Wallabies will reign supreme – Bob Dwyer
Despite losing seven of this year's ten Tests, Australia's venerable World Cup-winning coach rejects the popular theory that Cardiff on Saturday represents the best Welsh chance of ending a dismal sequence of eleven straight defeats.
“If both teams play to their best, Australia will win,'' Dwyer told TRP. “Far from going backwards, I actually think Australia are improving. They are going to be very competitive in Cardiff.''
As the Wallabies touched down, Wales took a calculated gamble over Sam Warburton. Their refusal to release their captain for Friday night's Blues-Scarlets derby means that Saturday's match will be his first since damaging a cheekbone five weeks ago.
Michael Cheika, a protégé of Dwyer's, will now attempt to make clowns of European rugby by completing Australia's first Grand Slam tour since 1984. Bernard Foley, whose five penalties did for Wales in the World Cup 13 months ago, says it is ‘definitely possible.'
Wales, first up with Rob Howley in charge, have lost ten of their last 11 duels with the Wallabies, most recently the critical World Cup tie at Twickenham, by an average of five points per game.
To have gone so close so often suggests a barrier more mental than physical.
“You would think so, yes,'' Dwyer said. “As a coach I never went into a game thinking that for some reason or other the opposition always beat us. I was concerned only with their strengths and weaknesses, not with what had happened in the past.
“It's not as if there is a massive difference between the countries in the rankings. Australia has undergone a massive change in personnel since the World Cup final.
“They've had 11 new Wallabies since the England series in June. That's a very large number. They still haven't got it 100 per cent right but they're getting there.''
Dwyer dismisses Sir Graham Henry's jibe about the Wallabies under the volatile Cheika being ‘probably the worst' he had seen. “I'm not too sure how old Graham is but I can think of some worse ones,'' Dwyer said. “Our performance in the third Test against the Lions three years ago was embarrassing.
“We have a lot of young players in the pack, at tighthead, both locks and one in the back row. They are starting to show real signs of reaching international standard. I don't think we are far off being the second best team in the world again.
“Australia gave New Zealand a run for their money last week for about 60 minutes, then got wiped out in the last 20. But then New Zealand do that to everyone.
“I didn't think Wales were all that great during their three matches in New Zealand in June. They played with a lot of intent but I didn't think they seriously challenged New Zealand.
“Everyone talks about what happened to Australia at Eden Park last week which is pretty stupid because you could talk about what's happened to the rest of the world at Eden Park.
“There is a lack of respect from the New Zealand public to Australia. For a newspaper to depict the visiting coach as a clown on their front page is insulting.
“The treatment of Australian supporters in New Zealand has been diabolical – verbal abuse, physical assault and instances of louts hurling plastic beer containers filled with urine.
“There was another case of an elderly Australian supporter leaving the ground and being crash tackled from behind by a young New Zealand lout. That doesn't happen at Twickenham and it doesn't happen at Australian grounds.
“My abiding memory of my time in international rugby is of how hospitable the opposition always were, win or lose. ''
PETER JACKSON
