him, scoring the winning try against Italy and performing commendably against Wales while out of position. But Matt Giteau is the shining star of the Wallaby team. Under constant pressure from charging defenders, he proved that he is worth his weight in Australian gold.