And fullback Andrew Kellaway has shone on his return to lock down the troubled No 15 spot. He has at least one A-list prop in Angus Bell back from injury and real match-winners on both wings in Marika Koroibete and Mark Nawaqanitawase. Jones also has strong locks in Nick Frost, Rory Arnold and Will Skelton, all 2 metres tall and growing with each Test. ![]() Combinations are clicking – Tate McDermott and Carter Gordon in the halves, centre pairing Jordan Petaia and Samu Kerevi, and a young backrow of Tom Hooper, Fraser McReight and Rob Valetini. And while Jones’s results stink, his selections are coming up roses. “We’re a running team and we need to play a strong running game.”įour straight defeats hurt but Australia are gambling on a long game. “We’ve got big men with the ability to change direction in small spaces,” Jones said on the weekend. This was what Jones promised Australian rugby fans when he took the head coach job in January – a return to the “Wallaby Way” of playing fierce running rugby with mongrel passion. But from the get-go, Australia were threatening, bending the defensive line then spreading the ball wide to their weapons. The Wallabies’ long-lamented discipline improved too, conceding four penalties to the All Blacks’ seven in the first half (alas, it crumbled to 9-3 in the final 40 minutes). Rugby is an 80-minute game but “we don’t have the capacity to keep doing simple things well ,” Jones said.Ī few simple things were evident on Saturday as Australia took the game by the scruff of its neck – fast passing, ferocious defence, excellent support play and precision set pieces. But in the minutes either side of those periods, they were dominated. In the sequel, they were a hell of a team for 40 minutes and got ahead 17-3. In the first Bledisloe Test this year, Australia was a hell of a team for 25 minutes to lead 7-5. ![]() We’re going to be a hell of a team.”īut restless Wallabies fans are asking: if not now, when? But we’re definitely moving in the right direction. Are we making progress? Sometimes the result sheet doesn’t reflect what you’re accurately doing. “Whatever God they’ve got … keep praying we turn it around.” On Saturday, after Australia’s winless streak in New Zealand hit 8030 days, Jones was more zen. “They’ve got to keep being hopeful,” Jones said after the Wallabies blew a 7-5 lead.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |