Matt Giteau won't be kicked out of Wallabies
Matt Giteau won't be kicked out of Wallabies
- Wayne Smith, in Hong Kong
- From: The Australian
- November 01, 2010 12:00AM
ROBBIE Deans has defused suggestions Matt Giteau's retention in the Test side is heavily dependent on him remaining first-choice goalkicker.
Giteau managed just one goal from four attempts at Hong Kong Stadium and had been replaced by James O'Connor as kicker just before he was substituted in the 63rd minute of Saturday's Bledisloe Cup Test against the All Blacks, with Berrick Barnes taking over his playmaking role during the Wallabies' stirring last-quarter fightback.
Hong Kong now joins the Murrayfield Test against Scotland last year and Australia's two Sydney Tests this season, against England and the All Blacks, as matches where Giteau's errant goalkicking cost the Wallabies dearly.
At least on Saturday his three misses didn't prove fatal, with O'Connor setting up a thrilling finale by converting Drew Mitchell's 60th minute try to critically pull the Wallabies to within five points of the All Blacks before then sensationally converting his own try after the final siren to snatch a 26-24 victory.
With 664 points to his credit in 88 Tests, Giteau ranks third behind Michael Lynagh (911) and Matt Burke (878) on the Australian all-time points-scoring list, but his deteriorating form with the boot has raised questions over whether his general play is sufficient on its own to warrant his retention in the starting XV.
Happily for him, none of those questions has occurred to Deans who insisted yesterday the 28-year-old was not dependent on his goalkicking to justify his place in the side. "It's just one component," Deans said. "It's not the defining component. But we were totally reliant on Gits previously. Now we're not so. That's good for him, good for us."
While Kurtley Beale remains the side's designated long-range goalkicker, thanks to his own last-gasp heroics in Bloemfontein against the Springboks last month, Deans acknowledged O'Connor now had established himself as Giteau's primary back-up. Significantly, he did not rule out the prospect of O'Connor being first-choice kicker when the Wallabies open the European leg of their spring tour, against Wales, on Saturday.
To be fair to Giteau, many of the questions hanging over his place in the side stem not from his own performance, which was solid against the All Blacks, but from the emerging need to have an inside centre whose strong defence might relieve some of the pressure on Quade Cooper.
Cooper, marking up against Dan Carter for the first time, was at times dazzling in attack. He scored one try and set up both of Australia's two set piece tries by hitting first Adam Ashley-Cooper and then Beale with astonishingly accurate long passes, one to his right, the other to his left.
Defensively, however, Cooper was repeatedly embarrassed by Ma'a Nonu. Goalkicking and isolated defensive lapses aside, the only other blot on the Wallabies' copybook was scrummaging.
At times, Australia's set piece revived memories of the bad old days when the Wallabies scrum used to bow and bend before all comers. Certainly, Irish referee Alain Rolland held the two packs so long in the "pause" phase that impatience was going to get the better of one of the two packs -- and it was the Wallabies who couldn't curb their urge to push.
"We suffered there," Deans said. "Alain extended his "pause"but he did communicate that pre-game. Clearly our boys failed to adjust."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225945855929
