Conventional wisdom argues that you can’t win Test matches without a few fundamentals in place. Those include a tight five that can boss the close encounters, a midfield that can punch holes, and a well-oiled set piece that can provide enough front-foot ball for the flashy fellas out wide.
Well, Joe Schmidt would like to offer a counter-argument. His Wallabies were second best in all those key areas for most of the game and yet they pulled off a stunning result, by a distance his greatest triumph since taking control of a faltering outfit in January this year. If he can somehow inject a bit of heft where it’s needed between now and the arrival of the British & Irish Lions next year, then perhaps the series won’t be the walkover most pundits have predicted.
They looked dead and buried after 20 minutes when Marcus Smith nudged over a penalty to make it 15-3. England’s fly-half had already provided the spark for the first of Chandler Cunningham-South’s two tries with a cute dink with the boot, and, along with Henry Slade and Ollie Lawrence on his outside, Smith was feasting on front-foot ball.
For that he had his back row to thank but also a meek show from the visitors. Tom Wright melted at the threat of contact when Lawrence chased and gathered Smith’s kick. Men in white jerseys trampled over tacklers at every phase. Nothing was working, and for all his clever routines and clear philosophy, Schmidt must have wondered if he’d arrived at a bazooka fight with little more than a six-shooter.
Then the perennially excellent Rob Valetini ended Tom Curry’s afternoon by knocking him out with a shuddering carry. It didn’t feel like it at the time but this would prove to be a turning point as, four minutes later, Australia remembered that their rugby identity has always placed great value in gifted athletes who just want to play a bit of free-wheeling footy. And after splashing out more than A$5m (£2.5m), they have a prospect who could be as good as any to pull on the gold.
Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was outstanding in his first senior rugby union match of any description. Firm in contact and disciplined on defence, he produced several NBA-style tip-ons when leaping into the air from cross-field kicks. It was no surprise that his contribution helped Australia find their groove.
It came from a messy lineout inside England’s 22 that morphed into a messy maul that turned into a messy ball for scrum-half Jake Gordon. This is what we’ve come to expect from a disjointed bunch who are less than the sum of their parts. But does it matter when there’s a 1.96m (6ft 5in), 98kg (15st 5lb) prodigy who has no concept of stage fright? Suaalii’s lightning fast offload for Wright’s try in the corner was the start of a revival.
From there Australia chucked it about in a manner that would have finally brought some joy to the likes of David Campese, the most vocal critic of Schmidt’s apparent pragmatic approach. Now the Wallabies avoided the armwrestle and started finding joy on the edge of England’s fragmented rush defence. Harry Wilson bulldozed over for his first try for his country and the lock Jeremy Williams acrobatically scored another. Wright was cutting lines. Suaalii was drawing involuntary sounds from the crowd. And just as he did when he was a blood replacement earlier in the piece, scrum-half Tate McDermott was sniping round the fringe and causing chaos. Even after Ollie Sleightholme bagged a brace, Andrew Kellaway pounced on a mistake to run in a 60 metre score.
England rallied, at last, as expected, and when they forced Australia into a slugfest they looked to have won it. Australia’s exit game was woeful as they failed to get out of their own 22. McDermott’s weak clearing box-kicks were partly to blame but so too was the lack of dominant carries from the large units.
England retook the lead late on after Australia’s scrum faltered in the corner and the subsequent defensive line proved unable to stop a rampaging Maro Itoje.
This felt like the rugby universe righting itself after a match that was hard to quantify. England were better across the fundamentals that ordinarily win Test matches. But Australian rugby has for ever stuck two fingers in the face of conventional wisdom and thanks to a stunning play with the clock in the red, one that saw them throw the ball across the backline and caution to the wind, they once again found an outside edge.
Through the hands it went, then a one-handed offload by Len Ikitau gave wing Max Jorgensen, just one of many gifted athletes, the space to land the telling blow and silence a stunned crowd. It’s a gameplan that doesn’t always win Test matches, but when it works, it’s nothing short of thrilling.
