Wallabies win on the right side of violence

3 months ago 16

The Wallabies’ victory over the British and Irish Lions was just on the right side of violence as they inhabited that elusive space between where all big Tests are won.

It’s been a while since they’ve been there - right on the edge, sometimes over it and always in the Lions faces - but Saturday night was the statement performance of the Joe Schmidt era.

It also felt like a message to the Lions committee, to those of us in the media whose default position with Australian rugby can sometimes be doom and gloom, to the teams currently ranked above the Wallabies, and to those casual Wallabies supporters who might have fallen off the bandwagon.

The message was: never turn your back on Australian rugby. Yes, there will be bumps on the road ahead - two Tests in South Africa are next - but the Wallabies won four halves out of the six in this series.

Come on Ronan, free Willie

The particulars of Will Skelton’s contract with La Rochelle in France have always seemed to be - how can we put this diplomatically? - quite favourable to the club over country. It appears that Rugby Australia will now have to negotiate with the French to have Skelton play in the Rugby Championship, even though it is a bona fide World Rugby release window.

Winners are grinner … Will Skelton celebrates with fans.

Perhaps La Rochelle coach Ronan O’Gara will be sympathetic to Schmidt’s cause. O’Gara has previously declared an interest in the Wallabies job, and no doubt the past two weeks have increased the appeal of that role. But it might be time for some back scratching first.

The TMO lottery

The issues with TMO intervention have been catalogued at length, and it is painful to keep revisiting old ground. Yet, there was an incident towards the end of the Test that summed up the state of the system.

As Wallabies fans were nervously rewatching Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii clocking Tadhg Beirne high and trying to convince themselves it could be downgraded from a card to a penalty, it transpired the TMO was actually studying Ben Donaldson’s supposed late tackle.

Try time? … Jac Morgan scores for the Lions.

No one doubts that TMO has a hard job. But that’s the point - if the job is so difficult and the technology to make definitive calls simply doesn’t exist (was there any proof that the Jac Morgan’s try for the Lions’ was actually grounded?) why has the game become hostage to TMOs? As for the missed head shot on Tom Lynagh at the ruck, it was almost too obvious to be worth mentioning.

Tupou’s big return

There are so many what-ifs after this series. What if Taniela Tupou had been on the bench in Melbourne, when the Lions used Ellis Genge and their scrum weight to eventually put themselves in the position to win the series?

Or what if Tupou had been in good form all year, instead of swimming in a sea of self-doubt in Super Rugby Pacific?

That’s in the past now, but Tupou did show in Sydney that he has the ability to remain a vital part of the Wallabies for years to come. He was far more disciplined than Lions loosehead Andrew Porter at scrum time, and the Wallabies were very unlucky not to win two more scrum penalties - one against Porter and one against Genge, who continues to get away with murder. Whoever pressed his buttons in the First Nations and Pasifika XV camp deserves some praise.

Australia gets a good one back from New Zealand

The Force’s signing of Highlanders No 9 Nathan Hastie flew under the radar this week, but its significance became apparent with Nic White’s retirement announcement.

Perth product Hastie, 24, has a huge left boot and towering box kick, but his real strength is his desire to take on defenders in and around the ruck. He does not mind mixing with the big boys and has the pace to make breaks and half-breaks with a view to getting an offload away.

This is exactly where the Wallabies have been strong for the past three weeks, with Tate McDermott (two) and Jake Gordon grabbing three tries. The Force will be delighted but Hastie has the potential to get to the next level.