Kurtley Beale key to unlocking Wallabies’ attacking groove
KURTLEY Beale ended a 47-year hoodoo at high-altitude in South Africa with a spectacular kick and will now be entrusted with creating fresh history in a city that has never witnessed a Wallabies’ win in 85 years.
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KURTLEY Beale ended a 47-year hoodoo at high-altitude in South Africa with a spectacular kick and will now be entrusted with creating fresh history in a city that has never witnessed a Wallabies’ win in 85 years.
Michael Cheika spoke this week of holding your nerve as a key trait of the best coaches under pressure and he will be true to his words against South Africa in windy Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
He seems certain to keep faith with the fluctuating Beale-Matt Toomua experiment in the midfield, with Bernard Foley as a closer, for a third Test.
Cheika has looked beyond Beale spilling two bullet passes from Will Genia against Argentina because he wants as much tempo as possible in the attack from his new five-eighth as well as plenty of two-touch involvements in set plays.
The Wallabies have lost on all four of their visits to Port Elizabeth since 1933 but that is less daunting than the highveld curse that Beale ended in Bloemfontein in 2010 with a wonderful penalty goal on full-time for 41-39 over the Springboks.
The 2010 Wallabies scored five tries in that classic win and such elusive precision is what this Wallabies’ unit needs to nail.
“Frustrating is the word that sums it up because consistency is what’s killing us at the moment, both within games and also game-to-game.,” Wallabies outside centre Reece Hodge said.
“We are capable of some brilliance and this is an opportunity to show what we’re really capable of in an 80-minute performance, which we haven’t done this season.”
Hodge said there hadn’t been dramatic adjustments needed with Beale at No.10 and he felt it was a three-man package anyway because Foley had played the final 30 minutes there against Argentina.
“I’d say it’s a rotating combination between the three who are world-class players and they all bring a hell of a lot in terms of direction and how well they communicate,” Hodge said.
Hodge said the Wallabies were grooving specific attacking plans for the Springboks and the rush defence that was such a big part of the recent 36-34 upset of the All Blacks.
“We’ve got some interesting plays we’ve designed around how the Springboks have defended with some exciting prospects for myself and the outside backs in terms of finding some space,” Hodge said.
“They didn’t even give the All Blacks a chance to get moving in the first place so that (style of defence) was definitely a huge part of why they won the game.
“They’ll try to bring it again so it’s up to us to create our own holes.”
Israel Folau’s roaming role as a winger is certain to continue after his high-impact game against Argentina (13 runs for 124m, eight tackle busts and a brilliant individual try) was only marred by the crazy decision not to pass to Foley when a win was squandered.
“There’s a few moves where we might be interchanging a little bit and there is an exciting prospect of Izzy getting involved more in the frontline and getting us that go-forward ball to play off,” Hodge said.
The magnitude of playing the Boks in front of a roaring 46,000-strong sellout at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium plus a predicted 27km per hour wind must be factored in to how tough it will be to win.
“Obviously, it’s a huge challenge but we want to create as many records as we can on the road and start piecing together two, three and four good performances back-to-back to get some momentum,” Hodge said.
Ned Hanigan is certain to win selection at No.6 but the left-field possibility of using lock Rob Simmons off the bench as a blindside flanker to sustain the team’s lineout potency also exists.
Simmons started a few games at No.6 during his time with the Queensland Reds but two backrow cameos off the bench at the 2015 World Cup are the limit of any experience there in his 88 Tests.
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Originally published as Kurtley Beale key to unlocking Wallabies’ attacking groove