LONG READ Small steps for Wallabies but welcome signs of progress

After the two heavy losses to South Africa on home soil, any offer to the Wallabies of a win over Los Pumas in Argentina would have been gratefully accepted. Throw in the variable of terrible weather, and the hand making the offer may have been ripped right off.

One swallow does not a summer make, and all that. This Australian side is a long way from a finished product. But Joe Schmidt has never suggested they were anything other than a side in transition, and the current playing group being held to decades-old standards and expectations remains a folly of impatient Wallabies fans.

The following statements are both true and not mutually exclusive:

The Wallabies’ 20-19 win over Los Pumas in La Plata was their best win under Schmidt. Maybe not their most complete, and certainly not their most convincing, but the one they’ll take the most from going forward.

The one-point win also showed they are still prone to making poor decisions, or that certain skills can suddenly just desert them on any given matchday, and even that young players and inexperienced teams are going to make mistakes that on another day will cost them a win.

This victory was both very, very good and delivered with a dollop of luck that many teams need as they cling to an upwards trajectory. But that’s also professional rugby, and exactly why at international level, any W in the ledger must be savoured.

And one that should be celebrated by Australian fans! Celebrating a victory like the one in La Plata doesn’t come at the expense of recognising shortcomings, and it was frankly bizarre to see Wallabies fans feeling the need to be critical on Sunday, as if the two concepts can’t co-exist.

Regardless, as Schmidt continues to push his Wallabies playing group forward with incremental steps rather than giant strides, there were some really promising signs in the performance.

Learning on the hoof and adjusting in-game

It was an ominous start for the Wallabies, attacking the Argentine 22 in the first 10 minutes for 27 phases but barely making more than a few metres, and not reaching the attacking red zone. With nothing really happening, fly-half Noah Lolesio put a kick forward into Los Pumas’ in-goal area to earn a line drop-out.

It was an optimistic approach to begin with. For one thing, coming inside the first 10 minutes and with the Argentine players still fresh, defending their 22 just became a case of marking up man-on-man and sliding laterally as required.

The Wallabies aided this fairly simplistic defensive set-up by repeatedly carrying around the corner and only engaging the first or second defender at the widest. It meant the Argentines had made more than 30 tackles to none for the first 10 minutes, but the Wallabies had also spent no time in the opposition 22.

But this approach changed through the first half, Australia’s ball-carriers now running wider off first receiver and moving the Pumas defenders around by changing the point of contact and starting to engage the second and third defender.

By half-time, the stats said the Wallabies had made just 128 metres to Argentina’s 116, despite having nearly twice the number of carries. But they also showed Australia had thrown twice as many passes as Los Pumas in the first period, averaging 1.4 passes per carry to that point as they started to widen the point of contact. The Pumas had made twice as many tackles as the Wallabies, too.

And it was starting to work. They beat more defenders and made more clean breaks than the Pumas had, and were starting to get offloads away too.

Whether the message to widen the point of contact came from the coaches’ box, or was something the players themselves worked out on the pitch, is immaterial. The ability to make the adjustment, make it work, and profit from the gains made is the major lesson learned

Come the second half, the Wallabies added width to the first pass, and often a second pass before the carry as well. They were now starting to engage third and fourth defenders, and having more success in making the gain line and finding quicker ball as the match opened up, despite the persistent rain throughout.

By the end, Australia averaged 1.7 passes and two-and-a-half metres per carry, which again, in the context of those 27 phases for five metres made early on, showed an encouraging ability to adjust.

Whether the message to widen the point of contact came from the coaches’ box, or was something the players themselves worked out on the pitch, is immaterial. The ability to make the adjustment, make it work, and profit from the gains made is the major lesson learned, and was something that pleased Schmidt post-match.

A point he did make was about the progression of a young squad, which is what he’s operating with, and that players finding their way in international rugby aren’t going to have all the answers. Even less so when you consider Schmidt has now handed out the most Wallabies caps in the professional era.

“It’s not a lot of room to breathe. I think Hamish (Stewart) is our 15^th debutant (for the season), and that’s a whole team of debutants, but we’re actually trying to build continuity, and at the same time build some depth.

“If we haven’t got this player, then we can go to this (other) player, and try to build their confidence that they can step into the arena (and perform),” he said.

Sharing the defensive load and unleashing the fetcher

Only last week I highlighted Carlo Tizzano’s incredible defensive work rate in the first two Rugby Championship matches against South Africa, but how those high tackle numbers were nullifying the other crucial component of his game.

Tizzano did make another 22 tackles in La Plata – and with none missed, again – but more noticeable were the defensive numbers around him. Angus Bell, Matt Faessler, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Harry Wilson all tallied double-digit tackle numbers among the forwards, while Hamish Stewart also made 11 tackles in midfield.

With Tizzano able to pick his moments more in this game, Australia – with a much more proactive presence on the ball – won six turnovers in the breakdown contest, to just one from Argentina.

Tizzano was responsible for two of those six, both of them coming at crucial moments in the second half.

“Carlo was awesome,” said new Wallabies captain Wilson. “He leads our defence, the way he just launches into everyone. It really sets the platform for us, and then obviously the way he fetched the ball for us tonight was game-changing. A few times we were under pressure there, he reached in and got a penalty, and won some big moments for us.”

It was a welcome change from the Springbok matches in Brisbane and Perth, with Tizzano’s danger as a fetcher to the fore.

But the point certainly stands; it’s great that a young opensider in his third Test is leading the defence, but his game on both sides of the ball revolves on others sharing the defensive load around him.

Getting yourself into position and closing out the game

In recent years, many a Wallabies team has lost all last semblance of composure at a moment like the one in the in the 77^th minute, when Max Jorgensen was unable to hold onto a pass in space in the Argentine half.

But after the Pumas cleared to touch, and Australia had a chance to pull themselves together and launch one proper last attacking raid from a set-piece. The lineout was won cleanly and they mauled clinically into the Argentine 22, before the ball was sent into midfield.

Tate McDermott had a snipe himself, then Wilson, Nick Frost and Jeremy Williams all followed with carries as they patiently edged closer to the Pumas line, each carry picking off vital metres and adding to the defensive anxiety of the home side.

Rob Valetini carried strongly again, as he’d done all night, and got to five metres out right in front of the posts when Argentina replacement loosehead Mayco Vivas was pinged for offside.

Ben Donaldson had only entered the game in these closing moments, his 81^st-minute, match-winning penalty being his one and only involvement in the match.

“I’m just a spectator like anybody else at that stage,” Schmidt said of the final passage of play. “I’m just willing the boys to retain possession, try to get onto the front foot, make sure that their work on the ground and on their feet is really positive and just build their way forward.”

Wilson was equally sure the win can be the catalyst to drive on through the remainder of The Rugby Championship.

On this most recent outing, you certainly can’t rule out Australia leaving Argentina with a second win.

“It just gives us a lot more confidence,” he said. “We are a young group and we’ve been building from the start of the year, and we played some decent footy against the Boks. They’re the best in the world and we didn’t get the results, but it felt as though we did improve in those games, and tonight we showed more improvement.

“Just to get the win, it gives us that little bit more confidence to keep improving.”

The incremental progress is certainly there for the Wallabies, and it’s encouraging to see the adjustments being made and the little lessons learned.

A massive opportunity awaits this weekend in Santa Fe, but on this most recent outing, you certainly can’t rule out Australia leaving Argentina with a second win.