Dave Rennie, as he did with the Hurricanes, Chiefs and Glasgow Warriors, seems to have imbued the Wallabies with the mandate to “play”, to have a go, to express themselves. And to go big or die trying.
On Saturday night at Eden Park the Wallabies died to the tune of 57-22 – yet it was not for want of trying.
It’s just that their execution was very ordinary, on occasions, and gifted the All Blacks chances.
REACTION: All Blacks smash Wallabies’ ‘chaos style’ play
And the All Blacks, as they always do, took those chances and scored eight tries and retained the Bledisloe Cup for the 19th year in a row.
The score looks lopsided. In the end it was. The second half was all the locals. There was a 20-minute period when the black jumpers tore down field like so many orcs. And it became a rout.
Yet for the first the 46 minutes it was a competitive game of footy, like a Super rugby match played for sheep stations.
The Test match turned in the 47th minute when 101-Test man Aaron Smith sniped at the ruck base with his team down to 14 men. Cody Taylor backed up inside to score. The conversion made it 28-15.
In a blink they had fifty. And the Wallabies were shellshocked. Heads went down. Because they had been good. Showed promise. They’d competed hard and threatened to, if not win then to take the big dogs all the way.
Yet a colt, Noah Lolesio, and a veteran, Matt To’omua, threw intercept passes that looked an opportunity for both teams. And only one team took them.
The All Blacks began by screaming out the Ka Mate version of the haka. There’s a lot going on in it, lot of tongues and crazy eyes. The Wallabies formed the “V” of a boomerang, the point facing the All Blacks front-man, the idea to draw on the energy of the challenge and to use it. Scoff if you like. But symbolism matters.
Heading into the match it was widely agreed the Wallabies could not make mistakes. They made one in the first three seconds when the lifters on Darcy Swain misjudged their action.
Andrew Kellaway, who had a fair game, hammered Damien McKenzie. And it was one-error all. And the first half was set: you do it us, then we’ll do it you.
New Zealand opened the scoring when Lolesio threw a flat pass to Reiko Ioane who ran 80 metres to score.
(Photo by Getty images)
Yet the Wallabies kept coming. Big bodies, hard at the line. Tate McDermott sniped. Rob Valetini made a big charge. Marika Koroibete probed the edges. The All Blacks infringed on purpose before Lolesio, with the advantage, bunted a tidy punt out wide to Kellaway who caught, stepped and scored.
Ten minutes in the Wallabies were down by two but on top. The All Blacks attacked, aesthetically fine, pure rugby. Short lineout. Several penalties, in range, didn’t “take the points”.
The Wallabies resisted. Matt Philip kept a maul off the ground and won a scrum. The All Blacks won another penalty and Richie Mo’unga missed the goal right.
And the Wallabies had another little victory. You lose by 35 points you take what you can.
Koroibete twice hammered Will Jordan. The crowd got into it. They’d been subdued early. But they became energised. And it was because the Wallabies had come to play. The visitors seemed to be the team that wanted it more.
And then the All Blacks went 70 metres, hot skill and support play, waves of black jumpers, men in motion, hot hands before mighty Brodie Rettalick went under the posts, smiling through his black mouthguard like Frankenstein set free.
The Wallabies came again. Gee it was a good game. Ball in motion. Offloads. Jumper pulling. Valetini and Ardie Savea had a ding-dong go. The Wallabies backs did not die wondering. They continued to play.
The crowd got into it. Rugby fans, they know a good game and appreciated a committed, strong opposition.
Pressure told and Lolesio’s penalty goal made it 14-8. Then his dud of a cross-kick gifted the All Blacks possession in the Australian 22. Of course it told. Savea crashed over. Lolesio is a work in progress. His work is rocks or diamonds.
And yet still he had a go. They all did. Kellaway came hard again. Valetini, too, he was huge the first half. Hooper did Hooper, charged up field. The All Blacks infringed, cynically, maintained a 15-man side. The Wallabies took a scrum under the posts, twice, when three points were certain.
It paid off. McDermott, who’s looked electric in gold, went under the posts and at half-time the All Blacks led by six. And the Wallabies’ path to success was clear: don’t give the All Blacks the ball.
They did and they were touched up.
And yet, as a Wallabies supporter, it was heartening to see the “have a go” spirit in action. Rennie has imbued his young men with the mandate: Be you. Do you. And go big or die trying.
They died at Eden Park on Saturday night. At least they died trying.
docrugby
Roar Rookie
The All Blacks had to wait from 87 to 2011 to win Bill back...we had to wear the chokers tag, year after year after year. But when it came and it was by a whisker, I let out a primal scream that my ancestors would have heard. It'll come for you guys and how sweet it will be... I won't like it but I will remember what I felt and applaud it.
Merlin
Roar Rookie
Kobus Wiese @4KobusWiese All Blacks displaying how rugby should be played!
Goady
Roar Rookie
“Not even the repetitive trash talk and ‘aura’ bs“ sounded like you had an issue!
moaman
Roar Guru
Best you take a lesson from all those years mate and not jump on cheep print bandwagons. And while we are at it, best you brush up on your reading comprehension skills, cobber. I have already said--clearly-I had no problem with Kellaway or what he said.
Goady
Roar Rookie
That however is nothing more than fluff around the edges. For me the Wallabies never gave themselves a chance with selections.
Goady
Roar Rookie
Best you take a lesson from all those years mate and not jump on cheep print bandwagons. For the real story chk out the SMH article regarding the full interview, and Dave’s comments regarding the selective editing of what Kellaway said.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
All a big conspiracy isn’t it? It didn’t take long for us to bring back the Kispiracy talk this season, I’m impressed.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Never go back? Except you know, when they do. We saw multiple replays of Reiko’s foot in touch in the first Bledisloe last year in Wellington.
moaman
Roar Guru
Goady, I had no beef whatsoever with what Kellaway said. I am just too long in the tooth to have any patience left for crap I have heard thousands of times before.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
To be fair, that was a media beat up that does appear to be taken out of context. I haven’t seen the interview, but I’ve heard a breakdown of it was more that Kellaway had been thinking about ‘THE ALL BLACKS AT EDEN PARK’ (to the sound of a choir of Angels). Then after playing them, he realised they are just a team and the game was just; the All Blacks at Eden Park. It might be a retcon move to take the conversation away from Auras and what not. But I don’t think any players actually talk in those terms much at anyway, so it does make sense. Also, your right in that pregame, there is a lot of talking that doesn’t need to happen.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Getting 57 put on you is pretty rough. I guess some leeway might be given considering it was the All Blacks at Eden Park. I mean, if any team was going to do it, and if it was going to happen anywhere, you’d put smart money on ABs at Eden.
Paulo
Roar Rookie
Thanks Peter, I was going to look it up as I couldn’t remember off the top of my head. But… then I didn’t. I think as long as the team progresses and shows signs of improving and actually getting the game plan and execution for a full 80, even if they may not get the results. Of course, if they don’t get results they HAVE to happen next year.
Goady
Roar Rookie
I think you need to be very careful about what you read in the media, the “aura” comment was totally out of context and had nothing to do with the wallabies attitude towards the AB’s.
jaysper
Roar Guru
Ok, so I'm a kiwi and biased of course. But I'd much rather have my team for my team go down in a blaze of glory trying to win than go down in a whimper just trying to lose by a small margin.
A good point. Rennie is still early in his regime and no one is calling for his head, etc. People seem to be sugar coating this loss with a 'promising signs' narrative. I think we need to get our defence right and then build on from that. Conceding 57 points in cricket terms is like a batting team making 500. You would expect some questions to be asked.
Alec Mudie
Roar Rookie
Last year in the 3rd test Aussie brought the "Niggle" and it worked. I noted that in the test yesterday they did the same but the AB's didn't react (as much) this time. My point being, the AB's learned their lesson but Australia forgot theirs. Last point, "Don't poke the bear unless you know how to handle the fallout"
Doctordbx
Roar Rookie
"It was the dumbest play all game." Did you not watch the whole game?
CUW
Roar Rookie
i think the issue with Lolo and Toomua is simillar to having both Mounga and barret at the same time. both are more or less 10s and both are supposed to manage u cant have 2 managers running the same show - it leads to confusion and conflicts tho Havilii is capable at 10 he is not cramping mounga - and they play together so there is good understanding from crusaders. for aussy the centers and halves are all newbies - i think they could have benefitted having someone like Kurindrani defensively and JOC in attack.
CUW
Roar Rookie
easily France B team misssing names includes Ollivon Ntamac Vakatawa Willemse Leroux Alldritt Dupont Jalibert Dulin from what i remember .... and i cant remember front rowers :silly: Olivon regular captain!!!
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Roar Guru
I knew before the game that we had just poked the bear, and had either challenged it, or inspired it to dig deeper into its physical IP. I painted a few ideal scenarios pre-game, and then we deliver execution that was very ‘not ideal’. Despite running into 3 kiwi mates before breakfast this morning (thankfully not chest beaters) I can’t say I’m too depressed about this one. We’ve sadly learnt to watch without any rigid expectation over here. I am happy to proceed with the Rennievation experiment. If he, and the joeys can attend to every lesson that painful experience offers, they will have enrolled in test rugby university. Though I don’t know if any will, and if so, how much they will study to reverse that performance. We did do much right in that game, but what we did wrong, repeatedly, was crucial. A test hooker who cannot throw straight in that context, needs a new contract. Jobkeeper wages unless he hits 1000 consecutive straight throws every week.