As the Wallabies gear up for their next clash against the All Blacks in Auckland, Drew Mitchell has dropped a tactical bombshell aimed at exploiting the psychological edge. With the All Blacks reeling from a hefty defeat to the Springboks, Mitchell believes Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt should shake things up by starting some key substitutes to intensify the pressure from the get-go.
Mitchell, a veteran of 71 tests, suggested on The KOKO Show with Matt Giteau that leveraging the strength of players like Angus Bell from the start could rattle the All Blacks early in the game. "To the last point we were talking about, around some of those guys off the bench starting, because New Zealand didn’t have the greatest second half last week, if you maybe put pressure on them early all of a sudden you could maybe open up a couple of fresh wounds from last weekend and a couple of those doubts creep in where the start is now even more crucial," Mitchell explained.
"If you come out in the first 20 and a Bell, these guys go out there and they find themselves, let’s just say for example it could be 14-0 after 20 (minutes) or something in a perfect world for us and then all of a sudden they [New Zealand] start to think, ‘ah s***, here we go again’."
Mitchell's strategy leverages the Wallabies' recent pattern of strong second-half performances, particularly highlighted by their near comeback against the Pumas and victories when their impactful substitutes take the field. The idea is to start with what is usually their finishing squad to deal an early psychological blow.
Giteau, while partial to seeing Bell's impact later in games, acknowledged the potential benefits of this strategy. "I like Bell in the second half, there is a huge impact when he comes on," Giteau admitted. "But that first Test against South Africa, the All Blacks were 14 points up real quick, their first couple of plays worked and you just build and feed off that. Like any good team, if you get into a good lead, you just keep the foot on the throat. If we are able to start fast, yeah [to starting the subs]!"
With the Wallabies leading the Rugby Championship and heading into a historically challenging venue, the suggestion by Mitchell to disrupt the typical game flow could indeed be the mental edge needed to topple the All Blacks at Eden Park, a fortress where they have remained unbeaten since 1994.