Wallabies coach Dave Rennie has been known to get grumpy after a decent win, so no prizes for guessing his current state of mind after the Wallabies gave up 18 penalties and nine handling errors in their loss to England on Sunday.
Adding to Rennie’s pain was his team stuck close to the dominant hosts for most of the journey, but failed to score a try for the first time this year.
Rennie accepted it was right that his team was on the end of a brutal penalty count and said fans deserved better. His best-laid plans for this match were derailed by injuries – Allan Alaalatoa and Taniela Tupou are expected to return next week against Wales, but Michael Hooper is now a concern after being replaced with a foot injury on 55 minutes.
But, not for the first time, ill-discipline left supporters struggling to find anything to be upbeat about, a mood clearly shared by Rennie.
Here’s everything Rennie had to say in his post-match press conference.
(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
On the penalty count and how it impacted his team
“We couldn’t get anything going,” said Rennie. “We got hammered in the penalty count – the possession and territory stats were in the 60s for England.
“They take us down there and we just made too many errors and dumb penalties. They put us under pressure so it was frustrating.
“There was a lot of character shown tonight. Halftime we hadn’t had a lot of ball or territory but it was 16-12 and we fought hard. I thought if we could string a little bit more phases together we could put them under a bit of heat but we were not accurate enough, not good enough, tonight.”
He said that against Scotland a week ago Australia had been upset with some of the decisions by French ref Romain Poite, but had no such complaints with the performance of South African Jaco Peyper despite the lopsided 18-9 count.
“We were pretty frustrated with the some of the penalties last week but we’re not going to complain about Jaco’s refereeing,” said Rennie.
“I thought he controlled the game pretty well and most of the issues were our own doing. We got ourselves in good position with the ball and we got stripped three times – we’ve got to be better.”
On the inability to put phases of play together
Rennie said he was not sure why Australia struggled to produce meaningful stretches of possession.
“We prepared really well,” he said. “It was probably one of our best weeks and we went on with good clarity and confidence. But we’re turning too much ball over, some individual mistakes and it put us under pressure.”
On if the Wallabies were overawed by the crowd
“I’m not sure how much the crowd’s got to do with it,” said Rennie. “It’s exciting for the boys to be up here, we’ve talked a lot about embracing it and we’re where we want to be.
“I think it’s got more to do with the fact that we’ve got to be accurate, you don’t get many opportunities at this level and we’ve got to be able to build pressure and we just didn’t do it for long enough.”
On if two straight losses is a setback for his team after five wins
“Yes, of course it’s a setback,” said Rennie. “The plan was to come over here and keep building on that. And we haven’t performed with the accuracy and consistency that we needed over here.
“They ask a lot of questions of you, put a lot of ball in the air and play a lot of territory. You’ve got to be disciplined and got to be accurate. And we were neither tonight.
“There’s plenty of character and courage in this group. What we need to be able to do is to score points on the back of that good defence. It’s not a lack of effort. But we’ve got to nail it. We’ve just got to be better on Saturdays.”
On England as a team
“They’re a quality side,” said Rennie. “From our point of view we weren’t able to apply enough pressure on them for long enough to stress them in areas where we thought there was genuine opportunity. They’re a good side, certainly very well coached and they’ve got very good depth.
“Still tonight, well below our best really, we were still in the fight, late in the piece, but you have to turn something into points. And so you got to give credit to England. They strangled us and pinned us down the other end of the field.”
On ending the season with a win in Wales
“It’s hugely important,” said Rennie. “I think our support we have back at home and support we have here deserve better so we definitely want to finish on a high.”
Written off ahead of the weekend in several quarters, the Crusaders have responded with full vengeance after smashing the fourth-placed Rebels 39-0 in an…
Ned Hanigan is one of the in-form forwards in Australian rugby who looks set to finally turn promise into quality on the international stage,…
As calls grow for the entire Rugby Australia board to be overthrown, new chairman Daniel Herbert described the agitators behind the movement as hypocrites…
Three things in the world of rugby have caught my eye this week, and got me thinking very hard about the way forward, and…
Amid a week of soul-searching for Stephen Larkham’s men, the Brumbies have received a massive boost ahead of Saturday’s home clash against the ladder-leading…
Jordan Petaia may have played his last match for the Reds, with the off-contract Wallabies back to miss the rest of the Super Rugby…
