1
'I've seen Richie Mo'unga play Tests like that': Eddie Jones' verdict on Carter Gordon's first start
By Ben Smith
Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones has compared his new flyhalf Carter Gordon to his All Black counterpart Richie Mo’unga after the 22-year-old’s first start in the No 10 jersey in Melbourne.
ADVERTISEMENT
Despite the home side conceding an early try, Gordon looked confident in the early stages as the Wallabies played with width and had the All Blacks on the back foot.
The Rebels playmaker was comfortable running the attack shape which found success with a couple of line breaks that couldn’t be capitalised on.
But a missed penalty goal from roughly 35 metres out was the catalyst for a change in Gordon’s fortunes as his kicking game lost control, handing the All Blacks too much field position at critical times.
The Wallabies found themselves in a hole at half-time 19-7 after conceding a late try to Will Jordan.
“Its still a work in progress, the team is very much a work in progress,” Jones said of his new halves pairing.
“If you arrive from Mars and watch the first 20 minutes, you’d probably think the team in gold is the stronger team. That’s the reality. But you’ve got to do it with 80 minutes.”
ADVERTISEMENT
When questioned over his bold selection of Gordon over the experience of Quade Cooper, Jones defended his younger playmaker as one the top talents in the game.
The Wallabies head coach though that the performance reminded him of Mo’unga’s early All Black career where inconsistency plagued the Crusaders’ pivot.
“I think he’s the best young 10 in Australia,” Jones said.
“I’ve seen Richie Mo’unga play Tests like that.
“Richie Mo’unga, if you look at his first four or five Tests, he had a bit of up and down in them.
“He wasn’t good enough, then he was good enough.
“Sometimes you’ve got to got through a bit of pain mate to bring young players through and I’m prepared to do go through that.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Jones was impressed by Mo’unga’s performance who led the All Blacks around the park after absorbing large amounts of pressure from the Wallabies.
It was the All Black No 10 who delivered the fatal blow on the stroke of half-time, finding a bat-on pass for Will Jordan to sneak over in the right hand corner.
Despite missing his first conversion, he finished four from six off the tee with some tough makes from the sideline.
“I thought Mo’unga kicked well, he’s turning into a proper Test 10, isn’t he?” Jones said.
“The ability to attack but keep the pressure on through good tactical kicking.
“They were a pretty good team.”
“I’m sure they kicked more than us, that’s one thing, and I’m sure they kicked better than us. That’s two.”
The Wallabies head coach didn’t regret changing up the side with a more youthful lot led by Carter Gordon, explaining that the experimentation is required to find a winning formula.
“We’ve got an unsuccessful history right now so we need to turn it around and find players who can do it,” Jones said.
“We’ve got to find players who want to give a bit more, we need players who are prepared to give more, and we’ll find those.”
Richie has some great playmakers around him
When they are not there he often gets caught and loses possession
He’s had time to get better
Gordon needs that time too
Kiwi roast beef’s all hate Damo but he is by far the best to watch
Was a good start and the AB's could only put pressure on around the ball, Gordon was used very deep and so could play without hindrance. The weren't ready what hit Tate though.
Maybe the pace did scatter him though, was still a nice stage to be given the chance by Eddie. Could be even better of the bench next week as a result. To be honest, even after having a taking a while to warm to Larkham once before, I'm not sure hes the answer for Australia at 10. On that, I also thought Marky Mark looked like he would make a better center than wing, world class even. I like his industriousness.
Carter tried hard and played well in attack, due to the fact that he got good ball from Mcdermot who actually passed to him so he could do something with the ball. This is in serious difference to White passing to Cooper which most of the time didn't happen. Carter is work in progress and will improve on his performance in the future. He did make some very basic errors that a flyhalf at this level should never make, like not making the 10 and kicking up and unders less then 10 metres. The ABs just ate this up. Cooper when he came on did some really heavy stuff, going into rucks when his forwards were found wanting and tackling when he should not have been needed to do. His understanding of the game is far superior to Carter at the moment. I would like to see McDermot with Cooper to start in the next game
Eddie Jones did well..This was the first time i saw the all blacks rattled abit before smashing the wallabies. Wallabies forwards need to work on their fitness and give eddie time with this team.
If Martians landed they'd say "Hey, there's Eddie. Long time no see bro".
For a debut I thought Carter Gordon was terrific. A few nervous moments but entirely understandable. Eddie is building a great team. Won't be too long.
One glaring thing about the wallabies is their lack of fitness as compared to the allblacks Our big boys dont have much spare on them and hence arent as susceptable to injury and hardly broke into a sweat by comparison
If I came from Mars, my 1st question would be, "why take Carter off and replace him with Cooper who's only achievement on the night was to sing the national anthem?"