Exasperated Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has all but accused his erratic charges of throwing the game plan out the window during a deflating and costly Tri-Nations draw with Argentina.
The Wallabies relinquished a nine-point second-half lead in a 15-15 stalemate in Newcastle to gift the All Blacks back the advantage in the title race.
Should the All Blacks avenge last week’s shock loss to Argentina with a bonus-point win next Saturday, the Wallabies would face the impossible task of needing to thrash the Pumas by some 80 or 90 points in the last game to snatch the trophy.
In other words, the Wallabies are sweating on the Pumas repeating their historic win over the All Blacks to keep their hopes alive.
Little wonder Rennie was left frustrated by Saturday night’s slip-up.
“We had a chance to really put a stranglehold on that and go into the last game just requiring a win. We’ve left the door open so it’s obviously a big game between New Zealand and Argentina next week,” he said.
What most upset Rennie was the Wallabies’ inability to stick to the game plan.
“At 15-6, we really had control of the game and we had chances to pin them into the corners and we had a fair bit of success with kicking and it looks like we got bored of it,” he said.
“We played and overplayed and turned the ball over and let them back into the game.
“Yeah, disappointing. We should have closed it out and really let ourselves down.”
Wallabies flyhalf Reece Hodge slotted five penalties, but all were cancelled out by his Pumas counterpart Nicolas Sanchez.
Hodge had the chance to clinch victory with a sixth penalty goal three minutes from fulltime.
But, just as he did when he hit the post in the 16-16 draw with the All Blacks in Wellington, Hodge pushed his attempt agonisingly too far right.
But no-one was blaming Australia’s No.10, despite Hodge himself saying he felt like he’d let the whole country down with the sprayed shot.
“I’d say he still had a very strong performance,” Rennie said.
“At 10, you need a lot of help around you.
“We’ve got plenty of guys who can kick the ball in our backline and so we want to actually play the width and bring the defence up and nudge in behind.
“So I think he needs a little bit of help around getting our kick strategy (right).”
puff
Guest
Carlos, you are sadly missing the point, what I said was only tongue & cheek, if we weren’t a democracy Hooper would not be captain. That would be a political appointee and the ref would probably fall into line receiving instruction from on high. The Wallabies worked hard but continued to make poor choices at critical moments.
Harry Jones
Expert
Also, the ‘cost’ of failing to throw-catch-maul-score is not always merely just having a LO further out. Plenty of attacking mauls end in a knock-on or being pinged. So, in those cases, the harm is even worse. A missed PK almost always ends up with getting possession right back.
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
What does democracy have to do with harassing the ref? If any player comes to harass me, they will get in trouble very fast. No democracy ON the field.
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
All people have a hard tie doing statistics, and a worse time understanding statistics. The kick for the lineout try is the probability of scoring a try times the probability of conversion (expected value). If a team only scores 2 tries every three lineouts, the "estimated chance" of kicking to the corner is 66% of a try (assuming a 100% conversion rate). 2/3 is already less than one penalty kick if the kicker has at least a 80% hit rate. Understanding "expected values" should be essential. Though they are also time dependent and opportunity dependent plus location... Still, worth knowing.
Marlin
Roar Rookie
Poor old Dave. He must have had his head in the sand for the last 10 years. Now that he's keenly watching, he'll get used to it. I wouldn't wish that job on my worst enemy
Bobbles
Guest
Rennie you keep selecting the wrong 23.It's time for you to go mate.
John
Like the sentiment, not the description
freddieeffer
Roar Rookie
Yes, I'm out of patience too John. How many times over many years now have we seen Hooper's contempt for easy points and arrogance with going for 7, and failing a vast majority of times. Hair-brained captaincy . His captaincy cost the Wallabies another win. It's that simple.
Puff
Guest
Dave Rennie welcome to the Wallabies, remember mate we live in a democracy and even Captains are entitled to hassle the ref and think in expanded figures like 7, not conservative numbers like 3. Agree, we all felt the Wallabies were in control of the match until they got bored of it. “To be honest that’s not the words I used”.
John
Pity coaches can't be more direct. The blame lies squarely with Micheal Hooper. Poor choices over and over again. Lacks leadership, lacks smarts, needs to go....fast.
Puff
Guest
Dave Rennie welcome to the Wallabies, remember mate we live in a democracy and even Captains are entitled to hassle the ref and think in expanded figures like 7, not conservative numbers like 3. Agree, we all felt the Wallabies were in control of the match until they got bored of it. “To be honest that’s not the words I used”.
Double Agent
Guest
Liam Gill?
JD Kiwi
Roar Rookie
“We had a fair bit of success with kicking and it looks like we got bored with it.” Ouch!
Harry Jones
Expert
Yes, that old three times three is more than a converted try thing isn’t complex.
Adsa
Roar Rookie
Great headline, we rue Liam Gill departure so much. Imagine having a flanker who rolls his sleeve up and leads from the front. Instead we get a gnome with poor Ref skills and cannot work out the value of 3 points.
The Crow Flies Backwards
Roar Rookie
Welcome to coaching the Wallabies, Dave