Jeremy Guscott: Time these All Blacks saw some yellow cards, ref!

It is early days for Ewen McKenzie, the newly appointed Wallaby head coach. I don’t believe he thought the job would be this difficult – although facing the best in the world in your first two Tests doesn’t make it easy. He must have expected more from his team – last week it was turnovers plus unforced errors which made momentum difficult to keep, this week it was penalties that prevented his side keeping any pressure on the All Blacks.
Before the Test McKenzie had tried to bring to the attention of the officials that New Zealand tend to infringe a lot in their own 22, prepared to concede three points for a penalty rather than give away a try.
On at least two occasions yesterday the Wallabies breeched the Kiwi defence and made their way into the red zone only to be foiled illegally.
Aaron Smith should have received one of the more obvious yellow cards for not releasing Christian Leali’ifano after he made a break just before the hour mark and then Kieran Read stopped Will Genia getting the ball away by being a mile offside.
These sorts of offences need to be punished harshly, they’re preventing tries and exciting play and, most importantly, they are cynical. The refs must brandish the yellow.
James O’Connor made a break into the All Blacks’ 22 in the 46th minute and again the Kiwis went off their feet and stopped the Wallabies from continuing. Referee Jaco Peyper needed to bin the offender as with the score only 15-6 to New Zealand at that stage, that decision could have been a game-changer and officals shouldn’t be afraid to make those calls.
The Wallabies had the better of the early stages although, for the third game in a row, they messed up the start. Genia’s clearance from the kick-off was charged down and the Aussies must have thought ‘here we go again’. But they regained possession and cleared their lines and were deservedly 6-0 up within 25 minutes.
But the All Blacks showed how deadly they can be when Read got hold of the ball and they went down the right with silky passing skills from forwards and backs to get flyer Ben Smith in at the corner.
The Aussies were unfortunate to concede again, even more so as it was just before half time when Ben Mowen dropped a simple kick allowing a brilliant counter-attack which again put Smith in at the corner for his fifth try in the first two Championship games.
The Aussies scored a late try in the 71st minute, Izzy Folau intercepting a loose pass by Ma’a Nonu and dismissing Israel Dagg with a deft step off his right foot to put the Kiwi No.15 on his backside before cantering under the posts.
At 24-16 with nine minutes to go the Aussies weren’t buried but they didn’t show any signs of ambition to try and steal the game.
Through these two New Zealand-Australia Tests we haven’t seen the best of a very talented Wallaby back three. Jesse Mogg is electric quick, O’Connor fast and elusive, plus Folau, who we know all about from the Lions tour. Mogg must counter-attack more – his first thought so far has been to kick. McKenzie and his coaches must work on a counter-attack strategy to get the best out of these players.
Folau is unfairly, in my opnion, being expected to dominate every game he plays. He has so much to learn, particularly about how to get involved when he hasn’t got the ball.
But the interception try shows he is indeed learning and watching him side-step Dagg to score tells me we shouldn’t have to wait long to see more from him.
A big worry for the Wallabies is that Genia is struggling and that affects the whole team. His charge down early on did nothing for his confidence and  his box kicks in the first half were too long, the chase had no chance to challenge and it was too easy for Dagg to return in hand or by going aerial.
The Aussies looked like a team that was trying to understand one another – trying to blend the different Australian Super XV styles into one national style is going to take a while on the evidence of the two games.
The Wallabies need to move away from making just the one pass out from a ruck and think about increasing the passes. Crashing in from one pass out is too predictable and easy to defend. I thought fly-half Matt Toomua improved from last weekend but I believe he needs more support from Genia inside and Adam Ashley-Cooper outside.
New Zealand pretty much demolished the Aussie scrum in the second half which means the Boks will be licking their lips looking forward to the Perth match in a couple of weeks.
Aaron Smith is a well rounded scrum-half with speed and vision, his life is made more comfortable because of the ball presented to him. Steven Luatua, the blindside Kiwi flanker, is a great find and was my man of the match. He tackled hard when he had to and has that in-built Kiwi forward ability to play like a three-quarter when required.
The Kiwi tries were a joy to watch because of the handling by both backs and forwards. The forwards’ passing skill is one of the reasons they are still the best.
The New Zealand team continues to excel and is always looking to improve, their consistency to execute opportunities is phenomenal. Long may it continue, they are the most exciting team in the world to watch.