Raw hostility is the Wallabies’ best hope against the All Blacks

Angus Bell’s tackle on Tomas Lavanini during the Wallabies’ win over Argentina in La Plata has hopefully found its way on to the players’ laptops this week.

There is limited value in poring over far less flattering clips of the subsequent 67-27 hammering in Sante Fe – the dropped heads and poor body language only needed to be seen once.

Instead, the Wallabies this week needed to be reminded of what they are capable of. I must have watched Bell’s thundering hit on Lavanini about 50 times – rarely has anyone seen the giant Pumas second-rower folded in half like that.

Granted, Bell hit him from Lavanini’s blind side, and he couldn’t prepare for the impact, but Bell’s acceleration into the contact was the perfect example of what pure desire looks like.

It was all heart and technique, and it is the sort of heavy contact the Wallabies will need if they are to stand any chance against the All Blacks in Sydney on Saturday.

The All Blacks do not like people getting up in their faces, whether it’s Pablo Matera, Peter O’Mahony or even Nic White, who may have been selected in part because of his previous ability to get under their skin.

Nic White and All Black Anton Lienert-Brown square up in Brisbane in 2020.Credit: Getty

White is so niggly that he pushed the normally mild-mannered All Blacks midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown to the brink of a stink in the Wallabies’ 24-22 win against the All Blacks in Brisbane in 2020.

The All Blacks’ occasional inability to deal with overt aggression – and the implication that they lack the genuine hard men to deal with it – has been a recurring feature in their losses since 2017, when the British and Irish Lions first showed that teams were no longer physically beaten before the game started.

Mongrel, for want of a better word, is why I have been keen to see Josh Canham put to greater use and feel that Saturday is another missed opportunity.

Canham enraged All Blacks great Aaron Smith during Super Rugby in 2023 – Smith felt Canham kicked him in the head during a game in Dunedin – but while that can never be condoned, there is a bit of devil in Canham that has to be harnessed.

Similarly, my initial doubts about Carlo Tizzano’s size have dissolved during the past three Tests, and he surely warranted a bench spot ahead of Langi Gleeson.

Forget about the overseas players, the Wallabies will send out a 23 that is below the current capacity of those within Super Rugby Pacific.

But those selection quibbles aside, the real test for Joe Schmidt and his assistant coaches is to produce the sort of emotional and physical response from the Wallabies that supporters should, in fact, expect after the embarrassing Argentina loss.

There is a tendency to over-intellectualise the game at times, and although the much-hyped Chasing the Sun series about the Springboks does verge on myth-building (one of the executive producers is a certain Rassie Erasmus) the best scenes don’t even mention tactics, or structures, or shapes.

For example, renowned Springboks defence guru Jacques Nienaber features in one scene when he pulls out a clip of the All Blacks’ loss to England in the semi-final of the 2019 World Cup.

Highlighting how the English were continually getting across the advantage line against the All Blacks, Nienaber told the Springboks in no uncertain terms that simply would not happen in the 2019 final if South Africa defended the advantage line like their own country, and families, depended on it.

This sort of emotional appeal to players might seem a bit corny, a bit Hollywood, but it is incredibly powerful and a reminder that the game is at heart an appeal to people to put their bodies on the line for a greater good.

There is no doubt that the All Blacks have a better team than the Wallabies on paper, but Saturday is an opportunity for the Wallabies to mitigate that by sheer force of will. Whether that leads to a win is still up in the air, but it will lead to respect.

Watch all the action from The Rugby Championship with every match streaming ad-free, live and on demand on Stan Sport. Round five kicks off this weekend with Wallabies v All Blacks in the Bledisloe Cup (Saturday, 3pm, AEST) and Argentina v South Africa (Sunday, 6.50am, AEST).