McKenzie see the light with Folau

Hapless Aussie coach Mckenzie has obviously had an earbashing over his use of such a potent strike weopen as he is considering deploying Israel Folau at fullback in a bid to maximise his game-breaking attacking potential and keep Australia's Bledisloe Cup hopes alive.

The Wallabies must win Saturday's second Test in Wellington to avoid losing the trans-Tasman series for an 11th straight year and getting Folau more ball is one McKenzie's biggest challenges.

Wallabies great Tim Horan bemoaned how, for all the deadly weaponry at his disposal, Folau had "one of the quietest games I've ever seen from an Australian winger" in Saturday night's 47-29 shellacking at the hands of the All Blacks.

"They said they were going to target him. Well, one way of targeting him is to keep him out of the game," McKenzie said on Sunday.

"So it's up to us to find ways to keep him in the game."

Playing fullback for the NSW Waratahs, Folau was crowned Australia's Super Rugby rookie of the year in his debut season in the code, while Test rookie Jesse Mogg had a forgettable starting debut in Australia's No.15 jumper on Saturday night.

Mogg also lost his nerve when the Super Rugby final was on the line against the Chiefs and his Brumbies coach Jake White said before the international season that the 23-year-old wasn't yet ready for Test rugby.

McKenzie's dilemma now is striking the right balance if he reshuffles his backline for the do-or-die clash in New Zealand, where the Wallabies haven't won since 2001.

Moving Folau to fullback would probably require shifting Adam Ashley-Cooper, who's been one of Australia's shining lights at outside centre, to the wing and promoting another Test novice in Tevita Kuridrani to a midfield starting role.

McKenzie could also start James O'Connor, twice caught out defensively in the six-try first-Test drubbing and who also boasts a superior kicking game to Folau, at fullback.

But that would leave the dual international stranded on the wing and at risk of being under-utilised once again.

"He's played most of his rugby league career on the wing. The fullback bit has been obviously something the Tahs experimented with. We certainly don't rule out that he can play in that position and within a game he can play in that position," McKenzie said.

"So we'll be open-minded about that. He's a good player and we practised to have him involved in the game. It just didn't eventuate."

Refusing to panic, McKenzie ruled out sweeping changes and said the focus this week would be on improving the side's transition defence after the world champions scored three tries from turnovers, and also decision making and ball security.

"They're things we have to attend to but the good thing is they're easily fixed," the new coach said.

Halfback Will Genia insisted the Wallabies could still defy the odds and wrestle back the treasured Bledisloe Cup with successive wins over the All Blacks in New Zealand for the first time in a single season since 1949.

"I don't feel deflated. Not at all. There's a lot of confidence in the fact that we scored 29 points," Genia said.

"We had a heavy emphasis on attack during the week because we wanted to reinvent and refresh a few new things.

"We've just got to go away and make sure we work hard because seven days is a long time.

"It's an old cliche, but I still feel very confident. We've lost one game. We've got two more to potentially, hopefully get a trophy.

"It's only the start of the competition. You can't dwell too much in history."

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 Brycy a wing worth his salt looks for work. Fool au must be asked to explain himself. I cant recall a wing being so passive. Does he want to be in the team or is he there only for the photograghs.

McKenzie needs to pay close attnention to all Jake says and hang on every word.

But of course there are things the wobblies can fix and hopefully they will win the next test. 

Bean Brain the Wobblies have a history of putting their league converts on the wing.

Most of them get bored and go back to league.

A real waste of talent out there and why he is'nt in the centres i don't know but you have to learn the trade first i guess before they throw you in the deep end.

it was a waste of talent leaving folau on the wing, but his outstanding debut prob justifeid it in sausage links mind.

u need to remember that folau is still green as Bok jersey when it comes to union, im not surprised that he didnt go looking for work, as he had enough on his plate marking savea and just making sure he did the fundamentals right, a big game ocassion such as this can crack most big players and the lions may be the best from NH, but the All Blacks are the best period.

i thought bieber was pretty shit on the left wing too, his spent most of his time in 2013 at fullback or at flyhalf and occassionly in the centers and it showed, cos his positional play especially ondefense was crap.

mogg was useless, hard to say if hes not ready for wallaby level, cos he was playing against the All Blacks, but he needs to work on his right foot kicking game, it dosne t need to be as good as his left, but it cant be as shit as it was on sat.

leilafano wasnt perfect, but was solid enough that i think hes going to lock up the 12 jersey.

AAC was outstandiong in the No13 jersey, one of the few shining lights in a very dull backline.

toomua was crap, he looked like a little boy playing a mans game. all those comments about how toomua was better then cruden are even funnier now then they were when i first read them, bawhahahahaha, :oD
i would slap those clowns in their face, if it was so thickly covered in yucky egg, i wonder if ol sharkbok and boklogic still think toomua is better then cruden???LMAO, :oP

i think genia is losing his mojo. his try was amazing but the rest of his game as a whole was a big whoop.
not too sure whats wrong with him at the moment, but hes nothing like the genia of 2010 where he was one of the most dangrous players on the planet.
mackenzie also needs to sub him off earlier, he might not be use to doing that, but white in his first 4mins is always a solid player and fresh legs and a fresh brain to guide the forwards around might jsut be waht the dr ordered to shake things up, not by playing genia to the ground for almost the entire match.
could he need cooper for his potential to be restored???

speaking of cooper, if hes getting loud boos like that in sydney, whats going to happen in wellington??? o_O
wallys backline on attack was more on a go forward with cooper at 10, but he still made plenty of his trademark errors which show me had he plaeyd the whole 80, nothing would have changed.

wallabies backline for bledisloe 2...
9 w genia, 10 c leilafano, 11 honey badger, 12 j bieber, 13 AAC, 14 p betham, 15 i folau
21 n white, 22 q cooper, 23 j mogg

@mikey,

honey badger is the nick name of nick cummins, the western force winger/center, so when u ehar the aussies referring to badger its him theyre talking about.

a great runner of the ball, very direct and always makes meters and gets over the advantage line.

crawford had a good spXV, but hes not even in the squad i dont think and he wouldnt make it in my team either, plenty of other talent out there whose better.