Speed the key to Wallabies rousing the Boks’ demons

How do you approach a team that is cornered, down on confidence and has been humiliated? The Wallabies don’t have to regress too far into their own memories to gain some insight. Just three matches in fact, and their own turnaround was dramatic.

The most dangerous thing for any team down on themselves is to have their self-doubts validated early the next time they take the field. For a cornered team sits upon a psychological precipice where the slightest prod can send them over an ugly edge. So the first task for the Wallabies in Bloemfontein in the early hour ­tomorrow is to haunt the Springboks with the ghosts laying ­dormant in their minds.

To cause maximum harm, the Wallabies’ most potent offence will be speed. Speed of thought and speed of execution. Nothing will raise the devil in the Boks’ minds more quickly than a frenetic pace that allows them to neither draw breath nor build confidence. Of course, this is not to ignore technicalities in the tight five as only excellence in that domain will liberate the team to play an up-tempo, expansive game.

But as we have seen all too many times in sport, humiliation has two edges and it can motivate as much as it can debilitate. It can compel a man to do more and play better than he may have, had his reputation and place in the team not been on the line. So beware the Boks.

And even if they can challenge the Springboks, the Wallabies must simultaneously exorcise their own demons, most notably the ghosts of consistency and of altitude past.

Leaving altitude to the scientists, or perhaps more immediately to the psychologists, the most consistent problem for the Wallabies over the past few years has been their lack of consistency. In fact, there seems to be a different problem each week. In week one of the Rugby Championship it was defence, week two, kick-off receptions, week three, lineouts. Week four against the Pumas was the first time they brought more consistency to the fore, but the competition wasn’t as strong.

To some extent this is to be expected as different opposition bear different skills and tactics. But it would be frustrating Michael Cheika as each week they are forced to apply a different band-aid to a different skill rather than improve across a range of skills and build towards a complete performance. Ultimately, consistency will be the product of choosing a few sets of skills and becoming excellent at each.

This, however, is not just a Wallaby problem as the Springboks have also lacked consistency this year showing three different faces. The first was seen in their undefeated opening five tests (three against France and two ­Argentina), where they ably demonstrated the Spiro Zavos coined, “ensemble game’’ — engaging forwards and backs in an integrated force. Then in Perth, while starting with similar enterprise, they soon found themselves 10 points in ­arrears and so returned to type through driving forward play and kicking for territory. Their tactics were validated with a 23-20 lead, before Foley equalised.

Their third was their startled visage against the All Blacks, allowing their opposition to set the theme and pace of the game, ­dictating at will. Fifty-seven unanswered points later and you can be sure they’ll front up in Bloemfontein with the sole goal of ­restoring pride and avoiding loss at all costs, no matter how it may be manufactured. Bear in mind, ugly is pretty if it solves the ­problems on the scoreboard.

With the help of altitude and a strong kicking game they will aim to peg the Wallabies in their own half, or even quarter for that matter. This was the weakest element of the Wallabies first half against the Pumas.

While the Wallabies’ defence held against the Pumas, the bulk and raw power of the Boks will be harder to repel for any similar amount of time. If the Wallabies can repel the inevitable onslaught, and find a way out of their own half, then their form in attack will ensure they are dangerous. In fact, in this year’s Rugby Championship, they are getting over the advantage line 70 per cent of the time, more than any other team.

Cheika’s calls for consistency in form and fitness, and his subsequent extras since June, have been reflected with superior execution of handling skills under pressure. In the first four tests this year they made 65 handling errors, including 23 in the Italian test, yet in their past three matches they have only made 24 in total.

They will need to keep this up as points won’t come easily in the Republic and for the Wallabies to build pressure and challenge the Springbok’s mindset they have no greater friend than an accumulating scoreboard.