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PARIS - One of the crying shames about the rugby World Cup was not seeing the exciting Australian backline feature in the latter stages of the 20-nation tournament.
They positively oozed class, like the All Blacks, but elimination in the quarter-final at the hands of old enemy England, and France for New Zealand, put paid to any more glimpses of their silky skills.
In the absence of injured playmaker Stephen Larkham, the Wallaby backs were led magnificently by Berrick Barnes at outside-half, at 21 the youngest member of their 30-man squad and a real talent for the future.
While the now-retired George Gregan's waning powers were sometimes shown up at scrum-half, Chris Latham remained an ever-dangerous threat at full-back, Matt Giteau proved a perfect foil for Barnes at inside centre and midfield partner Stirling Mortlock led by example.
Winger Drew Mitchell scored seven tries, Adam Ashley-Cooper looked an impressive attacker, while Lote Tuqiri at last refound his nose for the line.
But for all their talents, the Wallabies, World Cup winners in 1991, lost 12-10 to England in a tense quarter-final in Marseille, their forwards unable to cope with the unrelenting pressure of a rejuvenated England pack that struggled early on in the tournament.
More acute for Australia was that for the third time in tournament history it was bitter rivals England who who were their World Cup executioner.
Rob Andrew's drop goal dumped them out in the quarter-finals of the 1995 World Cup in South Africa and Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal won England the 2003 final in extra time in Sydney.
This time the Australians were rattled by resurgent England, flustered into errors and failed to find any attacking flow, despite scoring the only try of the match through Tuqiri.
"At no stage did we control the breakdown in any shape or form," said coach John Connolly, who stepped down after the World Cup.
"We were always on the back-foot, when we did get on the front foot we were dangerous, but we were flustered and we lost a fair bit of composure and made uncharacteristic errors, things we pride ourselves on not doing."
Australia sailed through the pool stages, despatching Japan (91-3), Wales (32-20) in Cardiff, an under-strength Fiji (55-12) and Canada (37-6), but their front five were never really tested.
The true exam came in the last-eight clash, and Phil Vickery, Mark Regan and Andy Sheridan tormented the hapless Wallaby front-row.
Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones blamed Connolly for Australia's shock World Cup exit, saying it had been a mistake to name Mortlock as captain over Gregan, arguing that the scrum-half would have provided the leadership so needed in the decisive game.
Connolly replaced Jones two years ago and there has been no love lost between the pair, particularly since Jones signed up as an adviser to South Africa for this year's tournament.
The Australian Rugby Union are on the lookout for a new coach after Connolly's departure, and prime candidates include the Canterbury Crusaders' Robbie Deans, while current South Africa coach Jake White has also expressed interest.
Other coaches believed to be on the ARU's shortlist include Auckland's David Nucifora, the NSW Waratah's Ewen McKenzie, ACT Brumbies' Laurie Fisher and Wallabies assistant coaches Scott Johnson and John Muggleton.
What awaits is them is the development of more combative front-five players who can cope with the physicality and pressure of graft at the coalface of modern rugby.
Mortlock, who missed three penalties in the England game and would not rule himself out of playing at the next World Cup in New Zealand in 2011, argued, however, that the future for the Wallabies looked promising.
"For a lot of our crew probably two-thirds of the team are extremely young and the way the guys came through this World Cup I thought the future is extremely good," he said.
"But you have to use what happened (against England), the big occasion and our inability to play our game, as something we have to learn and hopefully we'll grow from that."
- AFP
