‘We’ve got to be better’: Rennie makes just one change but demands more from 'soft' Wallabies

Wallabies coach Dave Rennie named an unchanged squad of 23 and just one change to the starting side for the second Test against France after Australia scraped an after-the-siren victory in Brisbane last week.

Wallabies vs France Game 2 coverage

» REPORT: Jaminet’s boot powers France to memorable win
» Wallabies vs France Game 2 blog: All the action as it happened
» WATCH: The powerful scrum that won the game for France
» WATCH: Tupou turns into scrumhalf with sensational pass
» WATCH: Stunning Koroibete try called back by TMO

Ahead of Tuesday’s match in Melbourne, Rennie faced the media to talk about why he opted for Taniela Tupou to replace Allan Alaalatoa in the front row, and kept faith with several Wallabies, including scrumhalf Jake Gordon, who underperformed in Brisbane.

He said flyhalf James O’Connor was medically fit and available for selection but felt he could do with more time, as he flagged changes were certain for the third Test squad next Saturday.

Rennie also revealed that Tom Banks had been added to the team’s leadership group this campaign, and claimed his team had been too conservative by kicking away too much possession in Brisbane.

These are the highlights from Rennie’s press conference on Sunday.

“Taniela was outstanding and has been every time we bought him into the game with 30 minutes to go,” said Rennie.

“Allan’s work ethic is phenomenal and it was a real stop start sort of game so we weren’t able to make use of that strength of his.
“We always said these guys are going to tag team it and share the load throughout this.

“Taniela deserves a start and it’s chance for him now to stake a claim on the No.3 jersey when we’re looking ahead to that third Test.

“We lacked accuracy, we gave up soft points early and we think there’s more in this group and we want to give them another crack.

“We thought it was the right group to pick last time. We fell short of expectation because of a lack of accuracy and it meant we couldn’t get continuity. We would go two phases, turn it over.

“We’ve had a good few days training and we’re confident we’ll be sharper this time.”

On if there were some players getting into last chance territory:

“I don’t know about that,” said Rennie. “There were some excellent performers amongst that group.

“A lack of accuracy and continuity affected our ability to put the French under constant pressure. We conceded a couple of early tries but we didn’t look like conceding other than that.

“There’s no doubt there were some tight calls around selection – there is competition for places and that’s important to us.

On if Matt To’omua and Gordon were rushed in considering their injury issues.

“What we know with Jake is he’s come back from a couple of long-term injuries and played outstandingly well,” said Rennie.

“He was a bit disappointed that his core skills weren’t as sharp as they normally are. He missed some opportunities to run, which is a big part of his game.

“But we’ve got a lot of confidence in him that he deserves another crack, as does Matt.

“We’re expecting more, we’ve prepared well and I guess by keeping the same group we’ve got confidence in them.

On if it’s time for Tom Banks to take a step up:

“He’s been fantastic in the group. He’s part of our leadership group now and I guess that tells you where we see him in the standings.

“He’s contributing really well and being part of that group gives him confidence that he belongs. He’s trained excellently, and we expect to see that reflected on Tuesday.”

On what a late win from behind can do for a team’s spirit:

“I guess [if we’d lost] we would have been sitting around talking about a game that we should have won.

“We had enough ball, we had enough territory and we had enough opportunities. But you’re right, when time is up and the opposition has the ball throwing into a line out and you can steal the game from there it’s pretty special.

“We shared that with the players. The impact we had off the bench was outstanding. You look at that last stanza where Darcy Swain creates a bit of pressure at the line out, Taniela spooks a couple of the backs through a bit of defensive pressure and it was Tate McDermott who picked up the loose ball and Lachy Lonergan and Angus Bell who were first there to clean out the ruck.

“The guys who came off the pine made a real impact. It was special for those boys and shows you never give in.

“We had a few games last year where we had a chance to steal it right at the death and didn’t, so it was nice to get one.

On how the Wallabies struggled to execute their game plan:

“I talked a lot about continuity and accuracy and when we got that going we put the French under a lot of pressure.

“We want the boys to be confident to play what’s in front of us and at times I thought we were really conservative.

“We kicked the ball away and kicked it into touch which only slows the game down and gives them an opportunity to regroup.

“We’ve talked around that. We did more than enough to win well but we’ve got to be far more clinical to turn that pressure into points.

“Even on full time we could have waltzed over it if the ball had gone out to any of the backs – we were going an inch at a time with the big fellas.

“So we discussed that as well. The expectation is that we’ve got to be better around that on Tuesday.

“We want to be able to find grass on our kicks. We want to kick smart. You look at Hunter’s [Paisami} little grubber in behind – that’s the obvious thing to do and we should have profited off that.

“His little cross kick to Andrew Kellaway – they were really smart kicking options.

“There is no doubt at times you have to kick long but they are a very good counter-attacking side too and we have to make sure when we’re kicking that we’re well-organised in our chase.

“There’s no doubt their midfield try to spook you, try to force you back in we’ve got a plan around how we deal with that, and if we get it right we can expose them.

“We need to do a better job in and around that, especially when they kick long. They’re generally trying to shut off the middle part of the field and push you back towards their forwards.

“We’ve got to be better around how we expose that and often it’s about working hard off the ball to get people in the right spots.”

On reviewing the slow start:

“We made errors. I reckon Tom Banks is probably the best line kicker in the world and so when he missed touch from about 50 out and he’s a metre off we encourage him to do that knowing that 95 percent of times Tom’s going to put us in a really strong position as he did with every other kick.

“But we miss touch there, we had a scrum that’s come out the side and we got punished off that. We knocked the ball on from a counter-attack where we’re 80 metres out but we had a real opportunity down the sideline and we knocked it on. We ended up giving them a scrum and they profit off that too.

“There are a lot of individual errors in amongst that and when it happens we’ve got to look at how we’re coaching it.”

On if the reaction from media and fans was too harsh:

“It was a funny feeling after the game. We were frustrated because we know we’re better.

“We worked really hard and there was not much between that and a really good performance but you’ve got to be able to handle the ball for periods of time and be really clinical we turned over a fair bit of ball at the breakdown.

“The quality of our carry and our speed around contact support has got to be better. I’ve got to be brutal around that to generate quicker ball.

“We defended pretty well for a big chunk of the game but we gave up some really soft stuff from set pieces so we’ve put time into that.

“I’m I never too concerned about reaction from outside when you win [well] people say you’re awesome and that doesn’t help either. We take the criticism on the chin – it was a substandard performance but I’m happy with the character that we showed to fight our way back from 15-0 down and get a result in the end.

On the importance of finishers:

“People have roles within your squad. When Taniela and Tate came on how they played is what we expect. Against tiring defences, Tate is absolutely lethal.

“The question is can he do that from the start and of course he can, but we’re still putting pressure on him around his core skills.

“We’re really pleased he kicked well – it’s probably the best we’ve seen him kick.

“He’s working hard on his distribution and his speed and accuracy. We’re fortunate we’ve got some good men there, but there’s no doubt he’s electric off the bench and we saw that again and hope to see it again on Tuesday.”

On James O’Connor’s fitness:

“Medically he was ready to go but he’s underdone. He didn’t play the last couple of rounds Super Rugby and he got a niggle almost immediately when he came in with us so really over the last five weeks he’s done minimal work.

“We have confidence in Noah [Lolesio] and it gives James a few more days to get some decent training under his belt.

“He’s had a reasonable week he’s increasing the speed and acceleration and the contact will do so here in camp while we head off to Melbourne.”

Wallabies squad
Wallabies team to play France at AAMI Park, Melbourne on Tuesday 13 July, 8:00pm AEST
1. James Slipper (101 Tests)
2. Brandon Paenga-Amosa (9 Tests)
3. Taniela Tupou (26 Tests)
4. Matt Philip (10 Tests)
5. Lukhan Salakaia-Loto (26 Tests)
6. Rob Valetini (5 Tests)
7. Michael Hooper (c) (106 Tests)
8. Harry Wilson (7 Tests)
9. Jake Gordon (6 Tests)
10. Noah Lolesio (3 Tests)
11. Marika Koroibete (33 Tests)
12. Matt To’omua (55 Tests)
13. Hunter Paisami (7 Tests)
14. Tom Wright (4 Tests)
15. Tom Banks (12 Tests)
Replacements
16. Lachlan Lonergan (1 Test)
17. Angus Bell (4 Tests)
18. Allan Alaalatoa (44 Tests)
19. Darcy Swain (1 Test)
20. Isi Naisarani (9 Tests)
21. Tate McDermott (3 Tests)
22. Len Ikitau*
23. Andrew Kellaway (1 Test)
*denotes uncapped