Ex-Wallaby: Another Australian defeat will be ‘horrible’ as British and Irish Lions are ‘thrashing us at half pace’
Wallabies lock Nick Frost and an inset of British and Irish Lions flanker Tom Curry celebrating a try.
Former Wallabies full-back Greg Martin says that it will be ‘horrible’ for Australian Rugby if Joe Schmidt’s charges don’t beat the British and Irish Lions in the second Test.
Australia were defeated 27-19 in Brisbane in the first of the three Test matches and head to Melbourne for what is a series-defining clash.
If the Wallabies were to succumb to another loss, it would make the third and final Test a dead rubber, a first occurrence in the modern era of Lions tours to Australia.
Wallabies got it very wrong tactically
Speaking to Martin Devlin on the DSPN podcast, Martin ripped into the performance of the Wallabies as well as Schmidt’s tactics in the first Test match.
He believes that they kicked far too often, which played into the Lions’ hands and that the head coach got his selections wrong, particularly with Jake Gordon partnering Tom Lynagh in the half-backs.
“Consolation tries don’t count in my mind,” he said. “It was way gone right after half time when they scored that try, I thought the game was gone completely.
“I know people are going, ‘Oh, we fought back bravely and we showed courage,’ that’s what Joe Schmidt is saying too.
“I think tactically, we got it very wrong. We were without Skelton, our second-row, who is 144 kilos, and we’re without Valetini, who’s had the most ball carries in the last four seasons, and they’re back this weekend.
“Tate McDermott should be the starting half-back because Tom Lynagh went well… but he needs to start with McDermott, not a bloke he has never met before. And McDermott started to make holes when he started running. Stop box kicking! Who thinks it’s a good idea to box kick against the Lions? That’s what they’re good at: receiving and transitioning from there.”
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Suaalii shift
Martin was commenting before Schmidt named his squad for the second Test match and suggested that league convert Joseph Suaalii needed to switch positions to get the best out of him.
“We probably need to see Suaalii at full-back because of his strengths, which we’ve seen in rugby league. They love putting up a bomb, and that’s where we are having trouble,” he added.
“Just hang on to the ball. There was one stage where we did not make one metre. They weren’t driving us back; they were just meeting us. I know they were a metre offside, but that’s rugby. We had nothing; we had no punch. It was a training run.
“I thought Joe Schmidt was going to be tactically better than that. I hope selection-wise, and it’s happening about now, the team will be announced…I hope we do make those changes.”
Lions not at full pace
With the Wallabies facing the prospect of losing the series after just two matches, the former outside back says it would be a terrible look for Rugby Australia, particularly after the Lions swept the Super Rugby and invitational teams aside without really playing to their potential.
“Every modern tour, this is the fourth one for me (1989, 2001, 2013), it’s always been one all going into the third fixture in Sydney, it’s got to be this time too, otherwise this is just a joke the whole thing – they may not even come here again,” he said.
“It’ll be horrible if it’s not one all, mate, because they are doing it easily. Even those games that they’ve been winning provincially against the Force, the Reds and everything, they haven’t been at full rat power anyway.
“They’ve only been running at half pace, and they’re still thrashing us.”
