David Campese exclusive: ‘Crisis will turn into unmitigated disaster’ if Wallabies lose to Wales

James While
Add as a preferred source on Google
Wallabies legend David Campese looks ahead to Wales clash.

Wallabies legend David Campese looks ahead to Wales clash.

Wallabies legend David Campese looks back at the loss to Fiji and previews the win-or-bust clash with Wales, offering a preview on who will come out on top.

Emotions

One of the key things that I reflected watching Australia’s loss to Fiji was the lack of smiles on the players’ faces. They looked scared of failure, frightened to do the basic task of enjoying a game of footy, paralysed by the thought of losing.

Compare that with the emotions of the Fijians; they look determined every minute of their time on the pitch and that comes across in the way they play. To them, Test rugby is something to be embraced, not feared, and as a result, they play happy rugby.

Sure, it’s a bonus when you have two or three absolute world class ballers in your side – who wouldn’t want a player like Levani Botia? He’s arguably the best fetcher in the world at the moment and he, together with the fantastic centres Waisea Nayacalevu and Josua Tuisova, are all levels above Australia and many other sides in the tournament.

Best of all, Fiji are producing rock stars, players with whom their public resonate and whose faces are all over the country. It isn’t about Simon Raiwalui, their cool as a cucumber coach, it’s about celebrating the players themselves and Australia need to learn from that and emulate it.

The Fiji response to the loss to Wales was fantastic. There’s a few in the game, me included, that thought they didn’t get the rub of the green in terms of officiating but rather than carp on about that they also acknowledged that better goal-kicking would have got them over the line and bringing in Simione Kuruvoli at nine worked a treat, as he was near flawless with the boot. They also identified that he could add a structured kicking game down the channels to the big three quarters and that was one of the keys to the Fijian win.

They know their game and have a winning formula; their ability to offload and create scramble situations by getting a metre through contact is possibly the best we’ve seen at this year’s World Cup and if they get into the knockout stages, then anything is possible, especially considering the basics of their game are built upon a solid set-piece.

Career defining

For the Wallabies, the Test against Wales could define a lot of careers, not least that of the head coach himself, Eddie Jones. We cannot afford to underestimate the side Warren Gatland has put together – it’s got bags of experience with a number of cap centurions, and they also have two or three world class kickers off the tee, something the Wallabies don’t have and I think that might be the telling factor. That means Australia have to score tries, and a few of them, not easy when one of the Welsh superpowers is their excellence in defence.

I am also very concerned with the propensity of the Aussie backs to kick the ball away. We simply cannot afford to do that against the Welsh broken field runners. Both Josh Adams and Louis Rees-Zammit are fantastic runners, Adams with a bag full of tricks and very versatile in the way he attacks, with Rees-Zammit boasting that rare quality, pure outright gas.

It’ll be interesting to see who Eddie picks at 10; for my money it has to be Ben Donaldson starting there with Nic White as the cool head of experience alongside him. We know we have a competitive back five and if, by some miracle, we can get Will Skelton right before the match then that is game changing for Australia.

Leadership

Above all, the Wallabies have to turn up and they also have to react to what’s in front of them. At the moment we’re seeing rehearsed moves that come from the training ground that simply doesn’t reflect the events unfolding in front of them. We have the men to apply huge lineout pressure – Nick Frost was outstanding in the loss to Fiji and if he provides the quality of ball we need then I want to see the backline play the Aussie way – catch, pass, support – the building blocks of attacking play. Let these players make a name for themselves and own their shirt, getting the focus back on the team rather than any other part of the coaching staff.

Again, leadership on the pitch, not from the stands by proxy, is key. Wales have some seriously impressive voices – Dan Biggar, Taulupe Faletau and the new tyros, Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan and Gatland has empowered those guys to run the game on the pitch, something Australia can learn from.

These are players that take their team along with their vision and they also react to what is happening in front of them. People made a hoo-hah about Biggar’s spray of George North and I had to chuckle at that. Those are two Test centurions who have toured together for both Wales and the Lions and to see them have that exchange without any form of malice showed that leadership is valued and that the players have the mutual respect to say it how it is on the pitch without pussyfooting around, exactly what you want from your Test leaders.

Failure not an option

Can Australia do it? They have to. If they don’t there’s a few Test careers and a couple of coaching reputations that are on the line. A loss would mean a total reset of Rugby Australia is needed and is absolutely unacceptable, so to say pressure is on the Wallabies is the understatement of the year.

It will require a monumental team effort, one of intellect and adaptation rather than pre-planned tactical rigour. If, and it’s a big if, the Aussies can get a set-piece platform and then get their big runners such as Samu Kerevi and Marika Koroibete punching holes, then we have a chance. But everything needs to go well – the perfect storm if you like – with kicks nailed and tries scored if we are to have anything like a chance.

I’m a proud Aussie and despite my misgivings about the coaching voices overshadowing the players voices I will say we’ll win by the narrowest of margins – three points or so. If we don’t then crisis will turn into unmitigated disaster and we will see something close to the collapse of faith in Rugby Australia, its administration, coaches and players – and that will be a pretty sad day for the sport in Australia.

READ MORE: Rugby Australia chairman gets his excuses in early, but his players have a game to win against Wales

Australia David Campese

Related Articles