Jeremy Guscott: These Aussies – and Dingo Deans – can still deliver
The Lions will have a very tough tour, and the Test matches will be an unbelievable challenge, whether or not Robbie Deans is still coach of the Wallabies. If you want a reference point, all you have to do is look at Australia’s against-the-odds victory over Argentina in Rosario last weekend.
With injuries to key players in double figures the Wallabies still managed to scuff an away win against a Pumas side desperate to finish their first season in the Southern Hemisphere’s elite tournament on a high note.
When the Wallabies get some of their injured players back they will improve, and many of them will be targeting the Lions tour. It is huge for Australian players, and the whole of the country will anticipate a great series and tour. For instance, Tim Horan is one of the Wallaby greats, but he was only a sub in the 1989 Lions Test series, and I know that it is one of his big regrets that he never played in a full series against the Lions.
Australia have a long-standing ability to deliver the goods at the right time. When you look at the quality of the teams that they have produced since the 1984 Grand Slam, including two World Cup winning sides, as well as the ability of coaches like Alan Jones, Bob Dwyer, Rod Macqueen and Eddie Jones, you realise that it is no accident.
In 2001 the Lions went with a really good side and you thought they were home and dry until the Aussies got that all-important second Test victory to swing the series around. Australia’s biggest weakness is that they do not have a huge depth to their elite tier, but set against that they have a habit of picking players who rise to the occasion. Against Argentina it was their new goal-kicker, Mike Harris, and Digby Ioane who scored a try from a first phase strike move despite having an otherwise forgettable day.
Another plus for the Wallabies is that their scrum is no longer a pushover. It was not demolished during The Championship, as some predicted, and I’m not convinced that the Lions should put too much emphasis on dominating there.
The win over the Pumas says a great deal about the will and togetherness of the Wallabies despite Quade Cooper’s comments about the camp being a toxic environment. It must be difficult for Deans because there is no love lost between the Aussies and the Kiwis in sport. He had a great provincial CV after being a brilliant success with the Crusaders, who were also the base for the All Blacks. Under Deans they played devastating rugby, and although he had great individuals like Dan Carter and Richie McCaw to work with, with any successful dynasty like the Crusaders it’s a combination of the coach – who formulates and stimulates – and the players.
Can Deans reproduce it at international level? There is a question mark because, despite the skill and quality he has in his squad, he has not been able to replicate the success he had with the Crusaders. There have been suggestions that some of the young Wallaby stars, including Will Genia, Kurtley Beale, James O’Connor and Cooper, really believe they are the bees knees, and that Deans has been struggling with them as personalities. Nor is he being helped by the absence of his first choice captain, lock James Horwill, who glues the team together.
So, when Cooper came out with his comments, it was a case of no smoke without fire. If Cooper plays well over the next eight months the Aussie public will demand he gets a chance against the Lions. He’s a guy who can change from day to day, moment to moment. He’s quite emotional, passionate, an up-and-down character who can be disruptive – but in the good times, as with the Reds in their 2011 Super 15-winning campaign, he can be inspirational.
The downside is that where Carter can do the steady bit as well as the flash bit, Cooper cannot. The Wallaby fly-half doesn’t have the game organisation of Carter in his armoury, so he goes to the miracle pass or the unbelievable break that will win you the game – and sometimes he pulls it off. However, when you are struggling as a team, Cooper’s maverick approach can put you further in the mire – and that’s when, in the spotlight and under pressure, a player’s immaturity shows.
The bottom line is that Cooper shouldn’t have said what he did. It was not quite as toxic as Kevin Pietersen and the England cricket team, but his injury has come at a convenient time.
Deans will survive unless the Australians have a disastrous autumn series. The only problem is that that could be on the cards, because there will be no easy games for a Deans side which is in flux. France, England and Wales will fancy their chances given the length of the Wallaby injury list, and because their backs, who have usually been very good at running strike moves off first or second phase possession, were very average in The Championship.
Without Berrick Barnes, who was their most consistent player, and whose goal-kicking was very good, they would have been even more vulnerable. If they’d had Springbok fly-half Morne Steyn instead of Barnes they would have lost a few more games.
In Australia you are only as good as your last game against New Zealand, and with the All Blacks winning the inaugural Championship, plus the Bledisloe Cup, the Wallabies are hurting. That is why New Zealand will be on their guard next weekend in Brisbane despite the Bledisloe Cup series being a dead rubber. The Aussies are dangerous when nothing is expected of them.
