sport

Deans backed by ARU

Robbie Deans: Still the right man...

Australian Union CEO John O'Neill publicly backed Robbie Deans on Sunday after the media went into meltdown following Australia's defeat to Scotland.

Deans has a 54 per cent success rate from his 27 matches in charge, but have won only two of the last ten internationals and even admitted he was expecting a backlash and review as he prepares for possibly the hardest of all the tour matches against Wales in Cardiff on Saturday.

"We have every confidence in Robbie Deans being the right coach for us," O'Neill said to The Australian.

However, O'Neill added that after the northern hemisphere tour, a review of the season would be held to work out what improvements had to be made to ensure the Wallabies end their slide in time for 2011.

Deans may stay, but changes below him are almost inevitable - including a close examination of some of the players who have been making Deans' job a tough one.

"The results are clearly disappointing and not acceptable," O'Neill said.

"We have two more games to go on the tour (Cardiff Blues and Wales) and rest assured we will be reviewing every aspect of this tour.

"David Nucifora, myself, Robbie Deans and the ARU board will have a good, hard look at what is going wrong.

"It will be an objective, balanced assessment of the pros and cons of this entire season. It will take in all of the Test matches starting from June and finish off with this tour.

"Everyone has to front up - the player group, the management group and the ARU administration - because I'm not sure what more we can do in terms of providing any more support."

The media was merciless on Sunday, with most saying the team was at its lowest ebb in years.

"It may be the worst Test loss by Australia since the 1973 crash to Tonga in Brisbane," the Sunday Telegraph's Jim Tucker said.

"Certainly, no Test played by the Wallabies since has been frittered away with such dominance of possession, territory and genuine chances."

The Sun-Herald's Greg Growden said it was the Wallabies' worst defeat of the professional (post-1995) era.

"The Wallabies had untold attacking opportunities to defeat a second-rate Scotland team who basically just defended and defended all night to win this game," Growden said.

"This is one of the most inexplicable moments in Australian rugby history and without doubt their worst moment of the professional era."

World Cup-winning coach Bob Dwyer said Australia's lack of technique in most aspects of the game was apparent against Scotland.

"I think we're really struggling," Dwyer said.

"I think one of our giant problems is we don't have a second row of top international class.

"We haven't got any and apart from that our attack has gone to pieces, it's poor in the extreme."

Wallaby great Tim Horan said the Australians appeared unable to finish teams off.

"I certainly think that the Wallabies have a foundation and are close to a World Cup-winning team," Horan said.

"But they just can't seem to finish teams off, that's a critical factor in a Test match going forward.

"I just think we're not backing our counter-attack as much as what we should be."