Australia pay the ultimate price for appointing Eddie
There’s a strong argument that no country has overperformed like Australia. Not so in Lyon. There are plenty of reasons for the side’s dismal failure – not least the tinkering of their coach.
Lyon represented a new low for Australian rugby union. In the tenth World Cup the Wallabies were finally all but eliminated at the pool stage. It was quite a record, for a country where rugby union has long played back-up to rugby league and Aussie rules football.
Twice world champions, only New Zealand and South Africa have a better winning record than them. But it was the solid consistency of their quarterly efforts that really stood out. A total of four finals from nine efforts is magnificent from what is in reality a rugby union outpost.
And then there is the small matter of two semi-finals and three quarter-final losses – all of the latter to England. There’s a strong argument that no country has overperformed like Australia. Not so in Lyon. Against Georgia there was fleeting signs of an another Australian revival in the nick of time. But the comprehensive defeat by Fiji plummeted the Australians into deep trouble. This crushing loss to Wales ends this magnificent run.
Eddie Jones’s team came into the Test with six losses in seven matches, bruised egos and battered confidence, not to mention rumours of the head coach’s clandestine negotiations with Japan. Australia were at an all-time World Cup low before kick-off. They tumbled into the world of the abject.
Ben Donaldson was the fly half – the one who couldn’t keep his contract with the Waratahs – against Georgia. His previous selection at full back enabled Jones to persist with what he saw as the promise of Carter Gordon at fly half. After Fiji, Jones lost his patience; Donaldson was the national fly half without a contract in his home town of Sydney and Andrew Kellaway was reinstated at full back. The decision to drop him had been the strangest of all Jones’s tinkerings.
A case of: “I dropped you, mate, would you mind saving my reputation.” But it was Jones’s choice of fly half who set the tone with the first impact; a negative one as he lacked the pace and positional sense to check Jac Morgan as Wales raced over for an early try. The contrast was stark a few minutes later when Dan Biggar made a marvellous tackle on Richie Arnold as the lock bore down on the tryline. Biggar, alas, was injured and soon departed. What Australia would have given for a half-fit Biggar. Or maybe not? Too obvious for Eddie.
Donaldson dropped a ball in the shadow of his posts but kicked a routine second penalty. Statistics can be so deceptive. The fly half did make a defence-splitting break around the 20-minute mark but chose the wrong option with a try in the offing. Decision-making is such a key part of a fly half’s repertoire.
Decision-making: a penalty in front of the Welsh posts to cut the four-point to deficit to one. An overthrow, a 60-metre hack downfield and Wales won a penalty. They gobbled up the three points. What could have been a 10-9 scoreline became 13-6. Theoretically at least, in a tense game with the stakes so high you take the points. A black mark against Dave Porecki in the absence of Will Skelton. But had Quade Cooper been on the field, he would have pointed to the posts. Decision-making is a matter of selection – off the field, as well as on it.
As Donaldson struggled to look the part, putting restarts out on the full, crushing momentum, it was impossible not to ponder the travails of Jones’s No 10s. Gordon was berated by our distant cousins in the Australian press and Jones came to his defence, only to discard him immediately. The only option for Australia in the absence of the rugby-savvy Cooper was a failed fly half/full back. Their proud World Cup record was coming to an end.
Trailing 29-9, Donaldson gave way in the fly-half merry-go-round to Gordon. As for Kellaway, he was marooned at full back, cut adrift from the gathering shambles in front of him. Whatever Australia attempted there were red shirts waiting to engulf them. Whatever Wales tried worked. Right now Wales look the best of the weaker pool contenders.
Warren Gatland has done a wonderful job as head coach. Yesterday (Sunday) it contrasted with the adverse fortunes of Jones. “Fortune” is the wrong word. It isn’t about bad luck. The Wallabies missed some key players but that is all part of the World Cup process.
On the basis of some promise against Georgia I got my judgment on the Wallabies wrong and tipped them against Fiji. Not as wrong as the Australian Rugby Union, which appointed Jones, having witnessed his disastrous mismanagement of England from afar. The RFU is still paying for Jones. You can interpret that as you wish.
Apart from Wales, the biggest beneficiary of Australia’s capitulation must surely be the Japanese Rugby Union, which has a chance to change its mind if it really believes Jones is their future. For the moment Australia’s rugby is stuck in its esteemed past. A fourth straight knockout qualification for Wales, a shuddering failure for their opponents. This was a good day to be Welsh, an awful one for those who care for Australian rugby.
