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It's an easy ride off the pine according to Nic White

Wallabies super-subs Nic White and Matt To'omua. (Photo by Cameron Spencer / Getty Images)

Nic White has warned critics not to get carried away with the starring form of Wallabies bench players at the Rugby World Cup.

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Australia’s phenomenon of slow starts and strong finishes has applied through both games in Japan and prompted the two-time champions to go looking for reasons why before they meet Uruguay in Oita on Saturday.

The pattern has also created a stark divide when assessing player form in both the win over Fiji and loss to Wales.

Halfback White is a prime example. He was criticised for his display from the opening whistle against Fiji, particularly after positional rival Will Genia calmed proceedings off the bench.

The roles were reversed against the Welsh, with starting No.9 Genia failing to tick boxes while substitute White was all energy.

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Matt Toomua was fortunate to come off the bench in both games and is now being held up as the best five-eighth starting option following the jittery early form of playmakers Christian Lealiifano and Bernard Foley.

White reckoned bench players may be shining because their arrival coincides with defenders starting to wobble in Japan’s humid conditions.

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“In these conditions, everyone gets pretty tired and you’re coming on with fresh legs so it’s exciting,” he said.

“Willy had really good pay in the first week and obviously there was some tired bodies on the weekend and I came on.

“The beauty of sitting on the bench is you get to look at the game and Matty saw that flattening up and playing on top of them (Wales) with his hard running could potentially help the team and it did. It’s just different for the finishers.”

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White wondered if the Wallabies had been too keen to play at pace from the opening whistle, suggesting they may ease back on the accelerator.

The old adage of earning the right to go wide applied, said White, who felt the Wallabies boast an in-form pack they can play conservative rugby behind if need be.

“Certainly I don’t think it’s a case of us not being ready or wanting it. Maybe we’re too excited and just have to build into the game a bit more and maybe show a bit more restraint,” White said.

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“As you’ve seen towards the back end of the game there’s a lot of tired bodies that are out there and that’s maybe the time to move the ball around and play our style.”

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Could Jamie Joseph be on the verge of extending his stay in Japan?:

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J
JW 36 minutes ago
Let's be real about these All Blacks

I didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.


What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.


Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.


There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..

Whilst these All Blacks aren’t blowing teams off the park like during the 2010s, they are nuggety and resourceful and don’t wilt. They are prepared to win the hard way, accumulating points by any means necessary.

and..

The other top sides in the world struggled to put them away. France and South Africa both could have well been defeated on home soil.

I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍

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