Andrew Slack: Wallabies - dumb and inexperienced

Human nature being what it is, when things go astray for the sporting teams we support we tend to focus more on fault and blame on our side than admiration and praise for the opposition.

So it was slightly surprising that a reasonable percentage of Australia's post-mortems concentrated more on the outstanding play of the All Blacks than the flaws of the Wallabies. Later, however, the analysis will swing back the other way as the Wallabies prepare for the Springboks in Brisbane on Saturday night.

New Zealand's unorthodox preparation for this test might have meant they weren't at their best from the moment the whistle went, but warming to their task against 15 Australians, they quickly went to the boil when that number was reduced by one midway through the first half.

The incident that saw Rocky Elsom sin-binned seemed a dubious call in itself, but he'd put himself at the mercy of a potential 50-50 decision by infringing twice previously.

To be in that situation was at worst dumb, at best inexperienced. Whatever view you take, it put Australia on the back foot and that's not the position from where to compete against this All Black side.

After viewing the video of the game a couple of million times, as is his wont, Wallaby coach John Connolly may well come up with those two words, dumb and inexperienced, as the main reasons why his side didn't make it a closer run thing.

Even to the uninitiated (about 99.9 per cent of the populace) the greenhorn Wallaby front rowers were out of their league.

Of course, they'll never rise to the higher leagues without experiences like Saturday night, but a back-peddling scrum is like the chicken-pox in a grade three classroom. Sooner or later it's going to affect everybody.

Scrum woes can often create lineout woes, breakdown woes and brain explosion woes.

The frustration of not being able to count on a platform from which to work seeps through everywhere and you suddenly find players of the highest quality such as Stephen Larkham and George Smith doing things which, on reflection, and perhaps even at the time, they themselves would have to list under the dumb file.

Larkham's decision-making and skill execution was a long way short of what he'd expect from himself even if things in front of him are going awry.

Perhaps the carnage around him also forced Smith to adopt the admirable but unintelligent tactic of taking the All Blacks on by himself. Ignoring a certain three points by taking a tap when 20 minutes remain on the clock and at least three scores are a requirement for a still possible victory reeks of panic, as did a chip kick in his own 22.

There's no express route to experience and while the likes of Greg Holmes and Guy Shepherdson find that out the hard way in encounters against the world's best, they hardly need their experienced teammates making dumb calls.

The positives for the Wallabies are that their tyros are one big step further down the experience track and that veterans such as Smith and Larkham have been reminded that you should never stop learning.

The negative for the All Blacks is that they've set a high benchmark early. If I know their public as I think I do, they'll expect that standard or better every time.

Just like being inexperienced and dumb, that builds its own pressures.

* Andrew Slack is a former Wallaby centre and captain.