A combination of hideous weather conditions and resolute Scottish defending have combined to sabotage the most creative attacking side in world rugby in recent times but the temptation on Saturday was to suggest that roles may be set to be reversed.
In this mildest of English autumns it was Scotland who appeared to have adopted Brazilian football tactics against Samoa at the weekend - however many you score we can score more – while the Wallabies relied as never before on their capacity to defend their goal-line in holding out Wales, even when reduced to 13 men for seven minutes of a 15 minute siege.
Admittedly, while Scotland were facing opponents who have been heavily criticised in the course of the tournament and would be guilty of the stupidest kind of self-deception if they failed to acknowledge the favour they were done by the draw and the schedulers at this tournament, the Wallabies were up against a team that had previously produced a performance that may even have surpassed Japan’s win against Springboks as the best of the tournament.
As he left the press box after watching an injury-ravaged Wales pick themselves off the Twickenham turf to shock the hosts in recovering from a 10 point deficit that day Andy Nicol, the former Scotland captain, belted me on the shoulder and asked, rhetorically: “Have you ever seen a braver effort?”
Yet, in its way, the Wallabies’ performance against Wales was as worthy of such praise, albeit the personnel problems they had to overcome were essentially self—inflicted as Will Genia and Dean Munn headed for the sin bin within three minutes of one another.
Wales were already camped deep in the opposition 22 when that happened, so it was inconceivable that having, in particular, the running power of Jamie Roberts, George North and Alex Cuthbert to contend with, they could hold them out.
Three times in all the Welsh crossed their line, yet hammering into them while wrapping themselves around or clawing at the ball, they found a way to keep them out and a spell that should have produced a minimum of 10 points to a Wales team that was only 12-6 behind at the time, so should also have been match turning, brought them nothing other than frustration.
There was considerable debate in Welsh ranks afterwards about whether the decision-making ability of Rhys Priestland or James Hook’s one-on-one ability to beat an opponent, could have made the difference and Scotland would like to think that in Finn Russell, Mark Bennett, Stuart Hogg and perhaps Peter Horne, they have the nous to capitalise on such a situation.
In saying so sufficient ball must be won first and presuming that David Pocock recovers from a persistent ankle problem that forced his early departure, Michael Hooper will be back from suspension next weekend which means they are unlikely to do as well as Wales managed to at the breakdown thanks to Sam Warburton and Justin Tipuric, two great openside flankers in their own right.
More to the point, however, the flaw in the theory that this might be Scottish attack versus Australian defence requires a look back just a further seven days to the way that 28 point Bernard Foley dictated things against England.
We have long recognised that offensive capability, but the worrying thing not just for Scotland but those considered the main contenders is that the men who play the fourth most popular winter team sport in Australia have addressed the areas win which they were traditionally more vulnerable.
As well as their defence the way they have scrummaged has reinforced the impression that this year’s title win in the Southern Hemisphere Rugby Championship was far from any sort of fluke and that, for by no means the first time, a Wallabies team management have worked out how to harness their limited resources at exactly the right stage of the quadrennial cycle.
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