Mortlock worried
FORMER Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock says he was concerned by Australia’s “very one-dimensional” attack against Samoa and feels the side wasted a chance to build momentum into the Rugby World Cup.
Australia’s captain at the 2007 World Cup was in the stands at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday to watch the Wallabies’ final hit-out before the RWC in Japan, with their campaign beginning next Saturday
FORMER Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock says he was concerned by Australia’s “very one-dimensional” attack against Samoa and feels the side wasted a chance to build momentum into a
World Cup.
Australia’s captain at the
2007 World
Cup was in the stands at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday to watch the Wallabies’ final hit-out before the World Cup in Japan, with their campaign beginning next Saturday against Fiji.
Despite running out 34-15 winners, scoring six tries and chalking up more than 29 points for just the third time in their previous 21 Tests, Mortlock acknowledged that while there were positives in the first half he felt Australia’s attacking strategy against the 16th ranked team in the world lacked spark and variation when compared to previous matches this year.
“I wasn’t that impressed with the Samoa performance,” Mortlock told the Sydney Morning Herald. “In the first half it was a pretty decent performance but we didn’t assert ourselves in the second half. What I wasn’t impressed with was in attack we looked very one-dimensional. Perhaps that was an extension of the fact the guys have been on tour away and have had a pretty heavy workload during camp.
“When you do that you’re not as polished and likely to chance your arm but certainly most of the test matches this year we’ve seen the Wallabies attack really throw caution to the wind with ball in hand and use a lot of width and lots of passes. Whereas against Samoa I didn’t sense that was the case. That was my disappointment, I just found it hard to follow to be frank.
“There was hardly any time to give them a good lead-up into the World Cup and that was their last crack at it and it seemed to be a little different to the few matches before.
“They’ve changed their attack dramatically this year, so in my view every game was critical to go in the right direction to improve it or reinforce that new style. Yet to me it certainly didn’t look like that’s what they were doing against Samoa. It felt like it was a bit of a waste.”