The Wallabies have progressed in all the key performance categories where they needed an upgrade, and they would not have been able to achieve it without more players being \u2018fit for duty\u2019 at a higher level of performance.<\/p>\n
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The Wallabies are now able to keep more of the ball for longer periods, and with ball-control comes mounting pressure on the defence and more penalty rewards from the referee. Australia currently sit top of the table at a healthy +11 in the penalties awarded\/conceded differential at the halfway stage of the tournament.<\/p>\n
The Wallabies are also winning at the pointy end, getting significantly stronger in the final 20 minutes of the game.<\/p>\n
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Where Australia required an average of 49 rucks to score a try in the 2024 Rugby Championship, and 38 to score one versus the Lions, their scoring potential in the 2025 tournament thus far has exploded: one score for every seven rucks set, with 11 of their 13 tries coming in four phases or fewer and 54% converted from unstructured situations outside set-piece.<\/p>\n
Even the defence is on a steady upward curve, with Australia dropping under three tries per game conceded for the first time since Schmidt\u2019s tenure began.<\/p>\n
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The imminent return of Allan Alaalatoa<\/a> at tight-head prop should encourage Schmidt to accelerate improvement by experimenting with his starters and finishers in the front row. Triple A\u2019s leadership and work rate is needed on the field for at least 45-50 minutes, which would mean a start for the Brumbies man with Taniela Tupou<\/a> firing off the bench for the final 20-30 minutes.<\/p>\n AAA should be joined in the starting front row by Brandon Paega-Amosa and Angus Bell. Bell scored the game-winning try against the Pumas, and one of the more extraordinary stats to emerge from the first three rounds of TRC 2025 is the big Waratah loose-head leads all Wallaby forward ball-carriers with 23 runs, despite finishing the game rather than starting it. The raw stats are startling.<\/p>\n Although he comes off the pine, Bell is the real workhorse carrier, averaging six more carries than Bobby Valetini and eight more than skipper Harry Wilson<\/a> during his time on the paddock. Bell and Alaalatoa on the field together represent the ideal combination of one carrying prop and one cleaner, and that mix could be mirrored by the pairing of Aidan Ross<\/a> and the Tongan Thor off the bench.<\/p>\n In the men\u2019s game, Australia\u2019s comeback victory over the Pumas showed guts and mental toughness. In the women\u2019s version, the Wallaroos honed the other side of Australian rugby\u2019s traditionally gleaming double-edged sword with the clarity of their tactical vision in the first 35 minutes against John Mitchell\u2019s England.<\/p>\n Although they eventually succumbed to a 47 -7 defeat against the tournament favourites, they gave the Red Roses all the problems they could handle in the first half-hour. Where the uptick in the men\u2019s fortunes has been engineered by a Kiwi, in the women\u2019s game the fires have been stoked by an ex-Red Rose captain and native of Clee Hill in Shropshire, Jo Yapp. As Red Rose skipper-for-the-day, and ex-Worcester Warrior Alex Matthews<\/a> explained: \u201cI think \u2018Yappy\u2019 is all about the human, all about the person, which I think a few years ago was quite new to the game. [It is all about] the cultures she creates and the amount of work that she will put in for the girls. She genuinely cares for you. Look at Worcester and the journey they went through [before the club folded]. The group stuck by her, which speaks volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n During her time coaching the England<\/a> Under-20s, Yapp mentored all three of England\u2019s current number 10s at the World Cup [Holly Aitchison, Helena Rowland<\/a> and Zoe Harrison] and it was her tutelage of 20-year-old Wallaroo fly-half Faitala Moleka<\/a> which was the key to Australia\u2019s early grip on the game.<\/p>\n Yapp and her coaching panel had clearly identified situations where the last England defender on the left edge could be coaxed up prematurely into the line and leave full-back Ellie Kildunne<\/a> isolated in the backfield.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As soon as play crosses midfield to the right side, Moleka waits for the trigger moment when England\u2019s last defender on the left joins the line from the backfield. At that moment she knows Kildunne will have too much space to cover on her own and the 50\/22 turnover kick will be \u2018on\u2019 if she has the skills to exploit it. She does.<\/p>\n It was one of a salvo of 50\/22s which gave the Wallaroos a dominant territorial footprint in the first 35 minutes, with all of them directed at the left side of the England defence.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The first is kicked direct from scrum by 21-year-old scrum-half Samantha Wood, then the kicking game is back in the hands, or rather the educated feet of Moleka. That seamless tie between the clear tactical vision of the coaches and the skills execution by the players on the field is a happy echo of Australian rugby at its very finest.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Why-Australia-is-on-the-up-for-2027-2-1024x365.png.webp\")
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