Wayne Smith
November 19, 2009 01:09pm


IF ever the Wallabies are going to get an opportunity to practise the one thing they are truly hopeless at - putting an opponent away - this should be it.
Not that they should approach Sunday's Test (EDT) against Scotland at Murrayfield with the same arrogance the Springboks took into the corresponding Test last November.

Before they knew what was happening, the world champions found themselves trailing Scotland 10-0 at half-time and were forced to dig deep to escape with a 14-10 victory.

Scotland might have lost 16 Tests straight to the Wallabies and be languishing six rungs lower than them on the IRB world rankings, but Australia insist they are maintaining a wary and respectful vigilance.

"Any Test match is going to be tough and you can't prepare for anyone like it's going to be a give-me," Wallabies centre Quade Cooper said.

But unless Scotland coach Andy Robinson is about to spring the deadliest ambush since the Kelly gang last visited Glenrowan, the Test should give the Wallabies a much-needed chance to open up a lead and then, more importantly, to defend it and build on it.

Their 2009 campaign has been littered with cases of leads surrendered and opportunities squandered, none more demoralising than Monday's Test against Ireland, when they blew 13-6 and 20-13 advantages deep into the second half before ultimately conceding the match-levelling try to Brian O'Driscoll 58 seconds from full-time.

Call it inattention to detail, lack of focus or just plain dumb rugby, but both times the Wallabies opened up a seven-point lead, they immediately turned the ball over from the kick-off and put themselves under pressure again.

On the first occasion, Ireland winger Tommy Bowe scored virtually from the kick-off. The build-up to the O'Driscoll try was more prolonged but, again, it could be traced back to the Wallabies' failure to quickly re-establish superior field position after Rocky Elsom's try.

Halfback Will Genia stressed that foremost among "the little one-per-centers" in their game that the Wallabies are targeting for improvement is their repeated failure to land the killer blow.

"That's an important thing for us that we kind of struggle with a little, just maintaining possession straight after we've scored," said Genia, who in his nine Tests has seen the Wallabies lead five times at the break yet only go on to win once - against the Springboks in Brisbane.

Ironically, his only other win came in the recent Twickenham Test when England led 9-5 at half-time.

"We seem to do it well when we're five points down, not so much when we're five points up," Genia said. "It's a big focus for us. We have to make sure when we do score points we get straight back out of our half right away."

Man-of-the-match against Ireland, David Pocock was also left lamenting the Wallabies' inability to score back-to-back - so at least the side is finally starting to zero in on its infuriating habit of holding open the door and inviting its opponent back into the contest.

"The important thing when you score is for teams to get down the other end and put points on points, which we didn't do," said Pocock.

"That's definitely something we need to work on, not to relax, to take the ball in and get back down there again."


http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/stor...005403,00.html