The Wallabies have two weeks between their last match against the Pumas and taking on the All Blacks in Dunedin. The first few days of that period are taken up getting back from Argentina and I understand they’ve got the rest of the week off.

Their performance against the Pumas was so different from what we’ve seen in the last two years.

Yes, there’s so much room still left for improvement but it was like watching another team.

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The urgency to re-align in attack and secure the ball at the breakdown against the Pumas was so far removed from the pedestrian approach we saw in 2012 and so far this year – there was a noticeable change in the level of commitment.

But it won’t be good enough to play the same way against the All Blacks – the intensity in attack must be maintained but also needs to be transferred into all other areas of the game.

There are only so many hours of training time available between matches and players do need rest if they are to recover so the coaches have to prioritise what to work on.

What do you think are the key issues for training in the week leading up to the final Bledisloe Cup match of the year?

Attack

Will Genia and Quade Cooper will only be able to repeat their good performances from last week against the All Blacks if they have the multiple runners as options that they had against the Pumas.

The backs might take most of the glory in attack but the forwards are far more important – if they don’t occupy and disrupt the defence, there’ll be no space for the likes of Israel Folau and Joe Tomane.



When you watch today’s video you’ll see how important the forwards are in attack and the multiple options they presented the play makers against the Pumas.

More of the same is required next week with an improvement in converting most of the opportunities that they can create, which will be limited against the All Blacks.

Defence

Defence is largely about attitude but commitment to putting your body on the line and owning the contact zone is worthless if you’re not in position to make the tackle.

The first step in defence is organisation and while defensive structures teams use are designed to help them get organised, it’s again attitude to get into position quickly that is the key.

Urgency, urgency and a bit more urgency should be the focus of defence training next week because we know how good the All Blacks are in attack.

Breakdown

Earlier in the season the Wallabies were getting the balance wrong with their numbers into the breakdown while keeping sufficient players out to attack or defend.

In particular, they were not committing enough numbers to their attacking rucks and as a result opposition teams were disrupting the Wallabies ball or worse still, turning it over.



However, in the last three matches their balance has improved and that has helped the team’s attack develop.

As you’ll see in today’s video there are still occasions where the cleanout of opposition players is not accurate enough and if that continues against the All Blacks the Wallabies attack will very quickly look pedestrian again. Improving that accuracy would be the focus in this area for me.

Lineouts

The lineout performance from the Wallabies this year has been one of their highlights. Ben Mowen has done a good job as the caller but the key has been having four genuine jumping options so the opposition can’t focus too heavily on certain jumpers.

It would be tempting to reduce the amount of time spent on lineouts next week in favour of working more on restarts but the All Blacks’ lineout is too good to risk that.

Restarts

An area that needs a lot of attention, both when kicking and receiving. Given there is only limited time available this is an area that I’d like to see the players taking on as an extra outside of normal training hours.

Scrums

The only way to sort out the issues the Wallabies scrum has is to pack live scrums against the reserve pack and a lot of them.

However, that’s an energy sapping exercise so it’s not really an option leading into a match.

There are obvious improvements in technique that I and many others have discussed here previously that need to be worked on but I doubt there’s enough time to make the necessary changes in such a short window next week.



The area that the Wallabies showed most improvement in their scrums against the Pumas was their commitment to stay in the contest. This may be the area that the Wallabies should focus on next week – mind over matter.

Pack a reasonable number of scrums in training but pack each one as though your life depends on it because that’s what will be required to hold the All Black scrum.

Mental

With limited time available and the need to balance player workload those are the physical areas I’d focus on.

The mental side also needs work. It was great to see the players smiling and enjoying themselves and they will have gained a lot of confidence from the performance against the Pumas.

However, all of the good work from last week will mean little if they don’t step up another couple of levels against the All Blacks.

Roarers, what do you think?