Attacking potency – check, scrum stability – check, defensive resilience – check.
The pillars of the Wallabies blueprint under Ewen McKenzie are getting stronger after Australia produced their first defensive “clean sheet” under the new coach in Dublin.
The weekend’s breakthrough 32-15 victory over Ireland was also Australia’s first four-try effort against a full-strength tier one nation in three years as it underlined the Wallabies’ renewed attacking dangers.
But they’re savouring the defensive shutout just as much, if not more – a performance rugged forward Scott Fardy felt sent a “massive statement” to northern hemisphere rivals.
Fardy regarded their ability to hang tough and keep their goal-line intact in spite of being reduced to 14 men for a total of 18 minutes as a major boost heading towards the 2015 World Cup.
“Over here, shutting them out is pretty good,” blindside flanker Fardy told AAP.
“You have to say looking at playing northern hemisphere sides four tries doesn’t come often either.
“But to not let someone score that’s something you have to build on. I’m a big fan of having a really good defence.”
For the first time in McKenzie’s brief reign Australia have scored more tries in total than they have let in.
They’ve now crossed 27 times – including 22 from the last five games – while conceding 26 in 10 Tests.
McKenzie hailed the return of their attacking edge after the seven-try 50-20 rout of Italy in Turin, now the defence has turned the corner as well after the All Blacks and Springboks ran in 12 tries in his first three Tests in charge.
Despite being outclassed with the ball, Ireland threw plenty at the 14-man Wallabies in the final 10 minutes of each half as Michael Hooper was yellow-carded and then Tevita Kuridrani sent off.
But the Australian line held each time.
“I thought especially the reserves that came on did a great job, particularly as were down to 14 men for 20 minutes of the game,” said Fardy.
But none are getting carried away, even though they are preparing to face Scotland, who also suffered a four-try shutout in their 28-0 loss to South Africa on Monday morning (AEDT), in Edinburgh.
While the attacking and defensive bedrocks of their game have improved markedly, and the scrum dominated Ireland, the Wallabies know they need to improve their breakdown discipline after giving away a litany of first-half penalties.
“We don’t want to get to far ahead of ourselves,” said Fardy, pointing to upcoming clashes with the Scots and Wales.
“It was a good win but we still have a lot of areas to work on and we have to be better than that.
“I thought, myself included, we gave too many penalties and didn’t trust our line and we put ourselves in that position when we didn’t need to by not taking our kickoffs.”
Meantime, the Wallabies are set to fight to keep Kuridrani, sent off for a tip tackle against Ireland, on tour at a judicial hearing on Tuesday night in London.
