Samu Kerevi says he has been concentrating on ball security since the contentious call against him for leading with a forearm against Wales, and not getting pinged again for a dangerous carry.
Kerevi was at the centre of a refereeing-related furore when he was penalised for his arm contacting with Rhys Patchell’s throat while fending in the first-half; a moment Michael Cheika later labelled embarrassing.
After the penalty, the powerhouse centre appeared more subdued for the second half of the game and after sitting out the Uruguay game, Kerevi didn’t post his usual, stratospherically-high running numbers against Georgia in Shizuoka.
Kerevi ran 14 times for just 33 metres; some way of his 100-metre game against Wales and 60 metre game against Fiji.
Prior to the World Cup, Kerevi had also proved a tackle-shedding machine who’d topped the Rugby Championship run metres tally (221m), and was second in Super Rugby with an average of over 100m per game.
A more restrained performance against Georgia suggested Kerevi was still concerned about playing his natural fending game against defenders, but the Wallabies vice-captain said that was not the case, and he’d just been playing to the conditions on a slippery night at the Ecopa Stadium.
“To be honest not really,” Kerevi said when asked if the high-carry penalty was still in his head when running.
(Against Georgia) I think it was more about ball retention, holding onto the pill, for me.
“Because in the Wales game I lost it I think like three times, so that’s more what I took out of the Wales game.
“Obviously I didn’t play against Uruguay, and just helped the team and looked pretty on the bench, but I think for me it was more about ball retention (against Georgia), especially in that wet weather.
“Going forward was the main objective, and trying to break that line and set up that fast ball for our halves and forwards to get around. But that penalty itself, I have left that behind.”
Kerevi didn’t free his arms often to try and fight off defenders, but it was no doubt under instruction given Michael Cheika said post-match the high dropped-ball count was down to too much carrying the ball “on the chest”, where it is easier to be knocked out.
The Wallabies backline didn’t fire as a whole against Georgia, and Cheika identified it as an area that would need addressing ahead of a quarter-final.
Kerevi said even though it was a forward-dominated game, the backs need to be able to step up.
“We obviously had a plan in place, even with the weather,” Kerevi said.
“But we just didn’t execute it at the time. We had a lot of handling errors, as much as other things.
“I thought the forwards played outstanding. Us as a backline can still step up in terms of games like that. It was a forwards oriented game with a lot of set-piece but we can take some pressure off and really step up and help out there.
"That’s the backline putting their hand up, in this sense, and take the learnings and implement it this week.”
