GRAND SHAM??

How quickly the tide can turn.

I'm referring to the Wallabies -- the hapless Wallabies. As we huddled around our heaters during the Australian winter, Robbie Deans' men could hardly score a try, let alone win a Test match. Come to think of it, you don't necessarily need to score tries to win rugby Tests, but that's another issue.

No good at home, no good across the Tasman and, last weekend, no good in Tokyo. Off to the Old Dart, however, and the glass is suddenly half full. Thanks to some pretty ordinary first half attacking options by England at Twickenham, the Australians were given a sniff of victory after the break and the string of losses was broken.

But not just that. Amazingly, incredibly, miraculously, one win into the tour and we're suddenly looking at winning the Grand Slam!!! Now Wales, in particular, might have something to say about that. Not to mention the Wallabies themselves, who have the uncanny ability of sliding from the summit to the outhouse in the blink of an eye. And what does this really say about the imbalance in the quality of international rugby, when the Tri-Nations easybeats become, maybe, just maybe, champs in the northern hemisphere?

But perhaps this patient approach undertaken by Deans of rebuilding from the bottom up is starting to pay dividents. Let's hope so, because the international game and Australia's performances have left a lot of disillusioned supporters over the past few years.

Who said one win doesn't make a summer? Or a spring? Autumn in the northern hemisphere... you get the drift.