No, it\u2019s not as if a loss will mean that there is no way back from here, but it will be reminiscent of an apocryphal story Mark Ella used to tell of during the 1984 Grand Slam tour, asking a Dubliner the way back to the Wallaby hotel only to be told: \u201cWell, I\u2019m not exactly sure, sir, but if I was you, I certainly wouldn\u2019t want to be starting from here …\u201d<\/p>\n
I hesitate, you\u2019ll be pleased to hear, in offering any advice on how to play Wales. I am still shocked by attending your first training session in Paris to see drones in the sky, computers and analysts crunching numbers on the sideline, and a coach or support staff for every player. What could anyone like me tell professionals like you about how to play?<\/p>\n
But against that?<\/p>\n
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Max Jorgensen during a Wallabies training session in Saint-Etienne.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n Well, against that, as discussed, at Saint-\u00c9tienne on Sunday I saw Fiji twice put the ball up high and follow through, only for none of you to shout \u201cMine!\u201d \u2013 allowing the ball to bounce, and them to score a try on the first occasion, and sew havoc on the second.<\/p>\n At those points, I thought the gap between what I knew about the game and you did might be less than I thought. And that feeling was confirmed when with a minute to go and us behind Fiji by seven points, we continued to kick downfield when it was bleeding bloody obvious was that the only hope we had was to keep the ball in hand.<\/p>\n I still have no clue how anyone thought kicking was an option in that situation. Nor do I have the remotest understanding how, half-a-dozen times in the second half, we charged it forward into the ruck, only to be penalised for not releasing or the like. Half-a-dozen times!<\/p>\n None of this is to criticise the effort you put in. Every man jack of you was so exhausted by game\u2019s end you could barely raise a trot, with the notable exception of you, David Porecki, who with great sportsmanship and as captain, forced yourself to jog over to the Fijians to be the first to congratulate them. Bravo.<\/p>\n Rob Valetini reacts after the Wallabies\u2019 loss to Fiji at the Rugby World Cup in France on the weekend.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n But, where to from here, against Wales? I still have no clue, so don\u2019t panic. But I offer up one story from Australian rugby history when the Wallabies came good from an equally devastatingly dire situation in the hope there might be some inspiration for you therein.<\/p>\n See, in the quarter-finals of the 1991 World Cup, the Wallabies had been tenuously holding on to a 15-12 lead at Lansdowne Road, when the Irish breakaway Gordon Hamilton famously broke through a David Campese tackle to run the length of the field to score in the corner and take the lead with just minutes to go. The same abyss before you now yawned before them.<\/p>\n In the absence of the injured Nick Farr-Jones, five-eighth Michael \u201cNoddy\u201d Lynagh took command. Leading the team away from the scene of the tragedy \u2013 the spot where Hamilton had put the ball down \u2013 he asked the ref, \u201cHow long to go?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFour minutes, after the conversion,\u201d came the reply.<\/p>\n Michael Lynagh takes a kick in the nail-biting 1991 World Cup quarter-final against Ireland.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n Just enough time for a miracle.<\/p>\n In a calm voice, Noddy spoke to the Wallaby huddle in concise, clear terms: \u201cBe calm and controlled. There\u2019s still plenty of time left. From the kick-off we will kick the ball long and to the left. From the line-out, the forwards must secure clean possession and we\u2019ll go from there. If ever in doubt about what to do with the ball, just hold it tightly and head towards their line. We will win this game.\u201d<\/p>\n Ireland kicked it out, the Wallabies won the line-out and every Australian that got the ball did as he said, taking it forward without losing it. From a Wallaby scrum, Lynagh called to his backs to execute a move by the name of \u201cCut Two Loop\u201d.<\/p>\n The ball found its way through the hands of Tim Horan, Marty Roebuck and Jason Little to David Campese on the wing. The last, though hit by two Irish defenders, managed to bounce back inside a \u201cHail Mary\u201d pass to keep the ball alive.<\/p>\n And \u2013 Jesus lives!<\/em> \u2013 hovering right there for just such a ball was Lynagh, who gathered and burrowed his way over for the TRY! You could hear the silence from three kilometres away in the all but deserted streets of downtown Dublin. Such was the stunned shock, that a dog barking in the park beside Lansdowne Road was clearly audible.<\/p>\n Australia had won the game and the empire was saved.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just happened like that,\u201d Noddy told me years later in an interview, with the slightest of shrugs.<\/p>\n But not quite. For there was so much in those brief minutes of that Irish afternoon that, dissected, have value now. One of the things Noddy had been raised on by his sports psychologist father was the importance of being positive in thought, deed and direction.<\/p>\n Michael Lynagh after scoring the winning try against Ireland at Lansdowne Road in the 1991 World Cup.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cInstead of saying to the players, \u2018DON\u2019T do something …\u2019, which is immediately negative,\u201d Lynagh told me, \u201cit\u2019s far better to lead along the lines of, \u2018DO be sure to …\u2019, which is positive. And whatever you say in a situation like that has got to be simple and clear.\u201d<\/p>\n (Great. Allow me, Noddy.<\/em> Against Wales, don\u2019t let their up-and-unders bounce. If ever in doubt about what to do with the ball, just hold it tightly and head towards their line.)<\/p>\n Then there was the particular move that led to the try. Lynagh\u2019s reckoning was ruthless in continuing to hammer a weakness once you\u2019d found it. \u201cThat afternoon we\u2019d used that particular move lots of times with great success, so I thought that now we really needed it, that was the one to go with again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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