Following the enthralling 1st semi-final of the Rugby World Cup between New Zealand and South Africa, Australia and Argentina battled it out last Sunday in the second to see who would earn the right to face the defending champions in the finals of the 2015 World Cup.
The Wallabies went into the much anticipated encounter with the odds in their favor, however anyone who knows Rugby could tell you that the Pumas will never go down without a fight, and what a fight it was.
Unlike in the 1st Semi-final, the weather was perfect for a Southern Hemisphere rugby showcase, and as expected it was a fast-paced game with both teams throwing everything in the tank at each other. The Wallabies started on top taking control early on, mounting loads of pressure on the Pumas by running in two quick tries, the first an interception which knocked the wind of the sail for the Pumas.
Argentina seemed to be missing the spark that got them into the top four. They are usually an extremely passionate team on the field no matter where they are playing but appeared to be strangely subdued on this occasion. Their defense was almost lackadaisical from the onset with a few too many unforced errors. The slow start was simply too much for the South Americans to come back from even though they did extremely well to keep the game within reach till the dying stages.
The Pumas defense was unable to contain the intensity by the Aussie attack from the get-go and although they made 97 tackles, the massive number of 33 missed tackles turned out to be a game-changing statistic. Their exit strategy was simply not strong enough to put pressure on the Wallabies as the Wallaby back three was never put under pressure when receiving kicks. The Pumas chasers were not getting up quick enough, giving the likes of Folau way too much time and space to counter attack or kick.
Although the Pumas managed to control possession by the end of the game they were unable to penetrate the Wallabies golden wall of defense. The loose unstructured play of the Pumas was extremely well contained by the Aussies who were staunch and never looked like conceding. Despite the Pumas clawing their way back into the game over time, they never looked like crossing the Aussie goal line.
The Pumas also had a lot of bad luck all through the game with injuries to key players early on followed up by a couple of tough calls against them from the referees. Unfortunately for the Pumas they lost their mercurial winger Juan Imhoff early in the game to an injury followed to the bench by their skipper Augustine Creevy also with an unspecified injury. They then lost one of their playmakers in Juan Martin Hernandez who hobbled off early in the second half. The first disputable call came when Tomas Lavanini was sent to the sin bin for a chop tackle. The tackle was spotted by the TMO and its arguable that indecision and miscommunication between the officials perhaps meant the Pumas lock had to spend 10 minutes in the sin bin. Another call that was perhaps overlooked was the possibility of a penalty for the Pumas at the stroke of halftime when a Wallaby scrum went down under pressure. The most controversial decision however came when Adam Ashley Cooper went over for his 3rd try of the night after gathering what looked like a forward pass following Drew Mitchell’s spectacular break.
The Wallabies on the other hand had a dream start; focused on putting loads of pressure on the Pumas, Michael Cheilka’s team was exceptional at capitalizing on their opponent’s errors. Their exit strategy all through the game was close to perfect. They repeatedly showed intent to run from their own half when they sent the ball wide after using mid-field runners off the first and second phases even inside their own 22m. This forced the Pumas to keep players up in their defensive line to make the tackles which meant they could not drop extra players back to deal with clearance kicks, thus by the 3rd and 4th phases the Wallabies had acres of space to kick into. Having two great kicking options in Foley and Giteau meant Australia was able to repeatedly capitalize on this space. Foley and Giteau presented the Wallabies multiple playmakers to create attacking options with the likes of Mitchell, Folau Ashley-Cooper to exploit those options.
The Wallabies will be disappointed however with the fact they could not put the Pumas away early on in the game, allowing them to claw their way back into the game through penalties. Going into halftime the Pumas trailed by 10 points which is a rather big margin in a semi-final but Australia would have hoped for a larger margin considering they had stranglehold of the game.
Perhaps the deciding factor however for the Wallabies was the absolute dominance in defense all through the game. With Australia being forced to make 157 tackles over the course of the game Hooper, Fardy and Pocock put on a monumental display in back-row play. Scott Fardy who has flown under the radar all through the tournament was a massive part of the Wallabies defense preventing the Pumas crossing their goal line, making 16 tackles in his 65 minutes on the field. In addition to Fardy’s 16 tackles Hooper and Pocock made 11 and 14 tackles respectively. Pocock was immense around the tackle area winning 4 of the Wallabies 10 turnovers.
The Wallabies will now have to front up in 5 days to face the mighty All Blacks in the final whilst the Pumas will face the Springboks in the 3rd place play-off on Friday.
