Izzy the man?
Bledisloe pressure- cooker set to blow, writes Gregor Paul
He’s the player the All Blacks fear the most and the Aussie weapon most likely to derail tonight’s Bledisloe Cup hopes. Ahead of the pressure- cooker game in Sydney, Gregor Paul explores how to contain the threat of Israel Folau.
They’re kidding themselves if they don’t think they’ve got any pressure. ABs coach Steve Hansen
There has been a bit of playground stuff leading up to tonight’s Bledisloe Cup clash as to which team may be feeling more pressure.
The Wallabies say it’s the All Blacks. That having held the Bledisloe since 2003, the onus is on New Zealand to keep it.
The All Blacks don’t disagree they are under pressure, but that’s no different to every other test and the Wallabies may be feeling things more.
“There’s pressure on the All Blacks all the time,” head coach Steve Hansen said. “That’s where we live. Everyone wants to beat us and we want to keep winning. You’re kidding yourself if you think that any test match there is not pressure on both sides.
“Again, if you look at what’s happened for them recently, I think they’ve lost their last four games. That’ll create pressure. Haven’t won a Bledisloe for the last 13 years. That’ll create pressure.
“There’s as much pressure on them as there is us. They’re kidding themselves if they don’t think they’ve got any pressure.”
It’s easy to see why the Wallabies have tried to cast themselves in the role of underdog with nothing to lose and everything to gain. It’s easy to see why coach Michael Cheika has been telling everyone that the All Blacks don’t respect or rate his side.
Cheika is trying to instil within his team a mindset of the world being against them — of no one rating them, least of all the team they are playing tonight.
And he’s doing that partly to create a siege mentality within his players but also, maybe to create a soft landing should they lose. The reality for Cheika is that another defeat will put him in a place where he’s not so keen to be — with his own job security likely to be questioned.
If the All Blacks win, it will be the Wallabies’ fifth straight defeat with a trip to Wellington next week. At that point, there would be no confusion as to which team is under the most pressure.
There’s more going on that, though. The test tonight hasn’t sold out and another defeat will leave the Australian Rugby Union concerned about what that might do to ticket sales for the tests against South Africa and Argentina. The national body is always strapped for cash and empty seats in Perth and Brisbane will have a significant impact on the balance sheet.
When performance has a direct impact on revenue, that’s when administrators start to take an interest in what is really happening with their national team and poking around the Wallabies at the moment might produce fascinating findings.
It is believed that Cheika, such a powerful and positive influence last year, may not necessarily be universally popular with the players. There are suggestions he clashed with Israel Folau on the team bus this week — telling off the star fullback for joking around.
It’s not, so the grapevine has it, the first time Cheika has harshly rebuked players in front of the team and patience with his style of management may be wearing a little thin.
Of all the players to keep enthused and engaged, Folau is the most important. His influence tonight could potentially be enormous.
He is the player the All Blacks fear the most. He’s the player they will ensure they don’t let have easy opportunities to run at them. When they kick, they will either avoid him; make him move, or make him contest the ball in the air.
If the All Blacks are inaccurate with their kicking, they know Folau will punish them. He is the most devastating broken field runner in world rugby.
If he’s able to even get five metres of counter- attack running in before he meets the first All Blacks defender, there will be trouble. And they know that when the Wallabies push the ball wide, they will be looking to use Folau as their strike weapon.
He’ll be used to try to force Malakai Fekitoa into making poor defensive decisions. The young All Blacks centre is an explosive tackler, but he’s prone to occasionally making rash calls about his positioning and timing.
Folau is Australia’s best attacking weapon and the man on whose shoulders so much rests. He is the man who can unsettle the All Blacks by searing through the midfield. He’s the man who can ignite the home crowd, make them believe anything is possible.
He is the man who could score from nothing — change the nature of the game in a flash of brilliance. He is the man who could go a long way to alleviate some of the pressure the Wallabies are under and transfer it to the All Blacks next week.
That’s the way the Wallabies would like things to transpire this week. But there’s also the chance Folau is shut out of the game by a well- organised All Blacks defence.
He could be left with little or no possession and no chance to impose himself. At which point his feelings about rugby and the Wallabies may have to be reviewed.