Stirling Mortlock knows a few things about pressure, about lining up a goal-kick with the weight of a nation on your shoulders. In 10 years and 80 caps with the Wallabies he knocked over more than 100 shots at goal and amassed nearly 500 points. A prolific point-scorer, the winger-cum-centre broke records to be the fastest Australian to reach 50 and then 100 Test points and his career included the 2003 and 2007 World Cups.
One of his high points was undoubtedly a historic sideline conversion on full-time that gave the Wallabies their first Tri-Nations victory in 2000. Nailed out wide in front a baying crowd at Durban’s King’s Park, the strike sealed a famous win over South Africa and came three months after Mortlock had missed four from nine attempts as the Brumbies crashed to the Crusaders in the Super Rugby final.
Mortlock showed the path to goal-kicking redemption, the art of mental toughness and holding your nerve at such a key moment. And the outside back likes what he sees when it comes to Australia’s current pressure-kicker, five-eighth Bernard Foley. “Where he’s come from to even now, consistently when Bernie’s been in positions where he’s needed to step up he has,” Mortlock says. “I’ve got full confidence in the amount of work that he’s put in and the confidence in himself. You can tell his team-mates back him 100%, that’s fantastic.”
It was Foley’s kick in the rainy final seconds, after referee Craig Joubert’s controversial call, that handed the Wallabies the closest of quarter-final victories over Scotland. But it was also the playmaker’s wayward earlier kicking in that same match, where he could only convert two of Australia’s five tries, that helped the Scots stay in the fight.
In contrast Scottish skipper Greig Laidlaw nailed seven from eight attempts to keep the Scots’ foot on Australia’s throat right up until full-time. Despite his earlier troubles, Foley still managed to bounce back and deliver at the telling point amid a hostile, parochial crowd more reminiscent of Murrayfield than Twickenham.
“That’s the mettle he’s already shown he has,” Mortlock says. “The ability to be composed under pressure, to execute, he’s done it time and time again already. As a kicker you never get all your goals, it’s more about putting yourself each time in that moment to maximize your chance of success, and I think Bernard does that really, really well. But, what goes through my mind, you wouldn’t want anyone else to step up. I think he’s in a really good space with his kicking.”
It’s often mused that you need an accurate goal-kicker and a solid defence to win a World Cup, and history tends to back up that mantra: the dead-eyed Kiwi Grant Fox in 1987, Wallaby Michael Lynagh in 1991, the precision of Springbok Joel Stransky in 1995, Australian Matt Burke in 1999, England’s drop-goal freak Jonny Wilkinson in 2003, South African pair Percy Montgomery and Francois Steyn in 2007 and then back-up fly-half Stephen Donald four years ago in New Zealand.
In Foley Australia have a kicker who was perfect in seven shots against England and missed one attempt each in the matches with Fiji and Wales. While his return of four from seven against Scotland was not outstanding, he still has a 80.7% accuracy rate in this tournament and a record of delivering at the right time. Last year on the stroke of full-time he knocked over a 45-metre kick to give the Waratahs their maiden Super Rugby crown.
Mortlock believes that in Foley, like Lynagh, Burke and even John Eales in the past, the Wallabies have their man: “I’ve always rated Bernie as a 10. I think Foley’s got just the right balance and composure to be a very well-composed call up to the team. It’s very easy to look back last week and see when the moment was there, he came up and stepped up. And it never looked like missing, it was absolutely threaded. I’ve got huge amount of confidence in him as a player and likewise as a kicker.”
Against Argentina a deadly Foley, and another committed defensive display, will be required to reach a record fourth World Cup final. The Wallabies weren’t at their best against Scotland and meet a foe in the semi-final that have talent and experience across the park. A complete performance will be needed to get past a proud and plucky Los Pumas. “In some ways you can take a bit of a positive out of the fact that the Scotland game was such a tight, fierce battle that we only, in the end, were very lucky to get the win,” Mortlock admits. “It was a big scare for everyone.”
With injury clouds over three key players, Australia won’t have it all their own way. While history is on the Wallabies side, as the South Americans have never reached a World Cup decider, that will count for little on Sunday. Argentina are riding a wave of emotion, emerging as the neutral’s favourite, that will be hard to stop. Mortlock believes the meticulous Michael Cheika and his wily scrum coach, the former Pumas hooker Mario Ledesma, will have the Wallabies primed.
“They won’t be ambushed or as taken back by the level of intensity and how well the Argentinians play,” the 38-year-old says. |In particular they’ll be ready for a real battle at the breakdown and set-piece, because the Argentinians absolutely pride themselves on their scrum.
“And they’ll be aware how good these outside backs are. I feel as though, yes it’s going to be a massive, intense game, and both teams are really expansive and positive with the ball in hand. So I think it’s going to be high-scoring affair, but I don’t think the Wallabies will be surprised by the desire or the ability or the intensity that the Argentinians bring.”
