No more wobbly Wallabies, says bullish Deans
The Australians came into this series with the Lions amid fears they might be undercooked having not played any prior warm-up games while the perception was the tourists had an edge after playing six tour matches ahead of the first Test.
Two very narrow contests in Brisbane and Melbourne, with just one point separating the sides and the series level at 1-1, have belied those preconceptions and Deans believes the Wallabies are only going to get better in Sydney tomorrow.
“I think this will be our best performance, without a doubt,” the Australia head coach said. “It’s been coming. In the second half last week we started to get some rhythm, combinations started to kick in. The Lions will intend to deny us, deny us the ball we can use and field position. They will try to spend a lot of the time with the ball in their own hands and sap the energy from our legs. But either way, this will be our best performance.”
Deans has made just one change to side which scraped home 16-15 in last Saturday’s second Test, bringing in veteran flanker George Smith at openside and demoting Michael Hooper to the bench, the 32-year-old having faced the Lions on their last visit to Australia in 2001 and not played a Test since 2009.
Ironically, the Lions have opted to jettison their one survivor from the 2001 series, Warren Gatland having dropped Brian O’Driscoll.
“It would have been a great sign-off for Brian because he’s a legend of the game,” Deans said. “I have no doubt that he understands the nature of the industry. He’s been around long enough to know that. He’s been part of many Lions series so it would have been a fitting send off for him, but he’ll also have perspective because he’s a quality bloke.
“He’ll be disappointed and from our perspective it’s a little bit of experience gone.
“Those are decisions that aren’t made lightly and Warren will have given it due consideration and believes what he has put together will serve him better.
“We’d anticipated that he’d be there, but we haven’t spent the time and consideration that the Lions staff will on the matter.”
Deans refused to reveal whether the Wallabies were happier to see O’Driscoll out of the matchday squad for tomorrow’s series decider, instead saying: “We’ve got a lot of respect for Brian. He’s stung us in the past, 2009, scored in the last minute to deny us, to get the draw. He’s a class player, a class bloke but I guess the Lions have the luxury to be able to pick from a lot of experience.”
Deans did, though, appreciate the difficulty for coaches in reaching difficult selection decisions and the inevitable reaction which followed those big calls, often the case of the head ruling the heart.
“It’s part of it. That interest is great. It doesn’t make it any easier, but the fact that there is so much opinion, so much controversy, with tough calls being made it means you’ve got choice. That’s what we’re tasked to do, clear the track, find a way through, find a way to succeed.
“You need to keep coming back to not doing the right thing but doing what’s right. There’s a big difference. And of course not everyone will agree on it.
“But we get a brief time in this game, so we want to make the most of it and that’s what Warren is looking to do. It’s a totally understandable decision from him. To suggest there’s no heart in it is probably stretching it a little bit.”
With the Lions selecting a team that appears to suggest a physical battle, Deans has picked six forwards and only two backs on his replacements’ bench to counter that expected intensity but he said that did not rule out an expansive game.
“They can go hand in hand, physical and running. That Six Nations fixture (between Wales and England), have a look at that, it had everything. It was a physical contest for 60 minutes and then finished up being a running contest for the last 20. It will have everything.”
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