KEY POINTS:
It is not often you hear an international rugby coach bemoaning his team's lack of mental strength and saying he doesn't know what the problem is. That's what John "Knuckles" Connolly said after Australia's flattering 21-6 loss (the score could have been greater) against Ireland last week.
Overnight,
the Wallabies met Scotland in a match they were expected to win but it would be no surprise - after their 29-29 draw with Wales and a scratchy win against Italy - if they lost that, too.
Remarkably, Connolly appears unaware that the experimentation he has insisted on has damaged not only the combination of the Wallabies but also their psyche.
After the loss to Ireland - who are now the No 2-ranked team after the All Blacks - Connolly said: "We have shuffled the deckchairs around a lot and maybe what we had back in June is the best we have," he said. "You have heard me say, time and time again, how we are so loose on the field. We have to tighten our game up, as we make so many silly mistakes at the wrong time.
"I don't know whether it is a culture thing or what. We talk the talk at times but I think we can toughen ourselves up a bit. We really have to toughen up on the field... Is it a mental thing? I can't work it out."
Well, here's a couple of suggestions. We all know the Wallabies' forward platform is deeply flawed because of its scrum problems. That one cannot be laid at Connolly's door, as the problems pre-dated him and fixing it will take time, especially in a country where the scrum is de-powered in schools and not much better at club level.
But maybe, with that in mind, it wasn't a great idea to take the Wallaby backline apart and then bolt it back together in a new structure, held together by bits of string and sticking plaster.
The one success has been Matt Giteau's shining form at halfback (even though he is their most penetrative runner and passer in the backline). That is as much due to the fact that Giteau is such a world-class player, you can't help but feel he'd make a go of any position in the backline.
But other experiments have been disasters - Mat Rogers at first five-eighths, Stirling Mortlock and Lote Tuqiri paired in the centres, the preference for Phil Waugh ahead of George Smith, probably the best openside flanker in world rugby behind Richie McCaw.
All the more puzzling has been that most judges could have told Connolly he was playing with fire. The changes seem to have unsettled the Wallabies' great strength - their 9-10-12 axis - and the midfield has now become uncertain and is misfiring. The latest change is to wheel in Western Force centre Scott Staniforth, who had such a good Super 14 season this year.
But don't just take our word for it. Former Wallaby great Simon Poidevin had a crack at the team, saying they had a "rock star mentality" but were not performing like stars. Record-breaking winger David Campese said: "It was frightening to watch. I cannot believe what the backs are doing. Lote Tuqiri didn't get the ball despite moving to outside centre, the wingers didn't touch it and Chris Latham stood bored at the back."
Even Tuqiri joined the chorus, saying: "This side continues to lack the confidence to really put it on teams. We had to step up against Italy and we just didn't do that. We were talking about it in the dressing rooms, then came out, played dumb footy and got dished up right from the word go.
"There's a problem we have in not being able to back our chat up with what we do on the field. A major spur of this team is to get that mental edge, which may have been lacking in the past. We have to develop that killer punch."
While there is a case for experimentation on such a tour a year before the World Cup, it should not be at the cost of impeding the team in terms of combinations and confidence. Yet that appears to be what has happened and Australia's coach says he can't work it out.
While wisdom after the event is a cheap commodity, how much wiser would it have been to give one of the rookie halfbacks a try in their specialist position, let Giteau return to his best position and not over-egg the backline changes?
Ironically, for the match against Scotland, Connolly has returned almost to the backline which took on England in the first test of the year, back in June - with Staniforth the only addition other than Giteau's positional change.
Talk about running to stand still.
