RWC2015: Semi Final Preview: Australia

Australia have held the advantage over the Pumas in recent times, losing one of their last nine encounters, but the Argentineans are in superb form at this World Cup; topping offload and line break stats.

The Pumas will attack all day and the Wallabies will respond by attacking right back.

Australia have serious doubts over injured stars David Pocock and Israel Folau but they’ll continue to play an expansive running game; perhaps with one or two less heart-stopping intercept passes, however.

Bernard Foley’s goal kicking will again be crucial, and so will the much-improved Australian scrum. Power, precision and pace will be the keywords. So buckle up. This semi-final will leave fans breathless.

Barnes Storming

When the refereeing appointments were made for the semi-finals, Australia was left holding a winning Lottery ticket.

Wayne Barnes will handle the Wallabies-Pumas clash and in a total of 12 Tests under the English official, Australia have won every single one. There’s been some decent opponents in that dozen, too.

Barnes, a man the Kiwis love to hate, refereed the Wallabies in three victories over the All Blacks, including their win in Sydney in August and the Tri-Nations win in Brisbane in 2011. He has refereed the Wallabies against Argentina once – which resulted in a record 54-17 win for Australia in Rosario in 2012.

Perhaps the appointment was karma. In what has been a controversial week for referees, the Craig Joubert drama somehow found Cheika - a man with a long and colourful history with rugby officials - emerging as a defender of the whistleblowing fraternity.

Jonny Be Good?

Australia’s World Cup nemesis Jonny Wilkinson could come back to haunt them this weekend – because he has been coaching down at Toulon and working with lethal Pumas sharpshooter Nicolas Sanchez.

“I tried to take as much advantage as possible when I was there with him in Toulon and he was coaching us, and probably he’s one of the best players I’ve ever seen,” Sanchez said of Wilkinson.

“We worked a lot on skills, especially kicking. He would focus hugely on details, but he would also talk in great length about the mentality you need to succeed as a kicker.”

Cheik me out

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika has thrown himself into training to show his side – some of who stir him that he’s getting deep into his 40s and should be in a rocking chair – that he’s still got it.

Cheika was a no.8 in the famous Sydney club side Randwick in the 1980-90s and although he never played for Australia, he did once take on the All Blacks in a tour match on Coogee Oval in 1988, playing alongside stars like Mark Ella, Simon Poidevin, Eddie Jones, Ewen McKenzie and David Campese.

He now makes up for missing out on top honours by throwing himself into training sessions like he’s still the same youngster with taped ears.

Cheika loves to make up numbers, running in opposition to the main side at fly-half. Before returning to Australia in 2013, he even used to take part in full contact sessions when at Leinster and Stade Francais.

This week, he packed down in the Wallabies’ reserve scrum for live practice, due to David Pocock’s injury, and Flanker Scott Fardy admitted after training that he’d eyed him off.

“He showed his ribs there at one point and I was going to put a shot on,” Fardy smiled. “But I also want to get picked this weekend, so…”

Ice and Easy

A key plank of the Michael Cheika regime is the theory that the only alternative to hard work is harder work. But the high-pressure training is proving pricey.

The Wallabies generally train twice a day and there has been no such thing as a taper-off period at the World Cup. Prop James Slipper evoked an aching image by saying: "Cheika just likes us to keep hitting the wood” – suggesting the constant pressure will eventually begin to make a dent.

Little wonder then that the Wallabies’ ice bill is going through the roof as the backroom staff work overtime after the intense training sessions.

The strength and conditioning staff have a well-oiled recovery routine that has seen the players do a pool session every day between their on-field training blocks. And players are in ice-baths more than an Arctic seal.

Travelling Pocock

If you see someone looking like the Wallabies’ David Pocock wandering around a London museum, say hello. It’ll probably be him.

Pocock is a huge fan of throwing on a backpack and getting out in his spare time to soak up the culture and history of cities he visiting while on rugby tours, and he’s been doing just that during his time in the city.

The dynamic loose forward, who is struggling with a calf injury, got his mind off rehab by attending the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum on Thursday.

If he is out and about again, very few people look like the nuggety flanker so you won’t mistake him.

Heckling the hero

Ever wonder how Bernard Foley can keep his nerve standing over a goal-kick to win a World Cup quarter-final at a hostile Twickenham? It’s because he has had plenty of practice blocking out the noise.

The Wallabies’ kicking sessions, run by former Bath and London Irish points machine Chris Malone, include scenario-drills where players have to nail a shot to win a game.

So far, so normal…but the pressure comes on when teammates and coaches then stand around the kick sledging with everything they’ve got.

“The kicking squad has good chat between each other, and they give each other good niggle when we have those situations when we try to put each other off,“ Foley said this week.

"The coaches are just as good for that too. Nathan Grey and Stephen Larkham, they’re just big kids and they enjoy trying to put you off as well. It’s all part of it, and I guess removing yourself from the context and the situation for the kick.”

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You know you’re doing well as a footy team when politicians line up to take a seat on the success bandwagon.

New Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is one, and though he hasn’t yet been seen in a wallabies tracksuit like former PM John Howard, many on social media have been urging him to wind back the clock.

Howard was Prime Minister when Australia last won in 1999 but, as English fans may well remember, he was also the sour-faced individual who handed over the Webb Ellis trophy to Martin Johnson in 2003.

Celebs and sports people are also lending their support. Nicole Kidman was in the Twickenham stands for the Scotland game, Mark Schwarzer and Mile Jedinak have been in the dressing rooms and even surfing legend Kelly Slater is due for a visit this weekend.

Secret Segway

The Wallabies appear to have been evading the police as they tear about London on mini Segways.

Through a connection of Quade Cooper, a whole group of players including Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell, Will Genia and Kurtley Beale got hooked up on the self-balancing scooters.

There’s just one problem: according to media reports the self-balancing scooter is illegal to ride on streets and pavements under part of “the Highway Act of 1835” because it is a powered vehicle.

Boss Cheika was all good with the players’ antics when asked the other day - but that was before the reports about police interest. So be warned Wallabies, be warned.

Prowling Pumas

Were it not for the shock resignation of Ewen McKenzie as Wallabies coach a year ago, Cheika may well have been sitting in the Pumas coaching box this weekend at Twickenham and answering to Miguel.

The Australian coach was heavily pursued by Argentina midway through last year, after he’d won the Super Rugby title with NSW and was contemplating his future.

Argentine powerbroker Agustin Pichot revealed this week he met with Cheika several times, including in Buenos Aires, and said: “People don’t know how close we came to signing Michael.”

But McKenzie’s decision to walk away saw the Wallabies job suddenly become open. The ARU told Cheika to name his price and Argentina were left at the altar.

French Connections

Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell may jokingly play up on their French connection by air-kissing teammates and their coach as a greeting – but the Wallabies’ Toulon connection continues to pay serious dividends.  

The pair have been able to share insights into European opponents throughout the tournament and this weekend they’ll be able to share secrets about several Toulon teammates as Argentine players Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, Nicolas Sanchez and Juan Martin Hernandez are all wearers of the red-and-black.