Remember the dreary days when the most overused and offensive four-letter word in the rugby lexicon was ‘kick'?

With all the splendid running rugby recently in the southern hemisphere, it's easy to forget the dreaded boot ruled until at least the start of this season and for some teams (er, the Waratahs) still played an inordinately important role in game plans in 2010.

But the tweak in the rules to assist the attacking team preserve possession going into the breakdown and the riveting ball-in-hand style of Queensland, the All Blacks and now the Wallabies has surely closed the door on kick-fest rugby that very nearly killed the game in recent years.

(An aside: I have the sneaking suspicion that even if the breakdown contest rules hadn't been reformed, the audacious play this season by teams such as the Reds still would have been a winning approach -- if they'd been willing to try it).

You know rugby is doing something right again when the northern hemisphere starts wringing its hands about how the ‘changes' are threatening traditional values of the game. Already there's been some chatter about the matches being too fast for the old dears and some wildly irrational suggestions ball in hand play will somehow undermine the scrum and lineout.

They're trotting out the hoary old "rugby must remain a game for all shapes and sizes" which, by its very nature, it will continue to be -- very long people for lineouts, rectangular, neckless people in the front row -- but at the elite level it's quite likely some of the enormous fat bastards in the scrum might be gradually replaced by enormous fit bastards. Shock, horror.

Lamenting the passing of kicking skills is also premature and misguided. As improbable as it sounds there are still those who would have the rugby ‘law' makers turn back the clock and reinstate the right of the team in possession to take the ball back into their own quarter and kick out on the full.

And how we hanker for those forcings-back exchanges that cured spectator insomnia over the last few seasons?

Fact is, kicking -- intelligent and attacking kicking in general play especially -- is far from dead.

The Wallabies who managed to play some of the most breathtakingly good and bad rugby of the last five years in the space of 60 minutes against South Africa last weekend provide a great case study, and on evidence of their first half display in Bloemfontein, they will employ the boot against the Blacks in Sydney this weekend.

In the first half last Saturday the Wallabies got just about everything right and that included their open field kicking. Quade Cooper kicked more in the first 30 minutes than he did in the entire test match against New Zealand in Melbourne and the Pretoria loss to the Springboks combined.

With few exceptions the kicks were attacking, directed into space or touch finders deep into Springbok territory, limiting the opportunities the South Africans had to counter with their back three and ensuring they would have to build their relentless, if unimaginative, phase after phase attacking waves from deep in their own half.

Several times Cooper kicked on the third or fourth phase while Australia was still going forward against South Africa. Far from squandering possession those kicks were potent weapons because of the quality of their execution and, perhaps, the poor positional play of South African fullback Frans Steyn who looked well below his best in the last two tests.

It was very Dan Carter-esque of Cooper, but the wheels fell off in the second term as mistakes crept into the Australian game. With turnovers mounting and Morne Steyn kicking penalties from everywhere, the pressure to "get out of here" intensified for the Wallabies. They lost structure and faith in their own ability to work play out from defensive positions and became their own worst enemy a few times, needlessly kicking possession away.

You knew things weren't going well when the midfield bomb reappeared -- it works sometimes for the Springboks who chase with vigour, but it's not the Australian way and, like the box kick, they should scrub it unless everyone is on the same page giving pursuit like mad dogs.

In all, depending on whose stats you like, the Aussies kicked as many as 26 times in the game, far more than in any other Tri Nations test this season. If they start pointlessly pounding the pigskin against the New Zealanders things will get ugly pretty quickly as that All Black back three is nasty and will counter from anywhere.

However the Wallabies have an impressive line of talented kickers.

Cooper, Matt Giteau, James O'Connor, Drew Mitchell and Kurtley Beale have all used the chip kick -- admittedly high risk -- successfully this season and between them they don't have to be satisfied with meaningless kicking for territory.

It won't be easy to get it right against the All Blacks but the key is to avoid kicking under pressure. Instead, kick to apply pressure.

With ball in hand, both teams will target the fly-half channel. Cooper's defence is flimsy, while injured Carter's replacement in the ABs, the enormously talented Aaron Cruden is small and raw.

Australian captain Rocky Elsom was back to his best last weekend and he'll relish welcoming Cruden to test footy and O'Connor and Mitchell seem to be getting the hang of slicing through close to the ruck, running off Cooper's hip.

Both teams are incredibly threatening from broken play, but a point of difference that may be developing are planned plays from set pieces. The Australians finally seem to have found combinations in their backline to take advantage of the extra space afforded them in attack from scrums and lineouts.

As long as Nathan Sharpe is on the park, the Aussie lineout should be competitive. It is in the scrum the ABs will fancy their chances.

The ABs' forwards have been the best scrummagers by a mile this season. As Wallaby prop Benn Robinson notes they are "very consistent".

"They have a nice powerful, strong scrum hit and a heavy hit, " he says of the New Zealand front row's tendency to launch itself, in and up at the opposition.

Mark Lawrence, the South African referee doing the honours in Sydney is a bit of scrum diva which may help the Wallabies achieve parity at the engagement.

If they can get clean ball at the base, Cooper's ability to throw passes as long as a river from the left and right side immediately puts the Australians on the front foot.

The Bledisloe Cup is with the Kiwis yet again the Tri Nations is in the ABs pocket, but the chance for a 10th straight Kiwi victory over the Wallabies is a big carrot for Graham Henry's charges. The Wallabies, back after two weeks in South Africa can't afford to start sluggishly and must remedy their inability to play with the required structure and intensity for the full 80 minutes.