After the high of the Wallabies’ stirring double defeat of the World Champion Springboks, their performance against Argentina carried a sense of deflation for coach Dave Rennie.
The Wallabies made hard work of a 27-8 win over Los Pumas in Townsville, but Rennie’s disappointment at least shows how far this team has come in less than a year, after two draws with this opponent in 2020.
It was a subdued Rennie who fronted the post-match media conference.
“We’re always looking for perfection aren’t we? I just thought last week we were really clinical,” Rennie said before suggesting his players might hve been put off by the similarity of the jerseys.
The Pumas played in a dark blue and black kits, and the Australians were in their dark green indigenous heritage kit rather than their usual gold.
“It was not as clinical tonight. We need to be better there and we’ll review that,” said Rennie.
“I don’t know whether the dark green and dark blue jerseys had any affect around the decisions the boys made. Looking from upstairs there were some clear draw pass opportunities to put someone free.”
He added, jokingly: “So it gives us a chance to be grumpy through the review after a win.”
Rennie said his frustration stemmed from Australia’s inability to shake off the Pumas challenge, allowing the South Amercians to dictate the game in the first 20 minutes after half time.
“There’s probably a bit of frustration in that we had a lot of opportunities late to put them out of the game and didn’t do the obvious,” Rennie said.
“You’ve got to throw one more pass. But we worked hard, we had to sustain a lot of pressure 20 minutes after half time. I guess mixed emotions – happy to win but we need to be better.
“We made a few errors and got punished.
“It was a pretty fast first half. We got a lot of really quick ball and felt the Pumas were just hanging in. They were able to control the ball and the pace of the game in the third 20 and that made it difficult for us to put the foot on the throat.
“We were probably lucky to get a couple of penalties turned over which helped us wrestle momentum back but first time we got back down their end in the second half we should have scored [a try] but we only got three points for it.
“We had a number of line breaks late in the game where we give it to the guy next to us and we score. In tight games we’ve got to be clinical and that’s something to look at.”
Rennie said there were positives in the return of James O’Connor as a second half replacement and the form of Samu Kerevi, Australia’s most destructive runner once again.
“It’s obviously great for Rabs to be back in the Test arena – he’s missed out on every Test this year through injury so he’ll take a bit of confidence out of that.”
On Kerevi he added: “Hhe was excellent again. It’s just his ability to break tackles and get in behind defence and create problems. Excellent in every game he’s played so far.”
The Wallabies had set piece issues, having several lineouts pilfered and never really asserting their dominance a the scrum, while referee Matt Carley was quick to blow for infringements.
It’s always debatable decisions made around who’s dominant and who’s not,” Rennie said. “We’ll liaise directly with Matt around this sort of stuff. From a lineout point of view they were able to steal a couple. I think we need to play with a bit more tempo get there, get it in.”
Captain Michael Hooper was a little more upbeat than the coach sitting next to him.
“Like Dave said we’re really pleased to get the win,” Hooper said. “We drew these games last year so it’s really pleasing for us to take a step forward.
“Argentina can be really dangerous and we came out of the blocks well. We let them in the game with ill discipline there and we didn’t execute our maul that great. We got put to the sword there a few times so there’s definitely some stuff to work on.”
Asked what pleased him, Hooper replied: “Our ability to move the ball around in the early part of the game. I think everyone’s pulling their weight really nicely.
“Obviously Samu getting us go forward and then some really smart options. We’re sticking to the script, mostly. I think we’re creating some belief around how we want to play and what Wallaby rugby looks like.
“The coaching staff’s been excellent giving us a really direct plan to go into the game that we can execute.
“Then getting the balance of reinforcing the good stuff and having a bit of edge around the stuff that we can get better at. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.
“We’ve had a couple of decent performances. We’ll enjoy this one without doubt, but there are no easy Test matches in the world anymore and we want to be proud of the performances that we put out.”
jim
Guest
Has anybody else noticed how another paper has already declared Kerevi as the world's best centre and that"Cooper will lead the Wallabies to the RWC final" off the back of three wins. Somebody needs to get a grip or we will soon have a mission to the Vatican (on a govt jet of course and fully funded) to have Hopper declared a saint.
Pogo
Roar Rookie
I am talking about the whole test season not one game – that was the context of all my comments, which was actually very clear when I said “both have dropped balls through the whole season”
PeterK
Roar Guru
Gordon's form is pretty poor and his ceiling is a lot lower than McDermotts. Powell is the one who is hard done by IMO, he has the second best pass behind White, has a better kicking game than McDermott, but is the weakest runner.
Crusher_13
Roar Rookie
So it’s all the 2s fault? No onus on the caller? Jumper? Lifters? It’s all well and good to blame people, but when it is a collective the collective should take responsibility, while the 2 “takes centre stage” how do you specifically know he didn’t do his job perfectly but was let down by the jumpers or lifters? I don’t know if he did it right or not, but I did see the pumas players get in front. And if we go back to the first NZ test, the lineout issues then were laid at the feet of the jumpers when the AB jumper was getting in front. And if you read what “Wallabies_Larkham” said initially you would see that he said “ fainga’a the hooker back to his bad habits again..” so I was asking what those bad habits are.
Rhys
Roar Rookie
Rennie said as much, don’t think it’ll be masses of changes like the ABs did.
Big Dave
Roar Rookie
It clashes with Romania. Big problem there.
The Yabbie
Roar Rookie
D, are you nuts? There is a collective responsibility to win the lineout and "2" is centre stage.
The Yabbie
Roar Rookie
C;Mate Swain is better off the pine.
The Yabbie
Roar Rookie
Tate will, I hope be a good 9 but he didn't have a shocker, he's just out of his depth and I feel no one can see it. Yes he can run a bit but that should be the icing on the cake for a 9. It's not his first priority. Jake is a way better 9. He reads the game at a level that is 2 steps ahead.
sheek
Roar Guru
DaveJ, Personally, I prefer the green to the yellow, so I'm delighted the Indigenous jersey is predominately in green. Who says we can't have green as our predominant colour? When we play the Boks the away team can wear their alternate jersey, which for us would then be yellow. The Kangaroos are predominately green & I think it's a great jersey. And the Baggy Greens (after the cap) is the unofficial name of our test cricket team. BTW, this is the age of going green!
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
I thought we looked good in the last 15, only let down by one or two individual errors. I’m sure I recall JOC holding the ball I space and begging for somebody outside to straighten to let him pass it to him for a stroll in. And JOC also messed up an inside ball to MK. Otherwise we had them on the rack and displayed patience, skill and power. I was pleased they finished strongly after that below par third 20. Mind you, before the game and particularly the first 20, I’d have been happy with any win
Rhys
Roar Rookie
Quade, Kerevi etc. are seeking releases for it. I think (I hope!) that means Quade will be in DR's longer term future plans. Meanwhile I read RA is working on how to bring back the other overseas boys from what I have read (e.g. Arnold, Latu, Skelton, etc) in the future. They are seeking getting them back into Super rugby but if not will pull them into the WBs squad from Europe.
Rhys
Roar Rookie
Daugunu has been in the squad but I agree, probably will be Wright as he hasn't had to comeback from injury. Either of them on the bench though is not bad, as Kellaway can switch to FB and Hodge anywhere in the backline. Don't think DR will do anything enmasse though, he said only a couple changes, think MacMahon will get a go though.
Big A
Roar Rookie
i noticed that too - in both the last two matches - TM has looked slow when he's come on - looks like he's gone off the boil a bit since Bled 3
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
Amazon Prime in Northern Hemisphere. All autumn internationals on Amazon Prime. Not sure if that is going to be the same down south.
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
One area Wallabies need to address is their carrying into contact. All year we’ve been too loose with our carrying into contact. We’re lucky Arg isn’t the counter attack team like NZ is, as yesterday could have been much tighter if they punished us when we’d frequently knock it on carrying into contact.
Big A
Roar Rookie
im actually starting to warm to Sean - it hasn't been the same without Gordon for a couple of years now but Seannie is certainly getting there - he lights up the telecast on STAN - even if he overdoes the pronunciation bit with the australian/pacifica dudes ....... i tend to remember a certain female commentator with SBS soccer who came unstuck with trying to go too heavy on the pronunciation of the european names - it's a fine line with name pronunciation - where does it end ? - what happens when we get to Japan with their names - i'm sure a lot of the Boks and Puma names are not being called the way they sound in their native tongue - imo the best way to pronounce a non-aussie name in australia is to convert it to the way it reads in aussie - in other words, when in rome do as the romans do - otherwise where does it end
Big A
Roar Rookie
Roger Gould was interviewed last week by Tim Horan on the Stan show Rugby Heaven - was good to see him again - legend
Muglair
Roar Rookie
A solid if slightly disappointing performance. Argentina are a side we do tend to struggle against so I thought we did well not to lose our shape when the game went against us.
Big A
Roar Rookie
and doesnt need to go through ridiculous pre kick routine that Banksie fools everyone into thinking that his kicks are better than they really are - Hodge is the longest kicker we've had since the days of Roger Gould - we should back him from here on in. IMO we are now starting to lock guys in to positions so we can focus on the questionable ones e.g. 11 (if MK is not available), all other backline spots are now healthily being contested by at least 2 options - well done DR and coaches.