The Wallabies were more competitive against the All Blacks in Bledisloe II, but there are still so many areas where their performance is just not good enough.

The Wallabies coaches can’t fix everything at once, so today I’ve summarised four areas I think are priorities and I go into more detail in the video that’s included. The basic issues I show you in the video are really concerning.

Exits and charge downs

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The Wallabies again struggled with their exit plays from their own territory.

Will Genia had three kicks charged down – two box kicks and one clearing kick. This comes on top of Christian Lealiifano conceding a try from a charge down at a critical moment in Bledisloe I, but as I show in the video the same issues exist almost every time the Wallabies try to exit their half.

The All Blacks clearly had a strategy of putting pressure on the kickers and the Wallabies need to implement a structure to provide some protection for the kickers as other teams will have no doubt taken notice.

Lineout

The Wallabies lineout was really good in Bledisloe I with 100% won on their own throw but this week they could only win 64%.

What had such a dramatic impact on the Wallabies performance? It wasn’t Stephen Moore’s throwing – he only had one poor throw from thirteen although he had one other that hit the mark but was 20-30cm lower than ideal. Three of the five losses came with Ben Mowen off the field so that may have had some impact.



As you’ll see in the video the Wallabies lineout got a little static and predictable in the second half which gave the All Blacks opportunities that they took advantage of.

Defence

The Wallabies’ line speed in this match was much better than in Bledisloe I and they were able to put some pressure on the All Blacks but you just can’t release the pressure at any stage because they’ll make you pay.

The examples I’ve included in the video show that on too many occasions the structure of the Wallabies defence was questionable and their numbering was poor in not matching what the attack was doing. These issues had more impact than the one on one missed tackles we saw.

Both All Black tries were scored by Ben Smith down James O’Connor’s wing. Where was O’Connor?

On the first O’Connor was defending on the end of the Wallabies line which consisted of four players. The All Blacks had nine on that side of the field which left O’Connor in an impossible position defending a massive overlap!

The second came when the All Blacks again had an overlap on their right side – this time a five on three. O’Connor wasn’t one of the three as he was in the ruck after he’d made the try saving tackle under the posts on Steven Luatau on the previous phase – it’s hard to be in two places at once!



Scrum

This week we saw very little of the issues we saw in Round 1 of The Rugby Championship with halfbacks not feeding the ball straight – they learnt quickly!

If you watched Bledisloe II on Fox you’ll have heard Phil Kearns expressing his dislike for the new scrum laws. His opinion is that they give the team not putting the ball in too much of an advantage if they choose to implement an eight man drive once the ball is fed when the team feeding the ball only has seven available as the hooker is striking for the ball.

I agree that there’s an advantage but that applies to both packs, so at least the laws provide a fair contest.

I share the view that the referee shouldn’t be calling out when the halfback can feed the ball as it gives the team not feeding the ball a cue to start their drive.

A better solution may be to insist that the halfback only feed when the scrum is stable and if the halfback continues to feed before stability is achieved, to award a free kick against the feeding team. Just as the halfbacks have already sorted out their feeds, they’d adapt to this as well.

The fact that only one team in the match was able to exploit the advantage Kearns complains about should tell you that it’s not the laws causing the Wallabies trouble, it’s the fact that they were up against a pack working as one consisting of players with better tactics, body shape, position and technique.

One of the most critical factors is that the All Blacks middle row provides real support to their props.



The Springboks scrum has been very strong over the last two weeks against the Pumas – they’ve also adapted quickly to the new laws so life isn’t going to get any easier for the Wallabies pack.