The rebuilding begins...

Sunday night’s test against England at Telstra Stadium was the beginning of a new era for the Wallabies. Under new coach John Connolly the Wallabies struggled to but eventually found their feet and there are signs of hope for our 2007 World Cup campaign.

It was an atrocious first half by both teams, passes not going to hand, drop ball and knock-on made the game scrappy. As well a new, inexperienced front row, desperate to shake of criticism and restore the Australian engine rooms pride started unconvincingly.

The result - a win. Yes, not pretty but there a signs for the new look Wallabies and a new direction under ‘Knuckles’. The Wallabies looked to spread the ball and play an expansive game of rugby. With the amount of dropped ball, these plans were unearthed early on. The English defence held back, allowing Larkham and Rogers to combine to set up the plays they rarely finished off.

Matt Giteau was sorely missed at inside centre, while Rogers did an amicable job, he will find himself warming the bench when Giteau is fit. Lote Tuqiri showed glimpses of skill but was shown lacking in defence on a few occasions by his opposite number Tom Varndell who looked the most promising for the English.

In the forwards, new hooker Tai McIsaac looked well out of his depth and more of a state bench player rather than a starting Wallaby. His line-out throwing and scrummaging undermined the go-forward for the Wallabies. When replaced by seasoned campaigner Jeremy Paul, the Australian lineout was able to settle.

It makes you wonder what Adam Freir has to do to return to the Wallaby mix. He was the best Waratah forward in this year’s Super 14 campaign and with his strong performances seemed a certain Wallaby starter.

Connolly has some work still to do around his front row as Greg Holmes appeared unimpressive and not dangerous enough around ruck and maul.

At half time the game was possibly one of the worst I had seen. The second half, we stepped up. Brushing off the cobwebs and criticism, the Wallabies started to string a few passes together and the individual brilliance of Larkham and Rogers set up Latham for a welcomed try.

A bit of luck for Mark Gerrard but again proved his value for the Wallabies with a strong performance and a brilliant individual try. Not to be outshone, Clyde Rathbone made his presence felt with a 70 metre individual effort off a quality Larkham ball to wrap the ball game up.

One last nail in the coffin was delivered by gigantic number 3, Rodzilla. Rodney Blake on debut ran like an outside centre to burrow his way over for the measure. Not to be overlooked the forwards dominated ruck and maul with a bigger, stronger, rougher and tougher pack of forwards. Don’t discredit this win for the Wallabies but it must be remembered, they were playing an inexperienced English team. Full time Wallabies 34 – 3 winners.

The changes brought about by the new Connolly culture look, in the short term to be correct, although there is still room for improvement and change in personnel. Gregan defensively holds his own but his pass has slowed and makes our attack slow. The team needs to regroup and put on and build, putting on a sharper show next weekend if we are any chance to compete with the All Blacks and Springboks in this years tri nations.

My amended Wallabies Team:

15. Chris Latham
14. Mark Gerrard
13. Stirlring Mortlock
12. Mat Rogers/Matt Giteau
11. Lote Tuqiri
10. Stephen Larkham
9. Sam Cordingley
8. Stephen Hoiles
7. George Smith
6. Wycliff Palu
5. Al Kanar
4. Dan Vickerman
3. Rodney Blake
2. Adam Freir
1. Benn Robinson

Res:
16. George Gregan
17. Clyde Rathbone
18. Cameron Sheppard/Rogers
19. Phil Waugh
20. Jeremy Paul
21. Al Baxter
22. Mark Chisolm