Shane Williams’ column: Wallabies are never beaten, just ask Wales!
Watching Australia pinch victory in the final seconds against South Africa brought back all sorts of horrible memories of countless similar defeats in my playing days.
But you have to – grudgingly – give the men in gold credit, they must be the most resilient team in world rugby.
They have perseverance in abundance and despite many failings and seemingly out of it, they have that incredible knack of pulling something out of the bag – even in the final seconds.
Clearly it’s a reminder to Wales and England that the Wallabies are never beaten until that final whistle.
Michael Cheika wants to make Australia a tough team to beat and so it proved. But victory still makes all the difference for a new coach at the start of a tournament.
It wasn’t the best team performance. As I said, South Africa were the better side. But there were some brilliant individual displays that proved enough to scrap out a victory. Michael Hooper, in particular, was just incredible.
He is the latest class openside flanker discovered by the Wallabies, who had George Smith and David Pocock in the jersey before him.
The fact that they now have a player of the ability and experience as Pocock sat on the bench says a lot about the strength in depth Cheika is now building.
Wales are in a similar position with Justin Tipuric and Sam Warburton. Tipuric is among the best sevens in Europe and would be in most teams if he weren’t competing for the same jersey as the captain and British Lions skipper. But even Pocock will struggle to oust Hooper on this form.
Openside flankers are a special breed of player. They throw themselves into everything, put their body on their line but have the pace and skills to match.
Hooper will get better with more games and will be putting his hand up to be among the best No.7s in the world by the autumn.
The back-row’s tackling and work-rate around the pitch against South Africa was amazing. In many ways, he summed up Australia’s attitude throughout the game, he just never gave up.
What impressed me most was that despite not being the biggest guy on the pitch, he was involved in every ruck, was good with the ball in hand and his tackle-technique was so effective that he was dragging down far bigger guys.
He really gave Schalk Burger a run for his money and will certainly have given Warburton and Chris Robshaw, below, plenty to think about.
If Wales and England are to get the better of Australia at the World Cup, they are going to have keep this guy quiet.
I’m still not convinced Robshaw is a natural seven. I don’t think he has the pace for the position and I’d much prefer him at six. For that reason, Hooper could prove the difference against England.
Cheika also has some big decisions to make behind the scrum. Clearly he wants to play the combination of Will Genia, Quade Cooper and Matt Giteau.
It didn’t quite click against South Africa but it’s early days after four years apart.
Nick Phipps looked more dangerous when he came off the bench while Cheika must work out whether he can play Cooper and Giteau together. It’s the dilemma that England soccer faced with Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.
Rugby is full of egos and those two guys are big characters. Cheika must work out whether he has the time and patience to gamble and hope they can gel and work together or cut his losses and pick one to wear No.10.
I always think you have to get your best players on the pitch and with two natural play-makers, Australia could be really dangerous. Defensively, however, Wales and England will look at that 10-12 channel as a potential chink in Australia’s armour. The likes of George North, Jamie Roberts and Jonathan Joseph will fancy their chances.
And then there are the set-pieces. We always spoke about that as an area to attack the Wallabies and little will have changed come the World Cup.
South Africa will be kicking themselves for throwing the game away. They did little wrong and with their sheer size, you would always expect them to bounce back.
But I would still like to see them use Bryan Habana and JP Pietersen far more because they are both deadly. And they will know not to kick to Israel Folau who was outstanding under the high ball.
