Wallabies New Era Begins

The 'QANTAS Wallabies' [do you think commentator Tim Horan is on an incentive deal for calling them that] survived 18-12 at Melbourne's Telstra Dome under a closed roof!

New coach Robbie Deans [who beat me to the job this time around] influence was terrifically evident in the quick clearance of ruck ball intentionally, where the ball went two passes off the ruck quickly. Then when players ran into space they were popping the ball off the ground to support runners and expressing their skills. They didn't commit quite enough people to the tackle/ruck and maul contest and the Irish stepped up their offensive tackling and made a game of it in the second half...

We also finally got to see the best of Brian O'Driscoll who has been hampered here by weather, injury and a poor team on past visits... he did a couple of classy things tonight.

Best thing about the Wallabies is that they have often been awful in game one of past seasons and they were generally pretty good tonight!!

What a relief to have a coach who encourages players to play the game, not the over analysed playbook of up to five or six phases of set activity... even Tiquiri looked OK tonight!! How good is it to see a halfback with a passing game... and from Maitland of all places!

Well done boys, I look forward to the rest of the season now!!