It’s other facets which require more improvement to beat the All Blacks on Saturday night but Will Genia insists the Wallabies are better for throwing the Robbie Deans’ shackles off their attack.
Australia scored just 17 tries from the last 17 Tests of Deans’ reign and Genia on Friday voiced his frustration at those conservative tactics by contrasting the “big difference” under Ewen McKenzie.
The Bledisloe Cup result may have been the same in last weekend’s 47-29 loss to New Zealand in Sydney but the Wallabies did show their intent by passing the ball far more and backing themselves to run from within their own half.
It was a welcome relief to vice-captain Genia, who also bluntly intimated James O’Connor was wrongly picked out of position at five-eighth in the 2-1 series loss to the British and Irish Lions.
O’Connor’s controversial move to No.10, before McKenzie shunted him back to the wing, and Deans’ prolonged selection of centres who lacked creativity had been a source of discontent among fans, former greats and pundits.
The new playmaking pairing of Brumbies duo Matt Toomua and Christian Lealiifano has given them more armoury to play expansively, which according to Genia, makes the Wallabies more dangerous.
“There’s guys playing in the right positions now where they should have been in the first place and we use the ball a little bit more rather than one-out stuff,” he said.
“That is more exciting to play and provides more threats to the defence.”
It wasn’t intended as a shot at Deans but more a supportive statement Australia was back on the right track under McKenzie.
The trick for Australia now is to finish off the line breaks, get more ball to dangermen Israel Folau and O’Connor and be more unpredictable with the ball.
They failed to do all three at ANZ Stadium but were still challenging at 25-22 after 50 minutes before defensive lapses and soft turnovers saw the All Blacks pounce.
Genia promised smarter kicking and a better attitude in defence at Wellington’s Westpac Stadium.
“We learned the lessons we needed to learn from that first Test performance,” the halfback said.
“We probably put too much emphasis on attack than on our whole game and maybe that’s why we got punished on defence.”
McKenzie has said the Wallabies will kick more but skipper James Horwill insists they’ll still look for line-breaking opportunities within their own half.
“It’s about getting the balance (of running and kicking) right,” Horwill said. “We want guys to back themselves if they feel there is something on.
“We don’t want to temper that in any sense.”
