Hard-edged Northern Hemisphere critics have gone into raptures over the Wallabies’ skilful play after Australia clawed back creditability with their 32-15 thumping of Ireland.
Local newspapers lavished praise on Ewen McKenzie’s rebuilding team, with most plaudits going to mercurial playmaker Quade Cooper, as they dished out a four-tries-to-nil attacking lesson to the Irish at a packed Aviva Stadium on Sunday (AEDT).
Former Ireland and British Lions lock Neil Francis, an award-winning columnist for the Sunday Independent, argued this year’s Lions series result would have been reversed if McKenzie had been in charge.
“Under Robbie Deans, Australia’s tactical and spiritual dipstick was about two drops short of bone dry,” 36-cap forward Francis wrote.
“You could see yesterday that if this Australian side played against the Lions the whole series (2-1 to Lions) would have been dramatically different … the quality and execution of their passing was sublime.
“It must have been a very gratifying and reassuring performance for the Australians.
“They were clinical and nonchalantly professional and way too good for an Irish side hopelessly out of their depth and a couple of leagues below in skill levels.”
Sunday Times writer Denis Walsh described Cooper as a joy to watch “in everything he did: game management, inventiveness, kicking”.
“With Cooper you can never be sure of anything, least of all what will happen next,” Walsh wrote. “Very few coaches would welcome such uncertainty or indulge it; Ewen McKenzie has embraced it.”
While satisfied with a breakthrough back-to-back victory, McKenzie was quick to keep a lid on the emotions and wasn’t about to get carried away.
He felt they would continue to be judged by the benchmark of the All Blacks, who kept their unbeaten 2013 record intact with a 30-22 win over England in a top-shelf encounter.
“I think there’s people out there you never please. Someone will say ‘You haven’t beaten the All Blacks’. We can’t do that until August next year,” McKenzie said.
“In the meantime we can beat whoever is in front of us.
“The thing that is incredible to me is that we’re playing these games in their backyards, and there’s got to be some credibility in that somewhere.”
The four tries against Ireland, capped off with a 10-man driving maul, gives Australia 22 from the past five Tests, while their scrum was an area of strength in Dublin.
“Getting over the tryline was an issue for the team in the past. Hopefully the fans are getting excited about the fact that if they turn on the TV they might see some interesting stuff,” McKenzie said.
“We nearly got a pushover try, people weren’t expecting us to do that.
“Everyone lambastes our scrum, I’ve been reading about it all week. Our guys have got a bit of character.”
Australia are set to fight to keep red-carded centre Tevita Kuridrani, sent off for a tip tackle on Peter O’Mahony, on tour by attending a judicial hearing scheduled for Tuesday night in London.