The quick questions: Redemption needed

After two Bledisloe Cup Tests full of promise and laden with positives on both sides of the contest, the third match last weekend in Sydney very clearly had just one winner.

The reaction to the match was huge, with Roarers on both sides of the contest lining up to have their say. And have their say you did – these are the comment numbers for the major analysis and opinion pieces on The Roar this week:

There were 1105 on the live blog, 307 on the result, 500 on Sunday’s talking points, 423 on Geoff’s Monday wrap and 150 as of 5pm yesterday made under Nic Bishop’s analysis – nearly 2500 comments and upwards of 35,000 page views!

But will those numbers be repeated this weekend? And just how crucial to not just the Bledisloe Cup and the Tri-Nations will a Wallabies redemption story be?

Over to the panel.

Question 1

After two games of varying but noticeable promise, Bledisloe 3 was the kind of disappointing loss Wallabies fans have become all too used to in recent years. But was it just a one-off aberration for Dave Rennie’s side, or are supporters just going to have to live with these drubbings for a fair while longer?

Harry
Fine margins. After shipping 114 points in two Tests against the All Blacks, the Springboks came within one silly foul by Damian de Allende of beating their old superior foe. And a couple of years later it was De Allende who was probably the Boks’ most consistent player in winning the World Cup.

Dave Rennie is a good coach. His team never waved the white flag in Sydney. They battled like callow young lions against a more seasoned, mightier pride. Australia has the good misfortune to play New Zealand more than anyone else does. By 2022-23, look for the Wallabies to be a top-four side again and challenging all.

Nobes
Expecting a drastic change in a few months with the change of a new coach is practically impossible since it takes time to develop an idea on how to play the game.

Dave Rennie needs the time necessary for his players to understand and develop the rugby that he suggests, and for this the players must develop some skills to adapt to what the coach requires.

In my humble opinion the players are throwing too many offloads in contact and losing too many balls. I don’t know if it’s the idea of the coach or the players, but in that way they are losing many balls that are exploited to the maximum by a team specialised in exploiting those situations like the All Blacks.

Dave Rennie. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Geoff
What Wallabies fans are going to have to live with for a while longer are the cruel highs and lows. Strong, committed performances where the promise of new, emerging players begins to shine through, where fans once again dare to dream, only to have those dreams ripped away by the kind of naive, Test match-unready performance we saw in Sydney.

That’s the reality for any developing side, and while calls for patience are infuriating for all who have been shown this same path before and promised salvation at the end of it, those calls are undoubtedly correct.

Digger
I prefer to take a more optimistic view and suggest it was a good experience for a young side to take plenty from.
This current squad is not blessed with a heap of experienced heads and it may prove to be a blessing for Rennie to expose and gauge where his likely future charges are, so while I suspect that there will be the odd game in the future which may prove one-sided, I do not believe it will be a common occurrence.

My one major concern was the seeming lack of fire up front from the Wallabies on Saturday. After the first two efforts, that was a tad disappointing. Hopefully we will see them pull their socks up on that front.

Dan
Last Saturday might have been a nauseating episode of deja vu for Wallabies fans, but one poor loss doesn’t mean the side are now suddenly heading for the abyss once again. To keep it in perspective, repeat after me: this was a young team missing their two most important and experienced backs through injury coming up against the All Blacks in one of those moods. New Zealand would have run up a big score against just about anyone in the form they were in.

That doesn’t mean some areas of the Wallabies’ play wasn’t woeful – it was – but a single drubbing against the All Blacks isn’t an instant invalidation of what Dave Rennie is working on.

Brett
Wallabies fans will certainly be hoping it was a one-off, but sadly there’s a bit of history on this front.

In 2017 we saw a six-point loss to New Zealand in Dunedin, then a couple of draws against South Africa, a win over the All Blacks in Brisbane and then wins over Japan and Wales to kick off the spring tour. Then what happened? A 30-6 thumping from England at Twickenham.

And of course last year’s memories are still fresh of the great win in Perth followed by a 36-pointing mauling at Eden Park.

The positive is that this Wallabies group doesn’t carry that history – there’s been too much turnover. And the players won’t just ‘live with these drubbings’, so neither should supporters.

Rennie knows winning is a habit. He now needs to start building one in his new playing group.

(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Question 2

This Saturday will be the fourth and final Australia versus New Zealand Test of the year. What are you hoping to see from each side?

Harry
From the Wallabies I want to see strong clean exits, impeccable set pieces on their own ball, less speculators, better defensive patterns, and Rob Simmons starting.

Nobes
A week is not too long to explore another game system. Perhaps they will be able to accommodate things like maul defence, and they would do well to take better care of the ball, take better direct the kicks and put more pressure on the drivers of the All Blacks game.

Geoff
A sprinkling of new players in each side for a start. The Bledisloe Cup is decided, so there is an opportunity for both camps to cast the net a little wider without disrupting continuity or compromising performance.

The All Blacks will be keen to put some indifferent Brisbane performances behind them and express themselves again with authority, while I’d like to see the Wallabies take the game to the All Blacks with skill and without fear but in doing so make better decisions to maintain possession and not offer up gift-wrapped counterattack opportunities.

(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

Digger
Improvement, pure and simple.

I admit I was not much of a fan of the ‘Foster camp’, but you cannot deny the solid progress of the side over the last three matches, so more of the same upward trend, please.

For the Wallabies, a solid response after being smacked in the mouth last week will be the order of the day.

Dan
For the Wallabies, improvement. Anywhere. On the whole their level of play has dropped off match to match so far this year, so it’s important they right that trend. If Noah Lolesio gets another run, it’d be great to see him defending in the line, not hidden away in the backfield, and for the young man to bounce back with a strong showing.

For the All Blacks, there’s not a hell of a lot to work on, although if there’s one aspect of their Bledisloe 3 performance Ian Foster will want to nix, it’ll be that 20-minute period after halftime where they went into cruise control. Other than that, maybe big Karl Tu’inukuafe could work on his right-to-left spiral.

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Brett
Just better decision-making from the Wallabies in pretty much every facet but in two in particular.

They need to seriously think about ball retention in contact and that they don’t need to offload the ball every. Bloody. Time. Equally, they need to make sure they’re in good positions if an offload does come.

They still need to be much accurate at the cleanout – and Sam Cane’s pilfer numbers over the last month are the reason why.

Just think about things. Ball retention when in possession should be the highest priority, and that didn’t look to be the case last week.

What do I want to see from New Zealand? Nothing really.

Literally nothing would be bloody tops in fact.