1
The ‘recurrent theme’ that has haunted the winning Wallabies this month
By Finn Morton
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt has highlighted the Wallabies’ “recurrent” issue after their third and final Test of the July series, with the men in gold surviving a late scare to hold on for a 40-29 win over Georgia in Sydney.
ADVERTISEMENT
Schmidt made mass changes by naming a new-look Wallabies outfit that included 10 changes to the starting side. Winger Darby Lancaster was named to debut while prop Allan Alaalatoa was both promoted to the run-on side and given the captaincy.
But this squad-first approach of giving others an opportunity worked wonders early on. With thousands of fans watching on during a beautiful afternoon near the Sydney CBD, the Aussies shot out of the blocks with three tries inside 20 minutes.
Georgia may have drawn first blood with Luka Matkava knocking over a penalty goal in the second minute, but tries to Hunter Paisami, Rob Valetini and Isaac Kailea saw the hosts race out to a commanding 19-3 lead.
But after the visitors hit back with a try of their own, a red card to Filipo Daugunu saw Australia go down to 14 men for 20 minutes. Georgia ended up scoring through Davit Niniashvili and Aka Tabutsadze as they reduced the deficit to just two points.
While the Wallabies ended up hanging on for the win after Valetini and Fraser McReight completed try-scoring doubles, the points scored against them was a talking point. Just as Wales had clawed their way back in two Tests against Australia, Georgia had done the very same.
“I don’t know that I’m ever happy with a performance completely but I’m certainly happy with some of the elements of the performance,” Schmidt told reporters on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I think the way we built to a 19-3 lead was pretty dominant and I was really happy with the way that we were pretty much dictating the game at that stage.
“But it’s been a bit of a recurrent theme over these three games. We started to lose, maybe, a bit of discipline initially and then stacked a few penalties and put ourselves under pressure.
“It’s one of those risk-reward actions,” he explained about Filipo Daugunu’s red card. “Once we lost Filipo we were playing 14 against 15, it does become tough.
“But again, just before half-time, I thought that try was excellent and we needed it at the time.”
ADVERTISEMENT
But a win is a win. The Wallabies still have the longest current winning streak in men’s tier-one rugby with four victories dating back to last year’s Rugby World Cup. Arch-rivals New Zealand are second in that race after winning their third Test on the bounce.
As for Joe Schmidt, the New Zealander has become the first Wallabies coach since Robbie Deans in 2008 to win their first three Tests in charge. It’s stats like these that suggest there has already been some genuine growth within the Wallabies.
But an almighty challenge awaits the Australians. With the Rugby Championship just a matter of weeks away, starting with two Tests at home against South Africa, they know they’ll need to lift to “a whole different level.”
“Going forward to The Rugby Championship, we’ve learnt a little bit more about the players. We’re very much a tight coaching group so, I can’t speak for all the coaches at the moment… whatever decision we make will be based on three games and three weeks of training,” Schmidt explained.
“I’m also realistic. I’ve been doing jobs similar to this for a long time and the thing that you realise is things do take time, and building combinations takes time; building a game model that people become familiar with… that does take time.
“But we’re out of time. We’ve got to be able to deliver against South Africa which is a whole different level.”
“It’s stats like these that suggest there has already been some genuine growth within the Wallabies.”
Er, didn’t the Eddie Jones coached Wallabies beat Georgia by more in the World Cup ? Any logical, rational assessment would conclude therefore we have in fact gone backwards.