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‘We’ve got to be better‘: Wallabies eager to build on second win over Wales
By Finn Morton
Captain James Slipper and coach Joe Schmidt agree the Wallabies must build on their two Test wins over Wales as they prepare to take on giant-slayers Georgia followed by a blockbuster Rugby Championship which starts next month.
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Australia have left the disappointment and heartbreak of last year’s Rugby World Cup disaster in the rearview mirror by starting their new era under coach Schmidt with two promising wins from as many starts.
The Wallabies opened their account for the year with a nine-point win over Wales at Allianz Stadium before beating the visitors again 36-28 in Melbourne on Saturday. Filipo Daugunu stole the show with a scintillating double which went a long way to securing the result.
Wales replacement Sam Costelow narrowed the deficit to just five points with a conversion on the 70-minute mark, but the Australians showed character and resilience to hold on. Playmaker Ben Donaldson iced the match with a late penalty goal to extend the margin to eight.
Fans at AAMI Park let out a massive cheer when the full-time whistle sounded. The Wallabies were right to celebrate, too, after claiming another win but James Slipper warned “we’re not at the perfect spot yet.”
“That’s what it does, it does build confidence,” the Wallabies captain told reporters.
“We’ve been training hard for the last two, three weeks, and to get a bit of pay out of it has been really great and the confidence we can build off those performances will only help us in the future.
“We’ve got some big games coming up and we know we’re gonna have to be better as well. We know where we are but we’re definitely getting confidence from how we’re preparing and what we’re producing but we’re not at the perfect spot yet.”
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The match almost appeared to have been both won for Australia and lost for Wales after just 25 minutes as the hosts ran up a commanding lead. Daugunu scored the opener in the fifth minute, followed by penalty goals to Noah Lolesio and a Jake Gordon try.
Australia raced out to a 17-nil lead but the Welsh made things very interesting as they clawed their way back. Dewi Lake kick-started the comeback with a five-pointer in the 27th minute, and the skipper was on the scoresheet for a second time just before the break.
Warren Gatland’s men fought valiantly as they looked to wrestle their way back into the contest but the Wallabies just seemed to be a step ahead at all times as the crowd spurred them on
The Wallabies did enough to remain in front for the entire fixture before celebrating the win by lifting the Jams Bevan Trophy. Australia won the series 2-nil but will quickly turn their focus to Georgia who are coming off a win over Eddie Jones’ Brave Blossoms in Japan.
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“I didn’t see the silverware but I’m just relieved that we got a couple of results because it’ll help build some belief in the players,” Schmidt said.
“I’m also delighted with the group of men who are really trying to commit to what we’re trying to achieve.
“There were a couple of times in the first half where we got very close to scoring and got turned over which was really disappointing because I think if we could’ve kept the pressure on and maybe scored those, you just chip away a little bit at the confidence of our opponents.
“When you don’t score there and they get a turnover and then they work their way down the field, I think we gave them some momentum and we just can’t afford to do that.
“The good teams are better at that and we’ve got to be better at that.
“We’ll definitely reset for Georgia and review what we did tonight, and we’ll review what we did during the week to prepare for tonight but at the end of this three-week block we’ll definitely, as coaches, we’ll have an expectation of the players that they feed back to us how they feel they’re preparing, what they can do to continue to prepare and maybe what we can do to prepare just a little bit better,” he added later.
“If we can build on what we have done in the first two weeks here, it’s another real challenge next week – you don’t beat Japan in Japan easily so we know that Georgia, I think they had a narrow loss to Fiji recently, they’re going to be a handful.
“I don’t like looking too far forward. I obviously know TRC follows this but I just want to finish this block first.”
Great to see our cuzzies across the ditch be served up a useless Wales team for the taking. Now the trick for them is to refrain from declaring themselves masters of the rugby universe.