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Stirling Mortlock concerned about Wallabies following scratchy Samoa win
By Online Editors
Former Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock is concerned about Australia's "very one-dimensional" attack in their 34-15 victory against Samoa.
Mortlock, who skippered the Wallabies to a quarter-final exit at the 2007 World Cup, watched on from the stands at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney as his former team survived a minor scare from the Pacific side in their final World Cup warm-up match.
Despite scoring six tries in the 19-point victory, Mortlock felt Australia's attacking strategy against the world's 16th-ranked side lacked spark and variation compared to matches from earlier this year.
"I wasn't that impressed with the Samoa performance," Mortlock told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"In the first half it was a pretty decent performance but we didn't assert ourselves in the second half. What I wasn't impressed with was in attack we looked very one-dimensional.
"Perhaps that was an extension of the fact the guys have been on tour away and have had a pretty heavy workload during camp.
"When you do that you're not as polished and likely to chance your arm but certainly most of the test matches this year we've seen the Wallabies attack really throw caution to the wind with ball in hand and use a lot of width and lots of passes.
"Whereas against Samoa I didn't sense that was the case. That was my disappointment, I just found it hard to follow to be frank.
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"There was hardly any time to give them a good lead-up into the World Cup and that was their last crack at it and it seemed to be a little different to the few matches before.
"They've changed their attack dramatically this year, so in my view every game was critical to go in the right direction to improve it or reinforce that new style. Yet to me it certainly didn't look like that's what they were doing against Samoa.
"It felt like it was a bit of a waste."
Mortlock's criticism came with a glimmer of hope, as the 42-year-old believed he had seen enough from the Wallabies' 47-26 Bledisloe Cup thumping of the All Blacks in Perth to suggest that the Australians could go far in the World Cup should they string together some commanding performances.
"In 2015 I was pretty optimistic leading into it but this year I wasn't until I went across to Perth," he said.
"I can definitely see this Wallaby outfit surprising a lot of people with a strong championship-style performance in the World Cup.
"That's why I'm a little bit frustrated by the Samoan performance. I expected to see really expansive attack and a different attack to what we've seen to the last few years. I didn't think it was as high-risk high reward as we've seen in Tests before that.
"I'm hoping we get our set-piece right, which we've done in patches, and if we do that I think we can go deep into this tournament again with that attack."
The Wallabies kick-off their World Cup campaign against Fiji in Sapporo on September 21.
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Im guessing you never lived in NZ under r dern and red commie labour
We were forced and in some cases mandated to take the V - I know of 7 people who D taking it and many with untold injuries - Minimium 12 K D in NZ taking it - it was never safe never effective never worked just Maimed and K'd qe were close to being thrown into quarantine camps C was only a rebranded Flu
Oz Govt MOH have completed their c commission - they admit they never had the proveable data to make justify their statements and decisions & that the public will never accept it ever happening again - they fired rubber B into peaceful protestors Ardern is hated here ( 1 M patriots forced her out ) - bloomfield her side kick 2IC dr D excempted 11k from taking it - we (not u) know who they were the Pol and Public servants who knew they were fatal - A zeneca pulled it off the market due 2 excess D's - Japan banned them - called them stupid poison -
P M Shinzo Abe opposed the v and sent over a million doses back - because of that he was murdered - So were the heads of several African nations who also opposed the fake v they were k'd and their replacements allowed their countries to be swamped with them - C was V wasnt bought in fo C - C was bought in for the V
Im not here to talk politics but if u want to I can all day especially to a RED neck commie like you - whats it going to be Rugby or Politics or mud slinging give me something to think about - surprise me with something meaty - just not word salad
Go to commentsIt doesn’t matter how good your rugby team is, at the highest level you are going to have momentum swings in games.
Wales having a good ten minute period next week- and they will- doesn’t mean the Boks will be playing poorly.
It’s if you can make the most of it when you have the momentum. And the current group of springboks do enough when they create enough, as great teams do.
For comparison, the All Blacks played their best game of the year against France.
Still lost. And it’s only France’s second game so they aren’t firing at 100% yet.
The ABs haven’t got to that ruthless stage that the springboks are at yet.
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