The Wallabies showed incredible resilience to fight back from 15-0 down to grab victory over France, leaving coach Dave Rennie the most relieved man in Brisbane.
The Kiwi’s second Test win as Australia’s coach came the hard way, with a penalty goal five minutes after the siren sinking a devastated French team.
His fellow Kiwi – former All Blacks star Andrew Mehrtens – said the way the game unfolded was a blessing for Rennie.
“It’s almost the perfect result for him,” said Mehrtens on Stan Sport’s post-game coverage.
“There’s plenty to work on and I don’t think any of the players are going to be getting ahead of themselves thinking they’re world champions after that.
“But it’s much better working on the things you need to after a win and a little bit of confidence, and you can look really analytically at what went wrong, as the French will be doing as well.”
According to some pundits, Rennie is under pressure to win this three Test series, which heads to Melbourne next Tuesday, and for all but the final seconds it looked like his team would stumble at the start of the campaign.
While he will be impressed with Australia’s forward display, they lacked composure and stability in key areas.
Jake Gordon, who kept Tate McDermott out of scrumhalf, struggled and there were several stuttering combinations.
“We made hard work of it didn’t we, gave them a healthy lead,” said Rennie.
“We fought our way back in but we have to be a little bit more clinical and accurate we probably bombed a few opportunities late, but we were happy to get there in the end.
“At halftime we talked a lot about composure. We felt that we had wrestled momentum back and at that stage the penalty count was 8-2 so we thought if we could hold onto a bit of ball they’d be ill-disciplined and we could profit off that.”
France ended up giving away 16 penalties to five, the crucial one coming right at the end after they stunningly failed to see out the game from a penalty of their own with 30 seconds on the clock.
Noah Lolesio ices the win over France (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
“The French have been courageous. They’ve been the better team for many parts of the game.
“But it was the Wallabies, in that newly minted golden jersey, that have hung tough and in the 83rd minute haven’t given up, kept fighting, kept staying in the game and got the result,” said former Wallabies forward Morgan Turinui.
Justin Harrison added: “They had stars in their eyes, big unicorns floating around their head making sure they’re in control of possession and putting the French team to the sword in the very last minute.”
That Australia came up with a chance owed a lot to Darcy Swain, one of three debutants along with Lachlan Lonergan and Andrew Kellaway.
“Darcy Swain, every opportunity throughout his progression and development, he’s kept building on his game and he got the reward tonight,” said former Wallaby Drew Mitchell.
Mehrtens said Kellaway’s debut was a great story.
“He’s playing like he’s genuinely got nothing to lose,” said Mehrtens. “He’s been through adversity, he had the weight of expectation. He was anointed as a Wallaby basically when he was still at school.
“He’s gone away seeing his dream potentially evaporate, he’s come back and he’s enjoying his footy. It’s wonderful to see.”
Wallabies captain Michael Hooper, playing his first rugby in almost two months after a stint in Japan, was outstanding, and scored a try along with his relentless work in the grind.
(Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images for Rugby Australia)
“He’s such a champion isn’t he – you can just see the work rate, the number of times he was in the breakdown causing problems forcing the French off the ball,” said former player Allana Ferguson.
“He’s an incredible player to watch. For his try he was in the right place at the right time – that try was no fluke.
“He puts himself in the competition in that little grudge match constantly and you watch him through the 80 minutes and he just doesn’t stop.”
Mitchell added: “He’s really incredible having played up there in the Top League in Japan.
“He had to put plenty of weight on and do plenty of fitness to be ready for tonight and he’s going [strong] minutes after the full complement of the 80 and he still leading from the front.
“He does so much off the ball. He leads every kick chase, he puts pressure on, slowing the French ball down.
“He’s dictating in some ways the speed at which the game’s played. He’s really a remarkable player.”
Mitchell said he expected changes in the line-up for the second Test in Melbourne.
“With the short turn-around I think we’ll see a lot of other players get opportunities on Tuesday night in Melbourne which will may lead to some different combinations – maybe they’ll go to some combinations from Super Rugby and maybe the French will do the same from top 14 as well.
“I thought the way both teams went into that game, the intent was fantastic.
“Obviously the French did really well in terms of frustrating and slowing the game down to suit themselves. But it was great to see the Wallabies find a way to win it in the end.
Mehrtens felt the French will still think they’re a big chance of claiming the series.
“They won’t write themselves off,” he said.
“French teams tend to travel like oysters – in French club rugby you lose away from home and have 60 points put on you and teammates will just say ‘yeah but we’re French.’
“They won’t mind about tonight. They’ll put that behind them and feel they’re even more of a chance in Melbourne.”
Crusher_13
Roar Rookie
So your saying DHP wasn’t dropped for banks after being horrible last year? Banks played games 1, 2, and 4. DHP played 3. This is about DHP from foxsports “ He was brought into the XV to be a safe pair of hands under the high ball, to help organise the defence, and to inject more on the offence than Banks had in the first two games of the series. He did just about well enough at the first of those areas, struggled at the second, and was reasonable at the latter.” not a flowing endorsement.
Big Dave
Roar Rookie
He isn't very good.
JC
Roar Rookie
This was Gordon’s second start at Test level (his first was in 2018) so very inexperienced, plus short of a run due to injury and a clear lack of cohesion. Sure, we need more from him but we won’t get that if we discard him now. Paisami was a mixed bag, his judgement will likely improve with experience. We’ll get nowhere if we are constantly changing players trying to find a mythical perfect team.
stillmissit
Roar Guru
David that first sentence is where you are wrong, DHP is a very capable FB and if Banks had half the defensive and attacking skills he has I would give him a pass, but he ain't. If the instructions he is under are to never kick out, crab across the field and be out of position often, then I'd feel sorry for him but I doubt that is what he is being told.
Waxhead
Roar Rookie
@JC Except Gordon is not inexperienced. He's 28, Tah captain, and picked allegedly because of his experience. Prior to 2021 he's been error prone too but against France he raised it Phipps levels. And most of Paisami's errors were so dumb appears unlikely he'll ever learn. I would not chance either of them again in a WB jersey. Aust has better imo.
Crusher_13
Roar Rookie
If you recall last year, he was dropped for some reason. DHP came in and was horrible. Banks went back in and did the same as the first game. Did what was asked of him. On kick return there are no options. It’s generally 11, 14, 15. They don’t get the numbers back to challenge the line. Hard to make a break 3 on 12. Either the wallabies change tactics and start kicking corners from the back field to hopefully keep more defenders back, or the midfield starts working harder to get back and support. I’d also like to count the times that Banks or the wingers get the ball from set piece in a one on one.
Crusher_13
Roar Rookie
You mean the second try came from the inside defenders not staying in the line and chasing behind the French backline, chasing someone they could never catch?
Phil
Roar Rookie
All the players are being judged every game. What did he say then?
Ankle-tapped Waterboy
Roar Rookie
Just no.
Ankle-tapped Waterboy
Roar Rookie
You'll find the commentators do the players the courtesy of doing some research, asking them how they would like their names pronounced. There's a lesson there.
Ankle-tapped Waterboy
Roar Rookie
That studio work was nicely done. I couldn't pass that well, in heels that high. I'd be too worried about falling over!
QED
Roar Rookie
Joel Powell should be there instead of Gordon
QED
Roar Rookie
He is making an attempt to be culturally appropriate by pronouncing the names of players with Pacific Islander heritage correctly. As many in the commentary box, these days are making an effort to do. Which is overdue and commendable. However, he is way off the mark. So yes, alas, he just ends up sounding like a numpty.
QED
Roar Rookie
I am just going to put this out there so that I can gloat properly and say I told you so or more than likely, the collective Roar Community in its collective wisdom can legitimately say 'what an idiot'. But the Wallabies will win the next world cup in 2023. A few caveats, there should be no To'omua, James O'Connor or [cue outrage] Michael Hooper, or at best as a bench/squad player. I know I need lightning to strike twice but no word of a lie directly after the Boks lost to Japan in the RWC, I turned to my wife and said they will win the next one. Feel free to look back at my previous post to see me banging on ad nauseam about how that was going to happen. All right already, I will shut up.
QED
Roar Rookie
Regarding ‘two-step too slow’ Gordon. If only we had an experienced alternative with 20 caps to turn to. Oh, that’s right Joel Powell spent 4 years under Cheika as a professional bench warmer getting literally no game time, zero, zip, na’da and then wait for it getting dropped. I guess he performed badly in training. Ah well, I guess that makes sense as that’s where Michael Hooper used to say the Wallabies would do their best work.
Craig
Guest
Have to hope the players don't read these comment - they'll be suicidal!
Craig
Guest
No actually, he didn't. Let's judge him after the series, not off his first test for the year.
Craig
Guest
This. We're number 7 in the world for a reason. If we can get get up a two places this year and another two next year, we're back at 3 and that would be an incredible effort.
Craig
Guest
All the training you want but no other distractions allowed. Sounds more like an advantage to me than a disadvantage.
Jackass
Roar Rookie
That was one of my issues with Noah, the restarts were terrible, same result every time. Always an issue for wallabies but saw not one restart where genuine pressure was applied due to the kicker. The basics are still seriously lacking in many other aspects too. Credit to France, they had great line speed. For the sake of a better game 2, hope officials enforce the off side and the bodies laying on the other side. For both sides sake, as the wallabies were guilty too perhaps not as much as France.