For 40 minutes, the Wallabies were world-beaters. Then reality kicked in
Can we go over the good stuff first? It won’t take long.
They are: Fraser McReight; Wallabies’ formation and attack; Taniela Tupou blowing her hair with the wind; Tom Wright’s kicking game; Joseph Aukuso-Suaalii strikes back from the kick-off; and pretty much the entire first half!
It got worse after that… so let’s expand on the good stuff. Oh, come on, just for a minute.
McReight was a giant from first to last. If he isn’t currently at the forefront of the world’s best back-rowers, at least I can’t think of anyone better. He scored two tries, monstered the French defensively, effortlessly stripped the French of their artillery and became a constantly dangerous presence.
In this scrum the Wallabies at least held their own and our line-up worked smoothly until we won ours and pinned a few of them. As for Tupou in the explosion? Long ago, former Wallabies full-back and TV pundit Greg Martin famously exclaimed when he watched Waratahs prop Matt Dunning unleash a long blast in midfield and the crowd leapt to their feet: “The mob loves to see a fat man run!”
Even if we find a better word than “fat” these days, this is a fact that never changes.
“Well-armed”? “Generously proportionate”? Be that as it may, coming off the bench, Tupou once again showed his unique capacity to break down defences.
A few shots from Wright at full-back also reminded us how good he can be.
Aukuso-Suaalii? In this match, he did three times – count ’em, THREE times – what this columnist has been saying for two years. From the kick-off he rose, jumped high and passed the ball back to our forwards. He does it very easily and well, but this is the first time he’s tried it and succeeded – did I mention? -three out of three!
Suaalii’s efforts there and in midfield played a huge part in the Wallabies’ 21-12 lead over the best team in the world right now – the Six Nations Champions and the team everyone has voted as the team most likely to win next year’s World Cup.
I repeat: the Wallabies faced Muhammad Ali in eight rounds and were ahead on points! (True, it also helped that the French were down by one man in the ten minutes of the half when we scored two goals. But I don’t care.)
It was a magnificent effort and positive proof of what they can do. At that point, he finally seemed certain that finally, This generation of Wallabies would go from being a team with huge potential to one with solid wins on the scoreboard against the best in the business.
And now to the bad stuff.
Saying “entire second half” doesn’t quite cover it, but considering the French put up 30 unanswered points to make it 42-21 from 21-12 before we scored again, you get the drift.
No one said “point to the sun” but they clearly said:“Libérez les bêtes bleues” – Release the blue monsters; for before our eyes was an endless cavalcade of huge Frenchmen in blue uniforms, growling angrily and charging towards our line, crushing all who stood in their way.
And that was just their backs. The situation was even worse with their forwards.
In response our men did their best to stop them, but the French were too big, too strong, and too skilled in the rear. The French’s specialty in three quarters has always been creative play and we saw exactly that in this match.
The outside men repeatedly flicked the ball between them and the cameras panned to the ashen-faced Wallaby fans closing their eyes in horror as the Frenchman winger Theo Attissogbe drilled his final try into the corner. That man was all of us.
What just happened? How did everything go so badly, so quickly?
Jeremy Williams’ late try eased the pain a bit but nothing more than that. This was a bad day at the office for the Wobblies and hopelessly disappointing after such a promising start. As always, they are capable of great play. The trick is to keep this up for 80 minutes.
Newly arrived Wallaby coach Les Kiss was in the stands, watching closely, and we can hope he had some strong opinions.
Because I don’t exist anymore.
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Peter FitzSimons is a journalist and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect with: X.
