Ashes Redemption

The day has nearly arrived, tomorrow Australia and England will reignite the Ashes battle. Australia was narrowly defeated in England last time and has had time to lick their wounds and evaluate what went wrong. The Australian Test team quickly overcame their Ashes loss to put together a string of impressive series victories. England has done little post-Ashes to back up their impressive form against Australia.

Essentially, Australia has become a much improved team and England has gone backwards. The Australian team has endured plenty of jibes from retired English cricketers claiming they are too old and past their best. Statistically these comments are completely fallacious and it is evident to even the most ignorant spectator that Australia have improved greatly and many seem to be getting better with age. The addition of Mark Hussey, who debuted at Test level after scoring thousands and thousands of first class runs, is testament of this. Matty Hayden continues to churn out over 1000 Test runs a calendar year and Ricky Ponting has become the world’s best batsmen.

England however, has not risen to the great heights some expected following their Ashes glory. The once potent bowling attack lacks the venom it had and their batsmen aren’t exuding confidence. Last time England were in Australia Michael Vaughan stood up to give them some respectability, looking through the line-up it’s difficult to see who will provide the inspiration this time. In spite of this England holds the Ashes. However, looking at the Australian team and the brilliant form most of their players are displaying it seems hard to fathom anything other than a comprehensive Australian victory.

England will need to rise to a level far beyond what they managed in the last Ashes series, as Australia will be ready and waiting to gain redemption and cement once more their place as the best Test team of all time.

Ridiculous Rotations

In the aftermath of Saturday night’s shock loss to Great Britain much has been said about Australia’s controversial rotation policy. Australian coach Ricky Stuart compared the resting of some players to give other squad members some game time to taking out insurance. His theory is that if one of the Australian players is injured he will have match-ready replacements to step in and fill the void. Stuart has been adamant from the start of the Tri-Nations tournament that he will not cheapen the Australian jersey. However, by essentially choosing substitute players in positions where the best players have been rested, Stuart has indeed cheapened the jersey.

The argument can be examined from both sides of the coin. Stuart could be commended for looking ahead, planning for possible injury problems and ensuring Australia are ready for the final. Realistically though, Stuart simply cannot be commended for resting fit and ready Australian players from pulling on the Australian jersey. Captain Darren Lockyer has played over 30 rugby league matches this season. Hypothetically, were he asked to be rested he would no doubt be justifiably angry. As the key player in the Australian team, he was never going to be rested or rotated. Looking at his halves partner in Australia’s first and second game, Jonathon Thurston, he has grounds to be understandably annoyed.

If anyone was to be rested surely it shouldn’t have been the halfback. This year Thurston combined with Lockyer to bring home the Origin shield and his form in 2006 should have ensured him the place as Australia’s halfback, barring only a notable form slump. Following his late-season knee injury Thurston had spent weeks out of the game without match-play. Common sense suggests he should be getting as many matches before the Tri-Nations final as possible. More matches would allow him to form a better combination with the team and fully regain his match-fitness. In spite of that Stuart gave Ben Hornby a start at halfback. Perhaps if it was Cooper Cronk, who mounted a solid challenge to Thurston as a regular NRL halfback, that was given a start then it could be justified. Instead Hornby, a great utility player but not a regular halfback was selected.

Looking at another of Australia’s selection rotations it gets harder to support Stuart. Justin Hodges, arguably the NRL’s most in-form player was rested for Jamie Lyon. Lyon, hasn’t played in the NRL for years and although he played in England, their club standard can hardly be compared to the NRL. Matt King and Andrew Ryan were two other Australian players that can feel hard done by, surrendering their spot for the Great Britain match.

Looking at the rotation argument after the Great Britain win, it is even harder to justify Stuart’s stance. The rotations served to further undermine Australia’s cohesion in both attack and defence. There were numerous times when the Australian defensive line didn’t operate as one. At one stage Lyon came up in defence leaving a yawning gap which Great Britain exploited with a try. It was only Great Britain’s inability to finish and their lack of vision that ensured they didn’t rack up a sizeable score. The Australian attack was disjointed to say the least and frequent errors cost them any chance of mounting sustained pressure. The poor form of Australia can’t be solely contributed to the positional changes, but changing a winning team certainly didn’t help.

Now Great Britain will be full of confidence, Australia have to go back to the drawing board and have done far more harm to their Tri-Nations chances then good by resting or rotating their players. Stuart has also been lambasted for his amazing decision to re-arrange half the Australian team following the injury to centre Mark Gasnier. Stuart could have simply shifted Shaun Berrigan from hooker to centre and Cameron Smith from the bench to hooker. Instead he changed his halfback, five-eighth, fullback, wing and centre. Surely his contingency plan for an injured player couldn’t have been to rotate half the team. It seems rotation is a word Stuart will want to erase from his memory.