A Trying Tri Nations Ahead | Thebigtip

Even in victory, Robbie Deans must not feel buoyant by the way the Wallabies are shaping up ahead of the 2 toughest challenges in World Rugby. Once again the Wallabies have failed to inspire. They have done enough to beat Ireland, but nothing more, and instead exposed their many problems prompting concerns that the Wallabies will suffer as much pain as they did in last year's Tri Nations when they won just one of six Tests.

The good news is that many of the leading Wallabies will be back for the Tri Nations - with Benn Robinson, Stephen Moore, Will Genia, Nathan Sharpe and maybe even Digby Ioane among those scheduled to be around in time to face the Springboks and All Blacks next month. This is good news as Australia simply needs some of these players to compete.

A week ago in Sydney against England the Wallabies were atrocious. And while beating Ireland on the weekend will have them relieved for a while - because any type of win by Australia has to be cherished - it should not hide the fact that this side is a long way from convincing anyone they will be a Tri Nations threat.

The All Blacks and Springboks will watch the tapes of the Brisbane game and won't exactly be shaking in their boots by the experience. If anything I wouldn’t be surprised if the Boks and All Blacks don’t start celebrating early. As they know there isn't much in the Wallaby game plan to be overly concerned about…

Only a Luke Burgess intercept try and a superb Quade Cooper run to score gave the Wallabies a slight edge against the Irish.

Overall with some elementary errors and perceived ill-discipline, the Wallabies were guilty of far too much kicking from within their own half, were sloppy in the set pieces,  leaked too many penalties and again need to improve their goal kicking. The lack of consistency in converting tries and penalties needs to be improved.

The most pleasing aspects were the performance of the scrum which often shunted the Irish pack backwards, and obviously the glimpses of magic by flyhalf Cooper.

A big concern is that these Wallabies have talented backs but lack size across the park, and depth in tight five positions.  To compare the 3 sides the All Black forward pack is 80 KG heavier while the Springboks boast an extra 100kg in the forward pack.

This means every Wallaby player is giving away over 10 KG to their Springbok rivals.