Georgians are tough men, the Wallabies' attack needs sharpening up, Samu Kerevi is still thinking about that penalty and onya Rob Simmons.
What are we talking about from the Wallabies' win over Georgia?
GEORGIAN GRANITE
They say every World Cup campaign has to have its Pontypool.
Referencing Australia’s rain-sodden 9-3 win over Manu Samoa in South Wales, in the ultimately victorious 1991 campaign, we're talking one of those games where you just have to survive, get the win and get out.
Shizuoka was definitely the Wallabies’ Pontypool moment.
Whether Australia has the ability to emulate the 1991 Wallabies and go on and win the World Cup, well, that is a whole different story. They’d certainly have to be much improved next week in quarter-finals.
The standard of Wallabies’ play was not high on a brutally physical night, but there must be an element of acknowledging Georgia’s grit and tenacity. It had plenty to do with the Wallabies' low altitude.
Certainly, it would be a mistake to believe Georgia are a plucky minnow outfit. They’re no backwater team.
Georgians are big and abrasive.
A majority make their living playing professionally in French rugby and they’re universally know as hard men.
They hammered Uruguay and Uruguay beat Fiji. Georgia also gave Wales a decent run.
Georgia’s main problem is the same as many tier two teams - a lack of high-class games.
But when they get a long lead-in in World Cup years, and play top Test rugby for a few months, they amply show why many believe - most firmly the Georgians - that Los Lelos should have Italy’s place in the Six Nations.
They’re disciplined and under Kiwi Milton Haig, are now top-tier fit. You don’t make 200 tackles and only yield in the last five minutes if you’re not fit.
The Georgians didn’t just defend well front-on, where they routinely denied the Wallabies the gainline, but they were very good at shutting down space wide, and they also worked hard to close gaps off inside balls.
In the wet, the Wallabies tried to wear the Georgians down and it is now pretty obvious to everyone they’re a mob who don’t yield easily.
So in the interests of fairness, that’s something we definitely learned in Australia's first ever Test against Georgia.
The Georgians are serious footy people, and if they were given the chance to play off against Italy for a spot in the Six Nations, they’d become even better.
But with the quarter-final there is a danger for the Wallabies of over-hyping Georgia and handing out back-pats.
Apart from one defensive lapse, Georgia rarely looked like scoring and were unable to capitalise on a pile of Wallabies errors.
England can mount the same defence, and have the ability to hurt you on turnovers and errors.
MASSIVE ATTACK
It’s probably pretty clear by now that Michael Cheika is not one for yielding either.
So against England in the quarter-finals, don’t expect any sudden change from the running, high-passing game he has been working into the Wallabies for a few years now.
Eddie Jones will be sitting in his new digs and dusting off his old plans about how to exploit the Wallabies’ ambition with a defence-pressure game.
The two old Randwick teammates will duel all week in the verbal wars - it’s already started - and then they’ll send out teams to out-play each other with ultra-contrasting styles.
Asked pre-game if the conditions would bring on a kicking strategy, Michael Cheika said “I don’t know if we have one of those” and though it seemed like a mischievous line, the Wallabies then only kicked twice all half in general play all of the first half.
It meant the Wallabies would carry the ball the whole distance, but with wide attack difficult, route one was the chosen option and Georgia love route one.
The Wallabies back themselves to be fitter than their rivals and to expose gaps with high-tempo attack, be it wide or with forwards hitting the line off nine.
But the forwards were getting repelled and the backs didn’t create much. Again, Georgia’s defence deserves credit but the Wallabies’ attack wasn’t overly challenging, or for the first hour, sufficiently varied.
Matt Toomua was actually solid at ten and losing Kurtley Beale early didn’t help, but Cheika conceded post-game their overall attack wasn’t sharp against Georgia.
The fact they didn’t really use long kicking until after Christian Lealiifano came on, to turn Georgia around and build pressure on them, showed the limitation of the up-front “we’re gonna run and not kick” gameplan.
It can make the Wallabies predictable.
And if you’re gonna be predictable, you also need to pretty-close-to-perfect at it to win Test rugby.
Apart from the odd patch, the Wallabies haven’t put that on the field yet in Japan.
SCRUM-THING HAPPENING
There probably wasn’t a huge amount of vision from the Wallabies in their Georgia win that will keep Eddie Jones awake at night.
But the sight of the Wallabies’ scrum establishing dominance over Los Lelos would have stopped him from having an extra bottle of red at dinner on Friday night.
The Wallabies pack had the shove on Georgia, despite them having a reputation as Europe’s most fearsome scrummagers.
They say there are 30 Fijians wingers in French club rugby, and 30 Georgian props.
But the Wallabies bossed them, particularly when the raw power of Taniela Tupou was introduced in the second half. (It’d be a huge shock to see Tupou being left out of the 23 to play England, by the way).
The reason Eddie may be concerned is that the Wallabies’ dominant scrum was a big part of the reason they beat England handsomely at the last World Cup. They took six scrum penalties out of England, and Bernard Foley’s boot built good scoreboard pressure.
Establishing the upper hand at set-piece unlocks so much potential for the Wallabies’ attack, be it wide or even rolling in maul tries.
And Allan Alaalatoa, arguably Australia’s best scrummager, is to come back in for the quarter. Interesting.
SECOND-GUESS SAMU
Marika Koroibete and Samu Kerevi loomed as Australia’s main weapons at this World Cup.
💨 Marika does it all himself! #AUSvGEO #RWC2019
— RUGBYcomau (@rugbycomau) October 11, 2019
READ: https://t.co/E25DRhioKR pic.twitter.com/4Eo2V1Qh0r
And while Koroibete continues to amaze with his (rugby) career-best season, Kerevi appears to still be knocked around by that carrying penalty in the Wales’ loss.
In the second half against the Welsh, and against Georgia, Kerevi lacked that same destructive ball-running power in contact.
Yes, he had some good runs against Georgia, no doubt. But Kerevi also now seems just a little hesitant at the line.
Though he said pre-match he wouldn’t change his style, he appears to be thinking about keeping his arms down and out of trouble.
In one carry Kerevi's arm slipped up to a defender’s throat and he quickly pulled it down.
The fact the ball-carry penalty has not been a thing since Kerevi’s penalty against Wales would suggest he needn’t worry, and referees aren’t watching him.
ROB RAISES THE BAT
It was fitting that Rob Simmons contributed to Will Genia’s last try with a nice offload to Taniela Tupou.
The big lock was playing his 100th Test after being called in late to replace the injured Adam Coleman, and Simmons didn’t want anyone making a fuss about it.
Which has been Simmons’ way from Test no.1 through to Test no.100.
The ex-Queenslander turned-Waratah is one of those lightning rods for the ugly online abuse that swirls around Australian rugby.
But here is the truth of it: Rob Simmons is the 11th Wallaby to play 100 Test matches and all ten of the men who went before him - men who know footy better than all of us - will wholeheartedly welcome him to their club as a deserved member.
No-one flukes their way to 100 Test caps. You earn no.1 through to no.100.
