Take bubble-headed Wallabots to their leader
The All Blacks must laugh at how dumb the Wallabies are at times.
There are enough clues in All Blacks fullback Mils Muliaina's recently published biography, called Living the Dream, to indicate they are constantly cacking themselves at how ridiculous their trans-Tasman foes can be.
Muliaina tells how after Australia won the Sydney Bledisloe Cup Test last year, Wallabies prop Matt Dunning ''walked past some of the boys and said: 'We are going to beat you 3-0.''' Lote Tuqiri told them they were ''going to take the Bledisloe Cup off you''.
Then when the All Blacks beat the Springboks in Cape Town, they met up with some of the Australian players, who again ''carried on about how they were going to take the Cup off us. That just lit a big fire under us … They can't help themselves.
''What really got to us was Dunning's comment. He hadn't even started, he'd come off the bench and he was Matt Dunning. He didn't even contribute that much in the game,'' Muliaina wrote.
''That one comment really pissed a lot of guys off, and it didn't help that he had said it to Ali Williams … The fact that he [Dunning] is not a world-class prop, who managed to hang around for so long because there was no one else coming through for the Aussies, made his comment all the more unacceptable.''
The Wallabies lost the next three Bledisloe Cup matches last year. So much for big Wallabies boasts.
Fast forward a year, and Dunning and Tuqiri are no longer there, but the Wallabies are still making fools of themselves in front of the All Blacks. And it's now five Cup losses in a row.
Wonder why? Watch the last 10 minutes of Saturday night's patchy Test match and you will soon be shaking your head.
Watch how Daniel Carter took complete control and how the Wallabies become headless chooks. Watch the All Blacks enjoy the luxury of having several crafty, cool leaders in Carter and Richie McCaw, while the Wallabies were rudderless.
Watch how the All Blacks give the Wallabies a get-out-of-gaol card in the final 90 seconds when they lost the ball at the breakdown. And watch how in the next seven phases, the Wallabies bombed this green and gold opportunity through immaturity and lack of direction.
All it required during this important period was cool heads and leadership. Sadly, it was nonexistent. Instead white-line fever took over. Australia's reluctant captain George Smith ignored a good attacking opportunity to his right and ran back inside, and it was soon obvious that he and the rest believed the only option was a last-minute try. As they hadn't looked close to scoring in the previous 78 minutes, this was hardly a sure bet.
It was clear no one had even thought of the field-goal option, even though they were sitting pretty 20 metres out, straight in front of the All Blacks goalposts.
It was instead silly one-out, instant hero stuff and the Wallabies paid the penalty.
Where were the leaders? Where were those supposed senior players who could take advantage of the All Blacks only playing to about 60 per cent of their capabilities?
Yet again, the Wallabies were their own worst enemies by being brain dead when clear thinking was imperative.
Yes, it is now time for changes. First find real leaders. Start Peter Hynes and Ben Alexander. Seriously consider Will Genia. Otherwise tell Luke Burgess he must provide Matt Giteau with better service so the five-eighth doesn't spend most of the Test leaping around, and waiting around like a football goalkeeper.
Also get the players in a padded room and tell them to write 100 times: ''I must not taunt the All Blacks because of a brain malfunction. I must not taunt the All Blacks because of a brain mal…''
http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/n...001811019.html
