Deans questions scrum calls
Sat, 20 Nov 2010 23:11
No big deal, says Robbie Deans. (c) Gallo
Australian coach Robbie Deans moaned about Italy's cunning scrum play as his team battled to a hard-earned 32-14 victory in Florence on Saturday.
Australia scored two tries to one by the Azzurri and Berrick Barnes also knocked over six penalties in a game that, although at times fairly close, provided little in terms of suspense.
The only real success the Azzurri got in the game was from forcing penalties at the scrum, but Deans felt those weren't fair.
"I feel the tighthead [Martin Castrogiovanni] gets far to much play for rolling in and [referee] Christophe Berdos was going round the other side and getting it wrong," he said.
"He's an experienced tighthead so he plays the game, he knows where the ref is and chooses his moments cleverly and they profitted from that.
"But [Australian loosehead] James Slipper did very well, the boys worked their way through those challenges."
One of the few times the scrum went against Italy was in the final action of the game when the ball popped out the side and Rocky Elsom was left free to just pick it up and score.
"I think it was an exceptional try," he joked before praising Italy's scrum.
"When we were packing against them the ball would just sit there right in the middle which shows the confidence they had in their scrum, but if they stepped back it came right over to our side.
"That one was in the danger zone but you have to give them credit for having that confidence in their scrum."
As for Australia's attacking, Elsom said they could have done better.
"Some of the choices we made weren't ideal but you've got to take the good with the bad sometimes," he said.
"Particularly in the second half they were willing to give away penalties and ultimately they put too much distance between them and us. It's a test match and we're happy with the win."
AFP