Skipper Michael Hooper believes his decision to give up a shot at penalty goal was a huge factor in the Wallabies’ 9-6 Test loss to Wales.
Australia skipper Michael Hooper admits he made the wrong move in not kicking for goal after the Wallabies sunk to a disappointing 9-6 Test loss to Wales.
With the scores locked at 3-3 until the 68th minute, in a dour arm wrestle in Cardiff, Hooper’s conceded his decision to go for a try in second half instead of giving Bernard Foley an easy shot at goal was one he should not have made.
After rolling deep into Welsh territory, the Wallabies were repelled by the hosts as Allan Alaalatoa spilled the ball in a maul after a successful line-out from the tourists.
In a similar position soon after, hooker Tolu Latu, who had been solid with his throws to the Wallabies’ much-maligned lineout, hitting the target from 10 of his 11 efforts, chose the wrong time to surrender his second turnover of the game.
The chance was lost and the Welsh cleared their lines on their way to a first win over Australia in 10 years.
“If I had my time again I would have gone for the shot,” Hooper said.
“I backed the guys and I had wanted to keep the foot on and get the try.
“But my reading of the game there was probably amiss. I should have known the game would come down to penalties in the end.
“Hindsight is a nice factor but I should have gone for goal.”
Coach Michael Cheika, who has now tasted defeat in 10 of Australia’s past 13 Tests, said he was pleased with the defensive effort from his team but was frustrated at the lack of discipline and number of errors.
“There were too many small errors, whether at the lineout or indiscipline, and they cost us,” he said.
“The pressure we built up we released by either infringing or losing the ball at the lineout.
“It was a tight game and this one went against us.
“Those things have happened to us this year and we have got to take that on the chin, understand what we did well and improve the things we didn’t do well and get a win next week.”
Dan Biggar’s late penalty goal was enough to secure victory in the try-less encounter in the Welsh capital watched by about 64,000 fans.
The two sides will meet again in Tokyo next October and organisers will be hopeful of a better spectacle.
Although the Wallabies had more of the ball than the hosts, they struggled in the scrum with New Zealand referee Ben O’Keeffe penalising Scott Sio twice for pulling down Wales prop Ken Owens.
Cheika said he was disappointed by the calls and felt the Wallabies’ scrum had been strong against Warren Gatland’s huge forward pack.
“I am disappointed with those penalties, they were all called by the touch judge,” Cheika said.
“We asked what was happening there. We were clearly domating the scrum but what can you do.”
Abdul
Guest
I bet he's not doing it hard enough. Any volunteers to do the kicking??? But you have to be able to kick harder than Foley...OK, so that's everyone eligible then.
Buddy boy
Guest
He continues to make the same mistakes time and again, sometimes you just take the points and start again, Hooper has been guilty of blindly believing they can score tries every time, finally he may have woken up ...not holding my breath tho.
George kelly
Guest
Cheika has got to go he never seems to have a proper game plan,he likes bulky unfit front row,he keeps changing his line up and continually blames the referee what he doesn’t realise that when he points the finger 3 point back,Hooper needs to be relieved of the captaincy he is not a born leader,Beale must start running more instead of kicking,the whole team needs to increase their trading level as they are really not fit enough,we need faster more inventive wingers if we are not to be taken as jokes in the rugby world,let’s not be also tans
George kelly
Guest
Why do Australia kick possession away a lot of the forwards are generally in unfit and don’t seem to have an active brain The backs lack the ability and flair of Damien Mackenzie and their ball handling skills are school boy like instead of professionals,someone should tell Kurtley Beale he can run with the ball instead of kicking it away nearly every time
In Brief
Guest
It's interesting we have all become used to the idea of a the dominant scrum being rewarded. In reality there is no law that states the dominant scrum should win a penalty. There are many other infringements, such as intentional collapse and dangerous play, but being the weaker scrum is not a penalisable offence. So what we have now is essentially pure guesswork by the referee, and a huge incentive for teams to cheat. Basically scrum penalties are having the reverse effect as they are intended to have -i.e. encouraging cheating, not stopping it.
Tony
Guest
It was milked by the Welsh centre by turning into a rag doll, but by throwing the arm out, Pocock couldn't have made himself more conspicuous if he'd tried. It was a foolish thing to do when you've just been put offside by a pass backwards.
Stu
Roar Rookie
Haha! Classic.
Tipene Roar
Roar Rookie
What an egg you are
Cole
Roar Rookie
We didn't look that dominant in the scrum for mine. And Sio has been getting worked over a lot by all but Argentine Front rows so there's no need to have a go at the ref who my view did a pretty good job.
adastra32
Roar Rookie
Over the past two+ years there have been some brainless WB performances, but that takes the biscuit. Clearly, they believed their own hype about having the hex on Wales. So - pass up two (three?) kickable penalties in a tight game? Yes! Go through large number of phases near oppo line and then knock on? Yes! All the same problems that have been in evidence for some time.
Doctordbx
Roar Rookie
Just before the ruck Pocock ran a blocking line in an offensive off side position. He’s not an All Black so was rightly penalised for it.
Stu
Roar Rookie
I thought the Kiwi ref was superb throughout this game, except for the very last penalty he gave to Wales that finished the match. Can anyone who's replayed that incident as many times as I have please tell me what the infringement was? Wouldn't have mattered I guess as we'd have done something stupid with the ball anyway, but that ruck was as innocuous as I've ever seen, with all players seemingly playing it perfectly and not even contesting so as not to give away a penalty. It was virtually uncontested by both sides, and all looked absolutely vanilla. The ref seemed to want the match ended so just threw Wales a penalty to get out of there. They even looked quizzical about it. Would love to know what it was for, if anyone saw anything I didn't? The whole ruck was virtually uncontested. Any ideas?
Doctordbx
Roar Rookie
Not everyone’s cut out to be captain mate.