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The last thing the Wallabies want is to get into a game of ruck and run against Japan in Oita on Saturday.
Japan attack coach Tony Brown regards the ball-in-play time metric as an article of view: quiz him about it straight after a Super Rugby game with the Highlanders and he’ll invariably have it on hand.
His strategy is relatively straightforward – the bigger the opposition tight five, the higher he wants the ball-in-play time. Brown and Japan coach Jamie Joseph will look at the Wallabies’ tight five, which includes big men such as Taniela Tupou and Izack Rodda, and think that anything less than 30 minutes of ball-in-play time will be curtains for them. Ideally, they’ll be hoping for the mid-30s, at least, if not higher.
The job of the Wallabies tight five is to stop that from happening. Yes, the Wallabies are a fit side and going from set piece to set piece isn’t in their DNA, but they have to embrace their inner bullies on Saturday. They have to smash up the Japan scrum and get their maul going. They’ve got to shut down Japan before they even get going.
The blueprint game for the Wallabies is the Blues’ thumping of Brown’s Highlanders at Eden Park in March. Prior to the game, the Highlanders talked about moving the Blues’ massive pack around the paddock, but those plans were trashed within the first quarter when the Blues’ All Blacks in the tight five did a number on them at the set-piece.
It was demoralising stuff for Highlanders halfback Aaron Smith, whose quick running and distribution game was completely negated by the Blues’ bully boys. The Highlanders copped a 39-17 flogging that day, as the Blues first bashed them up and then started to use the football.
Japan lit up the Rugby World Cup in 2019 with their enterprising style of play.Credit:Getty
The Wallabies have the tools to do something similar to Japan, particularly in the pack, where two monsters lurk in the back row. The inclusion of Rob Leota – revealed this week by Wallabies coach Dave Rennie to weigh 118 kilograms – is a signal that the Wallabies intend to make the Oita Test about their strengths, not Japan’s.
Not enough has been made about the demolition job the Wallabies scrum performed against Argentina in the last Test of the Rugby Championship. The set-piece is humming. For my money, the Wallabies overplayed their hand in possession against Los Pumas, but it didn’t matter because their platform was so superior.