Humiliated Wallaby forwards out to build pack mentality

The Wallaby forwards are not respected anymore, but new restarts coach Michael Foley says they can still field a dominant pack in next year’s World Cup in France. The solution, he says, lies in creating a pack mentality.

Foley wants to develop a ferocious pack mentality among the Wallabies forwards that will leave their World Cup opponents fumbling around in search of a plan B, reports The Australian.

He knows from experience as a member of the 1999 Rugby World Cup-winning side that plan A every rival side takes into a test against Australia is to smash them in the forwards.

Seven years ago, opponents learned the cost of underestimating the Wallabies up front, but opposition respect for the Australian pack has been in full retreat in recent years, culmiinating in the humiliating moment in the Test at Twickenham last November when the Wallabies were reduced to packing uncontested scrums after being destroyed by the England forwards.

“Aussie forwards equal of any”

So undeniable was that humiliation that it triggered a frenetic off-season of intensive concentration on the set-pieces by Australia’s professional teams. So much progress was crammed into such a short space of time that Foley – who in recent weeks has watched tapes of every scrum and lineout involving Australia’s four Super 14 teams – believes it is still possible for the Wallabies to field a dominant pack in next year’s Rugby World Cup in France.

“Individually, Australian forwards are the equal of any players in the world but what we have to do is to slightly change their mentality to get them thinking not as individuals but as a pack.

“Attack is going to become our best means of defence. I don’t want anyone thinking of the scrum as simply a means of restarting the game,” he said.

“It is a way of applying pressure on the opposition, and not just the opposition pack but the opposition backline as well.”

Attention to rolling maul

Foley also intends to revive what is, for Wallabies at least, the almost lost art of the rolling maul. So rusty at it were the Australians when they attempted to crank up a rolling maul in the Test in Marseille last year that the French almost contemptuously hurled the shambolic mess into touch.

Certainly the Wallabies’ ineptitude at the rolling maul has had the effect of intensifying pressure on the lineout because rival forwards have not felt the need to anchor themselves on the ground to counter a drive.