AUSTRALIA

Giteau calls for attacking patience

Thursday 03rd July 2008

Easy does it: Giteau wants Australia to show more patience in attack

With Robbie Deans giving the Wallabies licence to attack fly-half Matt Giteau believes the side are forcing the issue too much and not showing enough patience with ball in hand.

Having dominated both possession and territory in the opening half against France in the first Test, Australia failed to make their advantage tell on the scoreboard.

Giteau, who is as guilty as the next player of impatience, thinks Australia are on the right track but need to cut out the basic errors.

"I think from a team point of view obviously we're pushing the passes," Giteau said in Brisbane on Thursday.

"We looked a bit rushed in Sydney, we were seeing holes and we were seeing opportunities and were trying to put the French to bed in one phase rather than showing patience and building pressure and putting phases together."

Australia looked to be lacking some cohesion in the first Test, although Giteau does not feel this was a result of France's rush defence.

"I just think we could see the opportunities and were just trying to rush the ball there," he explained.

"We've got to build pressure and be patient.

"It's something Robbie's always talking about, building pressure, stressing teams and just being patient with the ball.

"And if we do that, we showed in the second half that we can put points together really quickly."

Meanwhile, Giteau, a veteran of two World Cup campaigns at the tender age of 25, endorsed the injection of new blood into the Wallabies set-up under Deans.

Such is the youthful look to the side that only four of Saturday's starting XV are over the age of 25, Stirling Mortlock (31), Al Baxter (31), Phil Waugh (28) and Stephen Hoiles (26) are the elder statesmen of the group.

"I think that was always going to be the case when you looked at the squad when it was first picked, there's a lot of youth, a lot of new guys and it needed to happen," Giteau said.

"We lost so many senior guys with George Gregan, Stephen Larkham and Chris Latham moving on and new guys were going to come through.

"So I think this was always going to happen and I think it's a great big step forward for Australian rugby."

France coach Marc Li�vremont has also taken a youthful approach - his back-line for the second Test have a total of thirteen Test caps between them.

"Again you're not too sure what to expect, obviously there was a couple of players that came off the bench last week that are now starting," Giteau said of the new-look Les Bleus line-up.

"They've moved their outside-centre who was originally a fly-half to ten so I think they're going to be a more settled side."