Superman: Captain Michael Hooper dives over in emphatic style for the Wallabies’ fourth try
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

by Paul Cook –

Australia have completed a clean sweep of France after an impressive 39-13 victory in front of a record rugby crowd of 43,188 at Allianz Stadium in Sydney this afternoon. Two tries in the first half to Will Skelton – on debut – and Israel Folau helped the Wallabies to a 20-6 advantage at the break and they went on with it after the restart, Folau completing a double before captain Michael Hooper and replacement Nick Phipps put the visitors to the sword for the second time in the three test series.

A host of top notch performances from Wycliff Palu, Michael Hooper – is it ever anything different? – and Adam Ashley-Cooper helped the Wallabies achieve their seventh win in a row under Ewen McKenzie but it was the debut of 22-year-old giant Will Skelton, that had the green and gold faithful waxing lyrical at full-time.

Back To His Best: Wycliff Palu put in one of his most impressive performances in a Wallaby jersey
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

A try after only seven minutes was the icing on the cake of a terrific all round display where Skelton exhibited his trademark aggression and monster hits alongside ridiculously soft hands for such a big man. His 56 minutes of game time laid down a marker for a highly promising future in national colours and coach McKenzie was suitably pleased with his young tyros’ efforts.

“You choose players because they can do certain things, I’d alluded to the fact that his skill was interesting and we saw evidence of that today,” he said. “He’s got a fairly unique approach to the game and that’s something that we employed today, which is good and it gives us something to think about for sure. He had a significant influence on a test match against a tier one country in his first game  and you can’t do much more than that, score one try, set another one up, that’s pretty good.”

On reflection, McKenzie felt the squad can take plenty from their efforts throughout the series with the caveat that there is plenty more work to do. “We can definitely take confidence [from the series] because we’ve resurrected our style of play and we’ve stuck to that. We’re averaging four tries a game at the moment so that’s good and we’ve had some wins so that’s good. But we have to make some decisions around the cohesion etc when we make pick our next squad and what we need to do against the All Blacks.”

After last week’s struggles in Melbourne, skipper Hooper felt that the early scores made a big difference this time out. “We built nice pressure early and got points on the board and accumulated points throughout the game. As an opposition team,when you see points growing it’s tough to get back and you then tend to try and throw a miracle pass so it was nice to get that strong start,” he said.

The Wallabies hit the front early through a Bernard Foley penalty after only two minutes and despite French scrumhalf, Maxime Machenaud, hitting the post with a chance for their own 3pts straight after, it was the only time the visitors would get within the Wallaby line in the opening 10 minutes.

Then came Skelton’s moment. One to savour for the young man and the record rugby crowd packed into Allianz Stadium. The Wallabies had pieced together an impressive set of phases as they looked to soften up the French line and when Nic White popped up a short ball to his gun loose forward 10 metres out, the crowd collectively inhaled in anticipation and he didn’t disappoint.

Brushing aside one French tackler, he stormed through two more, carrying a haze of blue with him as he stretched his giant frame for the chalk. When Foley added the extras, the Wallabies were ticking along at over a point a minute and the memories of last weekend’s dour struggle were fading fast.

Dazzling Debut” Will Skelton stretches out for a try in only the 7th minute of his test career
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

France hit back with a long range penalty from Brice Dulin, the fullback dissecting the posts from just inside his own half but they immediately cancelled out their opening score when they gifted a penalty from the restart and Foley restored the home side’s 10pt buffer.

While the French were struggling to get any kind of fluidity in their game it was the Wallabies that were full of running and looking likely to add to their tally. Wycliff Palu was at his imposing best, Michael Hooper was everywhere and Matt Toomua was providing superb link play between Foley and his outside backs.

When French tighthead, Rabah Slimani went to the bin on 34 minutes, the Wallabies had their chance to punish even further, and they took it immediately off the back of a cute play from Foley. With the French expecting the lineout, the flyhalf shaped to kick to touch before twisting around, tapping and kick-starting a backline move that saw the ball go through the hands for Israel Folau to dive over in the corner.

A Machenaud penalty reduced the arrears to 20-6 but as the half-time siren sounded, it was the Wallabies who were knocking on the door once more, a rampaging run from Palu ending with a knock-on when the ball went wide.

Any hopes of significant French resistance in the second stanza were firmly quelled barely three minutes after the restart and it was Skelton again who played a leading role. Showing his awareness and handling skills, he fed a delightful pop pass off for the predatory Folau to take at speed and slice through to the posts for his 13th try in 18 tests for Australia.

Try Machine: Israel Folau dives home for the first of his two tries
Photo: karenwatsonphotography.com.au

With the scoreboard reading 27-6 with 25 minutes remaining, coach McKenzie rang the changes, Scott Sio, Kurtley Beale and James Horwill taking the field in place of James Slipper, Matt Toomua and a roundly applauded Skelton and it was one of the replacements, Kurtley Beale, who was creator general for the Wallabies fourth try on the hour.

Striking at the heart of the French defence, he scooped up a pass from Foley to commit one defender before offloading to his captain, the pacy Hooper racing through to finish with an emphatic swan dive.

Nothing was going the way of Les Bleus, a kick through that saw winger Yoann Huget in to the corner for all money, took a vicious bounce into the crowd instead. But the visitors finally had something to cheer in the 65th minute, a lineout drive finishing with a try to hooker, Guilhem Guirado.

Wycliff Palu departed the field four minutes later after a startling return to the demonstrative form of his early test performances – “He’s played some good tests so I’m not sure where that ranks but he had a very good game. He was very influential,” said McKenzie – but the clearing of the bench did little to thwart the Wallabies attack and when Nick Phipps took a quick tap-and-go to push past some lazy runners and find the line for try number five, the French humiliation was complete.

Under fire French coach Phillip Saint-Andre was disappointed to go out with a whimper in the final match but offered up no excuses. “Australia won all the contact and brought a big tempo to the game. We missed so many tackles, we were in difficulty all the time and Australia played very well.” But he left with a warning ahead of the upcoming rematch in Paris in November. “This is the end of a very long season for our players, in November, you will see a completely different French team.”

For his sake at least, he better hope that prediction comes true.

Australia 39 (Israel Folau 2, Will Skelton, Michael Hooper, Nick Phipps tries; Bernard Foley 4 cons, 2 pens) defeated France 13 (Guilhem Guirado  try; Brice Dulin pen, Maxime Machenaud con, pen)
Crowd: 43, 188