Prior to the announcement of the Wallabies team for the match against Argentina, I’d written about the three changes I expected to the starting team.

I had Tatafu Polota-Nau, James Horwill and Scott Higginbotham down as starters this week.

Meatloaf sung “two out of three ain’t bad”, but I would have been very happy with two! The only player I correctly identified to come into the team was Polota-Nau, who pushes James Hanson back to the bench.

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The time to consider making a large number of changes to the Wallabies team was last week after the drubbing from the All Blacks. I wasn’t expecting wholesale changes this week, but after making strong impacts from the bench for the second match in a row, I expected both Horwill and Higginbotham to start.

I couldn’t see Kurtley Beale making a return to the starting team. He showed so clearly last week that his best position is on the bench, where he can come on later and make a real impact. I can’t see Beale replacing Toomua at number 12 – or the coach pushing Folau to the wing so Beale can play at fullback.

Bernard Foley wasn’t fantastic but McKenzie was always going to give him time to get back into his rhythm after starting on the bench in the previous two matches. Individually Foley did some good things and his goal kicking under pressure was great, but the most important thing he did for the team was to provide some direction – something that was totally absent with Beale at flyhalf the previous two weeks.

As for Matt Toomua, I didn’t think he deserved the man-of-the-match award he received, but he was one of the better Wallabies on the night.

I think Tevita Kuridrani was best on ground, as he was outstanding and I doubt Adam Ashley-Cooper will get a look in at number 13 again any time soon.

An injury to Ashley-Cooper sees Peter Betham get an opportunity on the wing, with Henry Speight still struggling with a hamstring complaint.



With Wycliff Palu also out injured it is surprisingly Ben McCalman who starts at the back of the scrum ahead of Higginbotham. McKenzie talked about McCalman’s superior work rate as the main justification for this selection but I think the Wallaby pack needs more impact in the forwards at the start of the match.

The biggest shock for me is that both Rob Simmons and Sam Carter will start again. I don’t think either performed well enough last week to retain their spot this week. That standard of performance can’t be maintained and sometimes the best way to achieve change is to make changes.

Would I have dropped both? Probably not, because there is only one lock banging down the selection door in Horwill. You don’t want too much disruption in the starting team or you would risk losing the little bit of momentum the Wallabies built up last week with that come from behind victory.

If only one lock was to go, who should it be? I would probably go for Carter as he hasn’t delivered a strong performance in any of the first three matches of the Rugby Championship. Simmons was really poor against the Springboks but had performed reasonably well in the first two matches.

The Wallabies lineout with Simmons in charge was reasonably good on attack but really poor in defence. There were three lineouts lost on their own throw – one was an overthrow from Hanson, one was confusion between the lifters, jumper and the thrower when Hanson threw the ball with no jumper going up and the other was good defence from the Springboks who got up in front of Simmons.

In defence the Wallabies were far too slow off the ground and when it was Simmons going up to compete, he was late getting up and as a result couldn’t get to the ball, wrapping his arms around the man instead. He gave away one penalty for this and was lucky not to give away more. The penalty count against him on the night was totally unacceptable and I think he’s very lucky to be retained this week.

What I would have done is brought Horwill in and given the calling duties to him to send a very clear signal to Simmons that he is under real selection pressure.

What about Will Skelton? I don’t think his recent performances warrant a spot in the squad. On that selection, I do agree with McKenzie.



Instead, McKenzie has left things as they were with Carter and Simmons retained and I hope we don’t see this decision backfire.

If you’ve watched the Pumas play this season you’ll know that the Wallabies are in for one heck of a forward battle this weekend. Obviously the Pumas scrum is an absolute weapon but I’ve been so impressed with their general forward play.

I don’t know that keeping things steady as she goes with the forward selections for the Wallabies will be enough this week.

I just hope that come Sunday we’re talking about the performance of all four teams rather than the referees. The knock on decision in the All Blacks and Pumas match was terrible, but the decision to give Bryan Habana a yellow card for his slightly high tackle on Ashley-Cooper was diabolical.

I think it was a penalty but there is no way a card can be justified.