Deans’ job in jeopardy after Lions kill Aussies
‘‘I have not enjoyed the last 72 hours and it has been tough personally.
‘‘When you are in this job, you have to make tough calls, and every now and again you get one of them right. There are times when you have to put your balls on the line. Test rugby is either agony or ecstasy. There is nothing in between.
‘‘The scrum was brilliant tonight. I thought Alex Corbisiero was man of the match. Around the field he was sensational and justified why we picked him.’’
Ah, but Gatland didn’t pick him. When the tour party was originally announced, Corbisiero and Andrew Sheridan were omitted for lightweight scrummagers Mako Vunipola and Matt Stevens. It was a poor judgment call, because the way to destroy Australia, as proved time and again by England over the years, is through their scrum. It was only injury that allowed Gatland to call up the England loosehead.
It also helped to have a northern hemisphere ref who knows something about the scrum. In the first test, Chris Pollock allowed Australia to get away with early hits all match. In the second test, Corbisiero was injured. But when everything finally came together – a scrummaging front row with a competent ref in that area of the game – Australia fell apart.
The Lions’ scrum garnered five penalties, two free kicks and 19 points from their superiority. For all the talk about selection, that one area was the heart of this victory, just as it was when Wales beat England at the end of the Six Nations. You would expect the Lions to go after New Zealand in the same area in 2017, because a lot of this team will still be playing then.
Leigh Halfpenny, of the Lions, races away from Joe Tomane, of the Wallabies, during the third test, in Sydney on Saturday.
The future for Australia is much less positive. They have only six weeks to recover before they play the All Blacks at the same ground on which they have just been humbled. But will Robbie Deans, whose contract expires at the end of the year, still be coach for that match?
It is hard to see how Australian Rugby Union chief executive Bill Pulver can retain him. Even Deans did not sound too positive after Saturday night’s win. ‘‘You can’t presume anything in this industry. Those decisions are for others to make,’’ Deans said.
The problem for Deans is that he has united a nation. Against him. That is not entirely fair on the New Zealander, but it was inevitable if he lost this series. Helpful comments from Aussies online include sending Deans back to New Zealand in a slow leaky boat with an old cassette of Split Enz songs. And that was one of the kinder suggestions.
The trouble for Deans is that he has not just lost the fans, he has lost part of the Aussie dressing room. Commercially, that adds up to a potential disaster for the ARU. Deans has failed to discipline his errant players adequately, he has failed to shore up the scrum and he will forever be haunted by Quade Cooper’s toxic comment.
Australia is crying out for an Australian coach, despite the preference for Jake White’s savvy in some decisionmaking quarters. Ewen McKenzie and Stephen Larkham would seem like a good combination to sort out the Wallabies’ problem areas.
There were parallels between the Lions/Wallabies and Crusaders/Chiefs matches this weekend. In both cases the losing side failed to exit their 22 at crucial stages and were undone by set pieces (lineout Chiefs, scrum Australia) and individuals’ errors. No-one would presume to elevate Todd Blackadder over the Chiefs coaches as a result.
Yet Gatland is now a genius and Deans a goat. It may not be fair, but when was sport ever fair?