Apart from the odd flicker, it’s been a pretty bleak two years for Wallabies supporters since the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

It’s been hard to say anything more positive about the Wallabies play in that time other than ‘the players fought hard and came up with a gutsy win / were at least competitive in certain areas’.

Two weeks ago I wrote in my article that I was starting to see the early signs of life in the Wallabies play, there were again signs in the second half against the Springboks and this week we saw further improvement against the Pumas.

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It wasn’t a brilliant performance by the Wallabies because there were still a number of areas that weren’t up to scratch but the Pumas weren’t dreadful so for the Wallabies to amass 54 points against them was very good.

What can the Wallabies take away from this match? The biggest thing will be confidence for players and coaches – confidence that as a team they looked to gel for the first time, confidence that the way the coaches want them to play does actually work and confidence that they are improving.

Attack

The Wallabies outside backs got the headlines led by Israel Folau who grabbed a hat trick of tries but the attacking performance was built on the back of the Wallaby forwards working much harder than we’ve seen them all year.

With the forwards providing some momentum, Will Genia and Quade Cooper directed the team very well. Cooper showed why he’ll be a key figure in implementing Ewen McKenzie’s game plan going forward.

The key with Cooper (just as it was with Stephen Larkham) is not his depth in attack or whether he takes on the line. There are certainly times in a match when any flyhalf should flatten up the attack and challenge the line but there are just as many times when these tactics are not appropriate.

It’s about finding an appropriate balance between these styles. As you’ll see in my video analysis tomorrow the key for any flyhalf playing well is support runners, both forwards and backs, providing multiple running options for them to choose from and when Cooper has these options he’s very good and getting the ball to the best option. As Larkham used to tell players, ‘you run at the hole and I’ll get the ball to you’.



Probably the most important runner for Cooper is the inside option. Whether he uses that option or not, it’s that runner that holds the defence inside and allows Cooper to drift when required to attract the attention of the defender lined up on his outside man before putting that outside runner into a hole.

It’s a role that Digby Ioane filled for the Reds and Wallabies and one that I think Folau is the ideal candidate to take on now – Folau will also be so much more effective if he can play through defences more rather than always trying to go around them.

The same applies for Genia – players in motion provide him with options and then his running game becomes dangerous. You may be surprised that more of his passes against the Pumas were made after moving from the base of the ruck than were made from a static position. He is much more dangerous when he can do this.

This was the first match in years that I’ve seen the Wallabies providing these multiple options for the halfback and flyhalf and it wasn’t driven by individual runners – there were both forwards and backs working in groups together. Clearly the message from the coaches has started to get through.

Defence

This is the area where there is still the biggest requirement for improvement. The defensive structures were a little better but this week the individual one on one misses were a bigger problem, particularly in the back line.

Of the 29 tackles the Wallabies missed, 13 came from Tevita Kuridrani (5), Adam Ashley-Cooper (5) and Matt Toomua (3).

Joe Tomane got caught out wide once when faced with two runners coming at him and he needs to work on his decision making in defence.

We’ve seen Israel Folau beaten comprehensively on the inside in the last two matches in cover defence. When you watch the end on vision of these misses you’ll see that he’s starting too far inside the ball or starting his cross field run a little too late and when a break is made he has to move too far across field to get in position to cover.



As he’s trying to catch up this doesn’t give him the ability to slow down a little as he comes into the tackle zone and he’s vulnerable on the inside. A small adjustment in where he positions himself in relation to the ball and starting his cross field run just a little earlier will address this issue.

Set piece

The Wallabies restarts were again ordinary, both receiving and chasing. Over the last few years we’ve seen how the All Blacks have turned their restarts into a real weapon and there is a lot of work for the Wallabies to do in this area.

The problems involve both structures and communication and there were a number of times where Wallaby players were competing against each other to catch a restart. Then again that’s also a problem when trying to catch kicks in general play!

The second half scrum performance was an improvement and the last scrum of the match was a genuine tight head for the Wallabies where they shoved the Pumas off the ball. What a sight!

However, there is plenty still to work on – in five of the first seven scrums a penalty or free kick was awarded against the Wallabies – no wonder that the referee lost patience and issued a yellow card.

The turning point was the Wallabies holding out on their own line during an eight minute period when the game was exclusively a scrummaging contest. On the eighth scrum packed in that period Michael Hooper swooped on the ball that had come out the back of the Pumas scrum. There was an element of luck involved with that outcome as the loose ball came with the Wallabies were going backwards on roller skates so quickly that the Pumas simply lost control of the ball but luck does play a part in the game.

However, from that point on in the match the Wallabies scrum fought really hard and stemmed the tide. While Benn Robinson made a difference the whole pack knuckled down and fought harder – well done.

The Wallabies lineout was again very good winning 12 from 13 and that provided the platform for many of the attacking raids the backline launched.



More to do

As well as the Wallabies played there is still so much room for improvement for the Wallabies to compete against the All Blacks and Springboks.

Genia and Cooper both made mistakes in attack and kicking that need to be eliminated from their games. Tomane was very good at breaking the line but needs to improve how he sets up his support runners once he’s through the line. Kuridrani offers a lot but he’s very raw and his ball control is poor.

Rob Simmons is playing well but silly little things like the late tackle with no arms must be eliminated. Ben Mowen continues to disappoint at number eight but I agree he’d probably be playing better if at number six – the problem for Mowen when the Wallabies get Scott Higginbotham or Wycliff Palu back is that Scott Fardy has a very firm grasp on the number six position at the moment.

Benn Robinson has surely done enough for a recall to the starting side in the next match against the All Blacks in two weeks and I’d like to see James Slipper start at tighthead.

The good news is that despite such a good performance against the Pumas there is so much room for improvement.

The Wallabies are a team in transition from one dimensional rugby since the start of 2011 Rugby World Cup to multi-dimensional and they appear to be moving forward. Now, let’s see if they can back this performance up against the All Blacks in two weeks.