Wallabies challenged by formula to beat ABS
Many believe the Wallabies have been handed the blueprint to beat the All Blacks in Thursday’s Bledisloe opener at Marvel Stadium, though now Sydney-based former test great Andrew Mehrtens is not prepared to jump on that bandwagon.
The 70-test All Black, a key part of
Stan Sport’s rugby commentary crew in Australia, has told Stuff that while he believes the Wallabies have the players and belief to trouble the New Zealanders on Thursday night in Melbourne, he’s not so sure it’s in their makeup to play the game required to sit Ian Foster’s men on their backsides.
It has been stated by more than one pundit that the Wallabies just need to study the tape of Ireland’s historic series victory in July, when they came from a test back to mow the New Zealanders down 2-1, and of the Springboks’ 26-10 triumph in Mbombela and Argentina’s 25-18 boilover in Christchurch for the recipe for success against these All Blacks.
All three were able, on their day, to squeeze the All Blacks on defence, limit their attacking options and turn the game into a slower-paced grind that suited them. Ireland were more complete in their runaway series success, but both South Africa and Argentina succeeded by keeping things pretty simple against the New Zealand outfit.
But Mehrtens, the masterful No 10 who was a key playmaker for the All Blacks from 1995 to 2004, does not believe it is as simple as the Wallabies simply taking a leaf out of the book of their Rugby Championship mates.
‘‘The Wallabies will be looking at the consistency of what’s beaten the All Blacks, particularly the more recent ones,’’ noted Mehrtens. ‘‘Argentina and South Africa didn’t really play as much as Ireland did but on defence they were able to interrupt the All Blacks’ flow and stop them dictating a faster tempo.
‘‘Australia have a pretty good defence and have always been quite organised and intelligent there, if not the brutal force of the South African defence on their day. I guess the problem the Wallabies have is Argentina and South Africa are quite happy to slow the game down, but Australia are different because their natural game is actually to speed the tempo up as well.
‘‘If they tried to mimic what South Africa and Argentina did effectively, it’s almost not the Australian game. You wonder how much they want to focus on playing that sort of rugby, and how much they actually want to chance their arm. South Africa chanced their arm against the All Blacks in that second test at Ellis Park, played a game that was a little unnatural to them and ran themselves out of steam.
‘‘I think Dave Rennie will want to attack which means probably Australia have got a little less chance of winning than if they just tried to shut the game down. At the same time they’ve got to play what comes naturally to them.’’