The three key areas the Wallabies must get right in Argentina

Argentina is a long away from anywhere and it’s a hostile environment to be the opposition, fanatical fans, flares, and at times lasers in the kicker’s eyes await this Wallabies side.

It hardly seems like the best place for a building Wallabies squad to go and attempt to secure their first win of the Ruby Championship, but it’s exactly this type and size of challenge a budding team needs.

Rallying together, standing shoulder-to-shoulder against the horde and spending days on end in enemy territory is the kind of thing which builds cohesion.

Living in each other’s pockets forces you to confront the issues.

When you’re at home you can avoid the conflict and retreat to your own bed, but when on tour, you may be bunking with the guy that you’re knocking heads with.

Of course, it could go the other way: the frictions of the group could cause rifts.

However, this Wallabies group is young and is full of learning, they are also under the tutelage of a coaching group experienced enough to pull this inexperienced squad together for the cause.

This tour of the land of steak, malbec, and tango is all about smoothing out the rough edges, bringing the lessons together, and nailing the detail for the Wallabies.

“We’ve highlighted that [the defensive maul] as a key work-on for us,” said in-form lock Nick Frost in a Wednesday press conference.

“It’s fine margins at Test footy. There’s little one-percenters that if you don’t nail them at that time, you get stung. So, we’ve been putting a bit of effort into that and looking where we can all get better, poking each other in the chest.”

This was a reply specifically about the defensive maul, but that has hardly been the only problem area for the Wallabies, so you can bet there is more ‘chest poking’ going on in the Wallabies camp.

Ambitions are admirable but the fact is the Wallabies must be better than they have been if they want to rattle the cage of Los Pumas, but there are opportunities there for the Wallabies to take.

Gone are the days of rugby stereotypes, you won’t tire out a big Boks pack, you can’t rely on the French to be inconsistent, and the Argentinians are no longer only a side which can scrum.

The Wallabies can expose certain areas of the Pumas’ game whilst also working hard to sure-up their own weaknesses.

If the Wallabies can attack at scrum time, whilst shoring-up their discipline and defensive maul, they’ll be well on their way to getting their first win of the TRC.

The scrum

The Wallabies have an opportunity to overpower the Pumas.

The Argentinians got away with not scrummaging for 62 odd minutes against the All Blacks in their first Test, and it was a material factor in their win.

A front row of Angus Bell, Matt Faessler, and Taniela Tupou will be a handful for the Argies.

The impact of Tupou in any scrum can’t be understated, Bell and Faessler are skilful scrummagers who will be able to apply heat off the back of Tupou’s grunt.

You only need to look back at the impact Tupou brought to the scrum in the Wales series, his ability to pierce the bind between the loosehead prop and hooker makes him a dual threat along with his raw power.

If the Wallabies can assert scrum dominance early, it will go a long way to silencing the hostile crowd, in return there’ll be opportunities to win the territory and early scoreboard battle.

It is important to note that Josh Nasser has been named on the bench, as his scrummaging skills will be needed to assist young Isaac Aedo Kailea and Allan Alaalatoa in the Wallabies pursuit of a 80 minute scrummaging performance.

The Wallabies can’t afford to let the fans find their voice, it’s what the passionate Pumas thrive off, especially now that they will be sending off Agustin Creevy in his hometown of La Plata.

Taking the sting out of the emotion with a few dominant scrums early, rewarded by penalties, and ideally early points will achieve this.

It would also give the Wallabies a domain to rule, playing in the minds of the Pumas.

Discipline

Penalties are not always a bad thing, in fact, the best players know when, where, and how to infringe to avoid sanction all together.

Well-executed skullduggery can save a team from conceding points, and give a team time for a breather.

These are important nuances because the Wallabies currently are conceding far too many penalties due to inaccuracy, some of them just look lazy.

Players falling on the wrong side of ruck, players going off their feet to clean out in opposition’s 22m, and losing feet in a rolling maul are examples of the type of penalties which are killing the Wallabies, and they are completely avoidable.

The Wallabies have an astronomical card count as well, it’s almost at the point where there’s one a game, it must stop.

The Wallabies can’t afford to give Santiago Carreras, the Argentinian No.10, opportunities to kick at goal.

Penalties mean momentum lost, penalties mean pressure alleviated, penalties mean losing the territory battle.

The Wallabies can’t afford to give Carreras the opportunity to kick his team into the Wallabies own 22m for a lineout because that could be the nail in the Wallabies’ coffin.

Defensive maul

In 2024, the Wallabies have conceded six tries, one penalty try, and two yellow cards because of their defensive maul. They are lucky no to have conceded more tries and more cards.

At the most conservative calculation, that is 37 points the Wallabies have been unable to do anything about. At the gravest end of the realm of possibilities that is 49 points, plus the 20 minutes with 14 men on the park.

No team in the world can deal with these sorts of numbers, let alone a team in full rebuild.

Frost spoke earlier about ‘the chest poking’ going on in and amongst the forwards in a bid to rectify this trend, but it’s a question of technique as much as it is attitude and personnel.

Not many within the squad are known maulers, but it’s time individuals as well as the unit of eight rise to the occasion.

Lukhan Salakai-Loto has been making strides and has managed to sack a couple mauls.

He’s also managed to be disruptive at lineout time claiming several lineout steals in a bid to prevent the maul from forming in the first place.

This week in Argentina, Salakai-Loto will need his pack to help him, but they must get the detail right.

The defensive maul is an issue because without those tries, the Wallabies are a defensively solid team.

They have tackled at an average of 88 per cent, it’s a good enough average to keep teams to a score which the Wallabies can match, but they can’t afford to leak points, penalties, and cards.

The scrum gives the Wallabies a weapon, it can change the tone of the game and control the energy of the crowd.

It can also give the Wallabies opportunities to build pressure, whether it’s phases in Argentina’s 22m or points on the board, it all builds pressure.

Scrum dominance will also help to alleviate pressure when the silly penalties eventual get conceded, because there will at least be a couple.

Lack of focus can be addressed immediately, let’s hope Joe Schmidt and Laurie Fisher have done some chest poking of their own.

As for the defensive maul, that maul will come in the Wallabies 22m, and they better be ready when it does.

Yellow cards, penalty tries or just getting rolled over for five points simply won’t do.

The Wallabies are building and growing, and the continuity in the Wallabies match day 23 shows Joe Schmidt is starting to find his men.

The Wallabies have what it takes to cause an upset in La Plata, but they need a lot of their game to go right, and they better have said goodbye to their inaccuracy when boarding the flight to Buenos Aires.