Deans 'encouraged' by Wallaby grit
Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:13
Captain and coach: Stirling Mortlock and Robbie Deans
Australian coach Robbie Deans said he hoped the way his side coped with an England fightback before running out 28-14 winners at Twickenham at the weekend was a sign of things to come.
England, who defeated the Wallabies in the quarterfinals of last year's World Cup, were briefly ahead at 14-12 early in the second-half.
But Australia held their nerve and sealed a first victory at Twickenham in four years thanks to fullback Adam Ashley-Cooper's converted try 12 minutes from time.
"The good thing for us is that we were ahead at half-time, just, and we got home," said Deans, who the week before had seen a much-changed team scrape past Italy 30-20.
"In a couple of recent outings against the All Blacks we've been ahead at half-time and haven't got home," the New Zealander added.
"Now the skill we want to acquire is to make that a lasting shift," he explained ahead of this coming weekend's clash against France in Paris.
Australian captain Stirling Mortlock was equally delighted by the way the Wallabies, whose lead at the break had been cut to 12-11 following a try by England No.8 Nick Easter, dealt with the second-half.
"I was very pleased with how we played after half-time," he said.
"The focus was on being positive and looking to play throughout the whole 80 minutes and we did that."
The Wallabies' other points came courtesy of flyhalf Matt Giteau's six successful goal-kicks from seven attempts, plus a monster penalty by Mortlock who narrowly missed what would have been a match-winner during the World Cup quarterfinal in France.
But their victory was built on the back of a powerful and cohesive effort by the forwards.
Any thoughts that England, as they'd done during their 12-10 triumph in Marseille, would demolish Australia at the scrum were scuppered by a Wallaby pack which, unusually in modern Test rugby, won two strikes against the head.
"I'm delighted. England asked the question and our guys passed the test," said Deans.
"We had confidence in our scrum, it's been good for us all year. We were able to bring pressure to bear and that drew a stress response from England. Gits [Giteau] has been in great form and keeps banging them over."
Meanwhile Al Baxter was as calm in victory as he'd been while enduring a week of questioning about his scrummaging ability.
During England's 26-16 win at Twickenham in 2005, the Wallaby prop was sin-binned after being overpowered by opposing front row forward Andrew Sheridan, an opponent again on Saturday.
And, after coming on as a replacement, Baxter was powerless to prevent Sheridan inflicting further damage in Marseille.
But Baxter repeatedly insisted he was a different player now and after this match said: "As much as the press focused on previous games, we are looking at what's ahead not behind. Here, the whole eight worked well."
Frustrated England manager Martin Johnson, who captained his country to World Cup Final victory against Australia in 2003, said: "Australia will be ecstatic and rightly so.
"They've scored 28 points at Twickenham [the most England have conceded at their home since a 41-20 thrashing by New Zealand in 2006].
"There were opportunities for us but we didn't see them or didn't exploit them."
England's fledgling halfback duo of Danny Care and Danny Cipriani were both guilty of trying to force the game on occasions but Johnson, whose side continue their November campaign against world champions South Africa, refused to blame this loss on a lack of experience.
"That's an easy get out card to play and we are not going to play it."
He added: "Test match rugby is very simple in many ways, you've got to control the ball. Australia did everything a little bit better and when they had a chance to score they took it."
AFP
* Are the Wallabies on the way up or was this a one-off show? It's your shout.
