The Wallabies will head to Wellington Sky Stadium on Saturday confident they can take on this All Blacks team.
For all the flaws of Sydney’s early game, the Wallabies were good enough to take their chances as the game progressed.
Coach Joe Schmidt is expecting a full performance from the Wallabies, something they have been unable to deliver so far.
“I think we are making progress little by little, but there is no linear progress. “There were a lot of ups and downs in that game as well,” Schmidt said at the post-game press conference.
“And we need to be as linear as possible with our improvements, because if you’re trying to improve in one area, it’s impossible to make a mistake somewhere else.”
Schmidt has significantly improved the Wallaby’s ability to break down to the point where it appears to be less stressed during possession. However, this may also be due to the wallaby’s simple appearance.
Schmidt’s narrow attacking form has been the focus of much Wallaby criticism, but the narrow approach proved beneficial as the Wallabies got past the All Blacks on several occasions at the weekend.
Whether it was Tom Wright linking up with Brandon Paenga-Amosa in the 66th minute, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto’s break in the 63rd minute or Harry Wilson’s almost offload to Noah Lolesio in the 56th minute, the Wallabies were left with holes in the All Blacks’ defence, and weak arms. , found the space.
All these breaks come from increasing courage and this depends on many reasons.
The All Blacks’ linked line speed defense was much more passive than the Springboks’ or Argentina’s rush defenses, which gave the Wallabies more time.
Passivity allowed the Wallabies to advance outside, as Langi Gleeson did beautifully in the 74th minute.
This shape makes it more difficult for the All Blacks to fold and emphasizes their natural drift in defence.
Gleason Carey
Gleeson’s carries are well paid as he continues to carry the three All Blacks forwards. Wallace Sititi, Pasilio Tosi and Scott Barrett all run in massive arcs to get into what is now a damaged defensive line.
Rieko Ioane is covering a lot of space on his own and Tosi tries to solve this problem by rushing forward without controlling his foot speed.
Lolesio sees this and takes up the half gap, forcing Tosi to make a high tackle as Lolesio takes up space.
Playing direct and on-the-out could have cost them in phase play, but the Wallabies will need to attack the All Blacks hard from set-pieces and lean into narrow shapes.
The All Blacks have no choice in the middle but this is where the Wallabies should target and expose the All Blacks’ most dangerous centre, Rieko Ioane.
It may seem crazy, but there are aspects of Ioane’s game that the Wallabies could use to their advantage.
Targeting a center may seem even more crazy after Anton Leinart-Brown was included in the number 12 spot in place of the injured Jordie Barrett. Especially considering that ALB is one of the best defensive players around.
However, they play fewer games together and have different defensive philosophies.
ALB defends very squarely, while Ioane relies on his speed to stay tight and push attackers wider.
This is where the Wallabies need to attack from set-pieces, especially from scrums, and we can use an example from the weekend to show how this could work.
Koroibete narrow
Hunter Paisami and Len Ikitau defended well and forced Lolesio into space with all of his back three outside.
Here, the wallaby goes to the side and attempts a line break, but better results can be achieved if you do this more directly.
The obvious problem here is that Ioane is quick enough to cover Lolesio on the wraparound, drift in and cover the Wallabies’ back three with Sevu Reece.
The Wallabies need to attack Ioane directly and steal the drift from him and there are two ways to do this.
First, Lolesio can accelerate squarely through the gap between Ioane and Barrett in the example above (he will be ALB on the weekend).
Once there, he must turn back inside and engage the pursuing Ioane.
In the example above, if Lolesio carries, Ioane can turn his shoulder inward to open space for the outside back, but Ioane may still be fast enough to cover.
So in this situation, Lolesio should be tackled by Ioane, or at least make enough contact to get him off the chase, and preferably commit to the tackle.
If this were to happen, only Reece would be in the 15m channel covering the Wallabies’ back three.
The second way to pressure Ioane and go direct is through Andrew Kellaway’s elite line running ability and using this to target the Ioane-ALB axis.
If Kellaway runs more arcing and appears on Lolesio’s inside shoulder when Lolesio is in the middle of the gap, suddenly Ioane can’t keep drifting because the threat on the inside is more immediate than the threat on the outside.
Kellaway ran a similar line to Wright’s 60m attempt in the first Wales Test.
He didn’t receive the ball, but he was enough of a threat to lure defenders and open a gap for Wright to break through.
The important thing is that Kellaway is clearly the guy who runs the line, unlike Dylan Pietsch or Wright. Because he is arguably the slowest of the group.
The shape works optimally if Ioane is equally interested in the inside channels as Lolesio is in releasing the speedster wide.
Ironically, it is Ioane’s speed that the Wallabies need to use as the second layer of this tactic.
Ioane is very fast, so he can be relied on to cover the outside, but Jordie and ALB are not as fast, so highlighting the seam between the two and compressing the pair as much as possible will be fruitful.
The key is to keep Ioane narrow and then move wide. This way the ALB should not take off to cover the space. You can keep following, and that sudden reflex leaves a gaping hole that Ioane can’t cover.
He can’t play a drift defense once he’s beaten inside, so the Wallabies have to be willing to truck it into his channel a few times before getting paid and make sure he’s the one to make the tackle and commit.
Even if the Wallabies don’t get through, Ioane will end up on the ground and face great difficulties at the next stage.
As an outside center, he is key to controlling the defense and when he is bundled into a ruck off in the first phase, he is slow to fold in the next phase.
Moving him hard to the outside creates the same dog legs seen in Gleeson’s first clip without the drift and shepherd ability.
Lieko Ioan. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)
Piechi comes on to replace the injured Koroibete. Although he is a physical player, he has to remember every detail of a winger’s game.
He wants to be actively involved, but for the above direct tactics to work he needs to stay wide and attack in the 5m channel, especially in set-piece situations.
Koroibete was guilty of tracking within the field in Sydney, compressing space and making it too easy for Ioane to drift in and Reece to cover the overlap.
If the Wallabies are to create and seize more chances, they will need to continue to trust their direct approach and now is the time to rely on it.
Schmidt chose a cohesive starting XV with a tough and confrontational bench.
The Wallabies need to show they can be accurate for 80 minutes and show they can go toe-to-toe with the All Blacks at home and be direct.
