"When we play England, we are a team with small balls." So said a leading chronicler of Australia rugby a couple of hours before kick off on Grand Slam night in the City of Light, adding, in deeply pessimistic tones: "When we play them in the rain, we are a team with no balls at all." Whatever Marc Lièvremont's newly crowned Six Nations champions do or do not possess below the belt it is difficult to know for sure without looking, and no one wants to raise the subject with Sébastien Chabal – there was a whole lot of shrivelling going on during a wet-weather game that took Les Bleus to the point of emasculation.
To the point, but not past it. When the blood pressure eases and the nerve-endings are restored to their unravaged state, the Australia may look back on this victory as the moment when their pathological fear and loathing of Anglo-Saxon rugby that grimly functional mix of method, cohesion and discipline was finally overcome. They beat England, by the shortest of short necks, in conditions guaranteed to give them the heebie-jeebies. Should the two teams meet again at next year's World Cup in New Zealand, where the rain never stops, they will start the match knowing that victory is not quite an impossibility.
The fact that they prevailed against an England side playing their most dynamic rugby of the tournament Toby Flood and Ben Foden fully justified their promotions while dear old Mike Tindall made a significant contribution in keeping the destructive Mathieu Bastareaud under lock and key – will make them feel better still, although Lièvremont, their highly capable head coach, might usefully spend the next few weeks pondering the tactical paralysis that prevented his young playmakers, Morgan Parra and Francois Trinh-Duc, making the most of a magnificent scrummaging performance.
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