It saddens me to say it because I think Tom is easily the best natural dancer in the series, but I DON'T think he was better than Austin in the group dance. There were things that showed up against him. The lines in the photo
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/g...n/results6.png
as have been pointed out were much better in Austin's pose than in Tom's. Also during the dance, whenever the girls had to be lifted or spun around, Tom was often just a little behind the beat. Things were sometimes just too loose and in a bad way, not an exciting way.
To me, one of the reasons that Tom isn't getting the tens is that he's so naturally gifted, he doesn't actually Work as hard. Now before you get all worked up, I don't mean he doesn't put in the effort. I'm sure he does, but I suspect he doesn't think of some of the finicky little things that the judges look for because he is so very nearly able to do them anyway. The others, like Austin, to whom it doesn't come so readily have to work more precisely to get their dances right. That's my theory anyway.
One other thing... and I'm not quite sure what this means, whether it's a good thing or not, or whether it's nothing at all.
During the dance, when Austin and Tom were at the front, several times Tom looked across at Austin. Austin never looked at Tom. Now this may be Austin concentrating on the dance like billy-oh. But if this was a theatrical performance - and I know what I'm talking about here - I would suspect that Austin was upstaging Tom. If they'd been rehearsing with that sort of eye contact with each other, and then in performance Austin ignores Tom, it makes Austin look very strong and Tom look very needy and insecure. I wondered about that. Austin is a top class sportsman. Psychological play comes naturally to people like him. Like I say, it just made me wonder.