England's leading clubs could learn a thing or two from this year's Tri-Nations according to The Independent's Peter Bills.
"Last weekend in Australia witnessed a quite extraordinary statistic, one of the most remarkable the old game can ever have known.
"In a major rugby Test match, one outside half kicked the ball just ONCE in the entire 70 minutes he was on the field. Quade Cooper of Australia is renowned as a player who likes to keep the ball in hand. Yet it wasn't just the Wallaby No. 10 who scorned the use of the boot.
"The entire Australian team managed to put boot to ball just 11 times in the whole match against the South Africans in Brisbane. What is more, the previous two weeks, the All Blacks had similarly adopted a running policy against the Springboks, outscoring them by eight tries to two.
"Figures such as this would doubtless send shock waves through English rugby where such innovative thinking is shunned, with the exception of a few notable club sides. But those who are wise in the northern hemisphere will take great heed of this year's Tri-Nations tournament and learn valuable lessons from it."
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