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Ella: Vickerman should start

Monday 04th August 2008

Tall order: Can Dan Vickerman save the Wallaby line-out?

Former Wallabies great Mark Ella believes that Dan Vickerman must be in Australia's starting line-up if they are to entertain any hopes of beating South Africa in their away leg of the Tri-Nations.

Wallaby coach Robbie Deans has used the South African-born lock sparingly in the last two weeks, cautious of to pushing Vickerman too far too soon on his return from ankle surgery.

But with the Wallaby line-out in all kinds of trouble against the All Blacks at Eden Park on Saturday, Ella feels Australia need Vickerman to run on if they are to compete against arguably the best line-out in world rugby when they embark on a two match tour of South Africa later this month.

"I think Deans has got no choice now, he's got to throw him in there," Ella told Sydney radio station 2KY .

"We've got one of the best line-out exponents in the world in Dan Vickerman, he's been injured and came on as a replacement, (but) we've got to obviously shore that up, because the South Africans are fairly good in the line-out with Victor Matfield, so we've got to get our basics right."

Vickerman was the Wallabies' best jumper in Auckland in a game where Australia lost a staggering eight line-out throws.

The 39-10 loss to the All Blacks means that Australia are likely to have to win both their away fixtures ( in Durban and Johannesburg) if they are to win the Tri-Nations for the first time since 2001.

New Zealand will take on the Springboks in Cape Town before Australia arrive in the Republic and Ella rates the All Blacks chances of winning on the road above those of the Wallabies, who have not won in South Africa since 2000.

"It will be tough and I'm not saying they can do it, but they've got probably more chance of defeating the Springboks than the Wallabies," Ella said.

"It'll be a horror trip (for the Wallabies), there's no doubt about it. Just going on past history, as much as we're bad in New Zealand, we're probably worse in South Africa."

Ella also said that young scrum-half Luke Burgess was struggling with the pace of international rugby but his and fly-half Matt Giteau's performances last Saturday must be seen in the context of a pack that was going backwards.

"I think Burgess came on to the scene with a great hullabaloo. I think he's played reasonably well. I think he's probably a little bit off the pace at the moment," he said.

"He's only a young guy, and I guess like everybody, when the forwards are doing well, you look okay.

"But what we want our players to do is, under pressure, they've got to rise to the occasion, and I think Luke Burgess was probably missing a little bit and it probably reflected on the way Matt played.

"[Giteau] didn't get a lot of good ball, the opposition flankers were on him almost immediately, and as usual, you try to overplay your game, some of his kicking was poor, it just wasn't up to the mark."