RWC 2015 - Argentina vs Australia: Forget that penalty – the Aussies deserved to beat Scotland. Get the kicking and the scrum right, and they’ll beat the Pumas too

BRIAN SMITH COLUMN: Abolishing Premiership relegation would boost player development at a stroke

(2015 Getty Images)

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with a World Cup pool of death, always assuming you’re not directly connected to one of the teams involved, but it can be one hell of a distraction. Argentina’s heavy quarter-final victory over Ireland last weekend left me feeling just a little blind-sided – not because I didn’t see them as dangerous customers at the start of the tournament, but because I spent too long facing the other way and wrapping myself up in the Australia-Wales-England-Fiji conflict.

So it’s time to give the Pumas the credit they deserve for broadening their horizons and giving their rugby such a comprehensive makeover. A couple of people deserve a mention. I’ll start with Agustin Pichot, who was a puppet master of a scrum-half during his playing days and is performing the same kind of role now that he’s suited and booted – or, in his case, suited and plimsolled – and sitting at the heart of Argentine rugby governance. Next? Graham Henry, who took on an advisory role in Buenos Aires after winning the last World Cup with the All Blacks and provided the impetus for change.

Here’s a man blessed with the Midas touch, so I reckon England might do worse than get on the phone to “Ted”, as he’s known in New Zealand, and ask him if he’d consider a tour of duty at Twickenham. The Rugby Football Union could then appoint the brightest young home-grown coach available and give him a shot, secure in the knowledge that the great man would be riding shotgun. It may not happen, but it definitely makes sense as a way forward.

Speaking as a good Australian, I believe the Wallabies will end the Pumas’ run at Twickenham tomorrow and make it through to the final. The dynamics are in their favour, partly because they underperformed against Scotland last weekend and partly because Argentina delivered their big performance of the tournament on the same day and may well struggle to reproduce the high levels of intensity and execution we saw from them against Ireland. Certainly, I know who I’d rather be coaching: in the Wallaby camp, Michael Cheika will have been in bum-kicking mood all week – let’s face it, his players have given him plenty of ammo – while Daniel Hourcade has had to set a more nuanced tone with the South Americans. Believe me when I say that the first is easier than the second.

Mind you, I think the Pumas have one of the best outside-halves in the tournament – perhaps the best – in Nicolas Sanchez; indeed, there has been a lot to admire about the entire spine of the team, from Agustin Creevy at hooker to Joaquin Tuculet at full-back. I love the way they’re attempting to outscore opponents rather than outwrestle them and, whatever happens tomorrow, they’ve given a tremendous amount to the competition.

On the same kind of subject – teams playing rugby as opposed to simply hanging in there while the opposition play – I think it’s important to remind ourselves that Australia actually deserved to beat the Scots. All the positive stuff came from the Wallabies: they scored five tries, butchered a couple more and did enough with ball in hand – especially when the ball was in Kurtley Beale’s hands – to record a victory every bit as a conclusive as Argentina’s over the Irish. Had they not spent so much time messing around with their exit play, the fuss and bother over that last controversial penalty call would not have occurred.

Australia’s immediate problems to my eye surround the scrum and the goal-kicking. Scott Sio is a big loss on the loose-head side of the set piece, so James Slipper has to step up big time – no easy matter for a bloke who almost cost his country their semi-final place by chucking that soft interception pass to Mark Bennett late in the Scotland game. It is also true to say that Bernard Foley needs to get himself back on the horse in terms of his marksmanship. When you get to the last four of a major tournament, you can’t afford to miss shots at goal.

As for the first semi-final, you’ll go a long way to find a contest with a more physical edge than today’s rumble between the two traditional heavyweights of the world game. I take New Zealand to find a way through – who wouldn’t after their A-list celebrity performance last weekend, which had at least as much to do with the All Blacks’ collective attacking brilliance as it did with French defensive peculiarities? But, with South Africa in the mood to take plenty of prisoners, there’s bound to be a price to pay. I’ll be very surprised indeed if the defending champions emerge from this with a low body count.

Assuming the Blacks-Boks game is a classic of its kind and the Wallaby-Puma match catches fire at some point, there’s bound to be a renewal of the inquest into the demise of the northern hemisphere at this tournament. For what it’s worth, I’ll venture an opinion on the subject – not that the people running the European game will kill themselves in the rush to embrace the radical nature of the suggestion.

There is an undeniable logic to abolishing relegation from the Premiership, something that would improve player development at a stroke, and if you combined that with a shift to summer rugby, the effects at international level would be evident in a pretty short space of time. At the moment, the top-flight clubs have to play two different ways: one in the early autumn and mid-spring, when the playing conditions are close to acceptable; the other in the winter, when the mudheaps appear. There aren’t many sides capable of doing this effectively.

Yes, I know it rains in Dunedin and it blows a gale in Wellington. It even gets a little damp down here in Sydney every now and again. But by and large, the tracks in the southern hemisphere are far better than the ones up north. And by changing the rugby calendar and moving the sport away from the great god football, the profile will be higher too. Just a thought.

Brian Smith was England’s attack coach at the 2011 World Cup