It might be unfair to compare the two games. One was in the wet against a North American team known for their niggle and their traditional style of play. The other was in the warm French sun against the wizards of the South Pacific. But both had very similar look and feel: a far below average performance from a Wallaby side, due to a number of factors. Indeed, I could easily write a match report for both, change a few names, and submit them. As I was too lazy to write a Fijian match report, the happy outcome is both games were equally crappy, so here I am.

I guess a major point with my negativity is the selectors. Quite frankly after Wales, the sensible strategy would have been to put out the second XV against Fiji, then give the First XV time together against Canada leading into the QF, regardless of our prospective opponent. This is especially true when a lot of our second string blokes have only played one full game of rugby each in the last 2-3 months.

With a largely first string side against Fiji, we decided (as Ireland did against Namibia) that we could simply throw the ball to our backs and forget about smashing the Fijian 2nds pack off the pill. As others have suggested, we genuinely missed Mortlock to give us a bit of direction in midfield but with players like Ashley-Cooper starting and Staniforth off the bench, you'd think we could carve up a bit in midfield, but the big problem we faced was some clean ball at the breakdown and some fairly ordinary passing by Gregan. Beyond that, we didn't really give it to them in the forwards like other nations would have. The mauling and ruck work we did against Japan was nearly nonexistent, and the placement of Chisholm in our second row did not reproduce the form he showed for the Brumbies.

We put out a largely second XV against Canada, and again we failed to click until a few  minutes from fulltime when the Maple Leafs were out on their feet. I have to say at this point that I've seen Canada live a couple of times and what always stands out is their concrete commitment to niggle the bejeezus right out of you. They love nothing more than putting you off your game, with guys like Morgan Williams and Mike James to get stuck in and use their years of experience from playing all over the world to piss you off. Again, with a mix of first- and second-string players running around, it looked at some points like these blokes had never met until they got on the bus to the game. Conditions didn't help of course, but there are few excuses for professional players I reckon.

The upshot of the whole thing is we're not looking near as good as some would have us believe. The high polish we put on the Wallabies after Japan has tarnished somewhat, and I think it breaks down to a few of rugby's basics:

• The scrum still hasn't been fixed. Against Canada, Baxter was getting outsmarted by the old fox Rod Snow, though I will say Chris White is a complete abortion of a referee, even for a Pom.
• The lineout was OK, but we're not launching a hell of a lot off it. The maul against Canada and Fiji was OK (better against Canada).
• The backline just didn't flow in either game. There were moments where the passes stuck and the backs looked good, but in general there was very little first-phase attack of the kind we produced earlier in the year.
• Our ruck work continues to be pathetic. For a team that relies so much on quick ball for a backline attack, we're gunna get mullered without it
• Funnily enough, our kicking game appears to be in pretty good shape. Berrick Barnes in particular has shown some keen form here.
• Similarly, our offload game looks pretty good when we've got the right blokes on the park