Wallabies' defensive attitude crumbled under Robbie Deans, says guru John Muggleton Robbie Deans killed the Wallabies defensive attitude. Picture: Mark Kolbe. THE man who helped Australia tackle their way to the 1999 Rugby World Cup says years of neglect under Robbie Deans and a lack of urgency have contributed to the worst defensive start to a season in modern Wallaby history. Among the many alarm bell-ringing issues plaguing the Wallabies, a porous defence is the most damaging. In six Test matches this year, the Wallabies have bled a whopping 191 points, which is 45 points more than the next highest tally for the opening six matches of a season (146 in 1972). The 1923 Wallabies gave up 142 points, but adjusting the 30 three-point tries they let in up to five points would see them just shade the current side. Conceding an average of 31.8 points per game, the current Wallabies are tracking over eight points above than the previous worst season averages of 23 points per game in 1997, 2005 and 2010. Dubious records roll off the page like late Springbok tries; including 112 points conceded so far in the Rugby Championship being an 18-year high, and losing four Tests in a row by more than 10 for the first time since 1907. The horror show has cast a spotlight on the work of defence coach Nick Scrivener, but former Wallabies defence guru John Muggleton says the problem is a result of neglect in recent history, and the new expansive game plan under Ewen McKenzie. "From experience in different places I have coached where they have the same mantra as the Wallabies have now, as being a full-on attacking team who run the ball at every opportunity, the flip side of that is you are going to give the opposition a heap of opportunities if you turn the ball over," Muggleton said. If you look at the All Blacks, they score a lot of points but they don't give a lot away either. If you are going to be a good attacking team, you have to be a good defensive team. Muggleton said the key to minimising damage done on turnover ball is immediate "urgency" to re-form in defence. That, and turning the ball over far less than their average of 20 a game. "The All Blacks turn over the ball a bit but their desire to get straight into defence in that situation, which is going from unstructured to structured sort of defence is second to none," he added. Their urgency is great in those next two phases. The hardest part is getting the same urgency in defence as you have to attack. You see how a try is scored and see how a bloke sprints 40 metres into position to take a last pass. That sort of desire to be in position in defence has to be there as well. You have to work as much on defence as you do on attack. Muggleton joined the Wallabies under Rod Macqueen in 1998, and just a year after conceding an average of 23 points, had the Wallabies only giving up 13.4 points per game. A year later - conceding just 13.9 per Test - they won the World Cup. The former Kangaroos forward said a focus on individual skill in defence played a big part in the turnaround; the same skills he believes were allowed to atrophy in the Deans era. "Certainly in Robbie Deans" time they went away from the individual skillset of defence; your tackling technique, your tracking and being in right positions to make the tackle. I can't speak for the current Wallabies but under Robbie Deans, that wasn't done as well as it should have been," he said. Playing that brand of football, there is a skill level that needs to be there defensively as well. Muggleton said the Wallabies - and fans - should "have faith" in their attacking direction but focus on playing smarter and working harder when it comes to defence to turn the tide. "Turnovers are the number one source of tries, and second is kicking," Muggleton said. If you are going to be that sort of attacking team, you have to have two things: a very definite kicking plan, and you have to work really hard on two phases after a turnover. If you threw a third one in, and this is a trap they can fall into, if you put too many blokes into defensive breakdowns, then that leaves you short in defence as well. Everybody just has to have faith. If they believe in what they're going to do, ignore what people are saying, work hard and it'll come along. Changing a whole style of football for a team, the results are not going to come immediately. It is going to be a road that has a few bumps in it.