Grand Slam tour: Wallabies looking for killer finishers off bench

Michael Cheika is still seeking real impact off the bench in the final third of a Test match.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika introduced the expression “finishers” to the Australian rugby ­vocabulary in the lead-up to last year’s World Cup.

Borrowed from baseball’s “closers”, it was the word Cheika used to describe impact players off the bench who would finish off the game for the Wallabies.

The most notable finisher in the Wallabies’ campaign was exciting utility back Kurtley Beale, arguably Australia’s best performed back in the tournament.

But where have Cheika’s finishers gone this year? Beale, of course, is with English club Wasps, nursing a serious knee injury.

Without Beale’s X-factor, the Wallabies’ bench has offered the team little this year. Look at their habitually poorer performance in the second-half of matches.

While the All Blacks get stronger in the last 30 minutes, the Wallabies stagnate and struggle to finish the game with a bang, which will be an ongoing problem for Cheika because New Zealand have so much more depth than Australia.

The Wallabies’ lack of finishing was evident even against Wales in Cardiff when the Welsh dominated the second half and blew two or three tries that could have changed the game.

Thankfully, the Wallabies managed to outscore an inept Wales 12-5 in the second half.

But if winger Dane Haylett-Petty had not scored an intercept try in the 75th minute, the scoreline would have been 5-all in the second half and Australia’s last score in the game would have been Bernard Foley’s try in the 54th minute.

So where was the lift from the bench?

Nowhere.

It is evident that Cheika has lost faith in Quade Cooper, giving the mercurial playmaker just the last two minutes of the game.

Cheika is trying to develop Australia’s depth so they can match the All Blacks for a full 80 minutes, but until he does that he has to work with the resources at his disposal and that will require being a little bit creative at the ­selection table.

It was interesting to see halfback Will Genia rushed back into the starting line-up for the Test against Scotland at Murrayfield after Nick Phipps’ outstanding performance against Wales.

Genia played well in the gold No 9 jersey before returning to French club Stade Francais after the Rugby Championship. I get the impression Genia sulks if he is on the bench and while I do not believe in pandering to players, the Wallabies are probably better off with him starting.

Phipps, to his credit, accepted his relegation and if he can reproduce the form he displayed against Wales off the bench against Scotland, he could provide the Wallabies with one of the finishers Cheika is looking for.

There are only a few other positions where the Wallabies can potentially achieve this kind of impact from the bench and the most obvious one is openside flanker.

The Wallabies have two world- class openside flankers in David Pocock and Michael Hooper, but Cheika prefers to start Pocock out of position at No 8 or blindside flanker, which is where he is currently playing.

If I were Cheika, I would be tempted to start Pocock, the best breakdown forward in world rugby, in his natural position at openside and bring Hooper on for the last 30 minutes to capitalise on his running game when the defence is fatigued.

Pocock and Hooper could even play in tandem for the last 30 minutes. This is the kind of impact the Wallabies so desperately need at the end of games.

The Wallabies need Pocock on the field for as long as possible.

It was hardly a coincidence that ­Pocock was out injured when Scotland almost knocked the Wallabies out of the World Cup quarter-final last year. Of course, the Scots will be fired up for revenge tomorrow morning, still smarting over referee Craig Joubert’s controversial penalty which cost them the game in the World Cup.

But it will mean very little and I expect the Wallabies to continue their winning form, building up the momentum for their pursuit of the Grand Slam.

One of the pleasing aspects of their win against Wales was the contribution from our younger players in Rory Arnold, Adam Coleman, Lopeti Timani, Reece Hodge and Haylett-Petty, who all played with maturity.

Scotland have been a nuisance team for the Wallabies in recent years, but like Wales, they have not had any playing time together and they should not be in a position to upset Australia unless, of course, the score is close with 30 minutes to go and the tourists cannot finish them off.