Wallabies coach Dave Rennie indicated flyhalf Noah Lolesio has done enough to keep his place for the second Test in Sydney after the most assured performance of his young career against the All Blacks.
While Marika Koroibete was a clear player of the match after his try-saving, and scoring, heroics, Lolesio stood tall under pressure imposed by his standards and his failure to lock down the No.10 jersey.
The Wallabies needed a mature response to a flood of Springbok possession after the Australians took an early lead.
Lolesio admitted he hadn’t been happy with how he finished the series against England, where he wore the No.10 for all three games. He was subsequently dropped for Quade Cooper and James O’Connor was preferred for the disappointing defeat in San Juan.
“I’ve been through a shaky couple of weeks for myself after that English game,” Lolesio said.
“I probably took three, four weeks to have a solid look at my game and how I wanted to approach it. But I was a little bit nervous heading to this game, to be honest.
“But as soon as I found out I was playing, I tried to do everything in my will every day to put up the performance that not only myself I deserve, but the whole country deserves as well.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
“So I’m very happy with the performance but again, we won’t get too ahead of ourselves. We know we can play very well. But the challenge for us now is to be consistent.”
Rennie said the coaching staff was “really happy” for Lolesio, who has seen another veteran in Bernard Foley come into the camp.
“As we said going into the game, he’s played a lot of big footy, he’s played multiple Tests against New Zealand and England and France; so we had confidence that he would do the job and I thought he was excellent,” said Rennie.
Asked if he did enough to warrant some selection loyalty for the rest of The Rugby Championship, Rennie replied:
“We talk about earning the right to wear the jersey and he did that today. We played a big chunk of the game without the ball in that first half.
“But our ability to react and be clinical when it counted – you look at Marika’s try just after halftime and Noah’s understanding rather than slow the ball down and try and go around the edge.
“He’s a confident kid. We talked a lot about playing flatter and playing on top of the defensive line, smart kicking options, so it was good to see that from him today.”
Rennie said Lolesio had been downcast about the third Test against England.
“That’s good,” he said. “We want everyone striving to be as good as they can be. And he’s setting high standards for himself.”
Rennie recently complained that his message wasn’t getting through to the players, and O’Connor was seemingly cast aside because he failed to implement the game plan set by the coaches.
Another bugbear of Rennie’s was the poor starts from his team, which they addressed stunningly with a Fraser McReight try with one minute, two seconds on the clock.
“We prepared really well, it’s no guarantee to performance, but I’m rapt with the way we started,” said Rennie.
“We got 10-0 up and then we had possession again, and then we showed an enormous amount of character to defend for the next 20 odd minutes, at times down to 14, so you saw great examples; a really important defensive scrum, where we won a penalty, Marika getting across for the try-saver, so that was really important.
” And then we started the second half well again, I think the next 20 we dominated, and then as you’d expect from South Africa they came back and asked a lot of questions late. So we’re rapt with the result, and we’re well aware of the challenge of next week and backing that up, which we haven’t done this year.”
wigeye
Guest
Helps to do basics. And structures structures structures can't have enough structures
Zero_Cool
Roar Rookie
He wouldn't have made that much of a difference in that shorter period of time. Moving Hodge to fullback eliminated the Wright issue, and the Wallabies have adjusted their gameplan to take more advantage of McReight. Against Argentina, McReight really just slotted into Hooper's role and was used mostly as a tackler. While against South Africa, his tackle rate was about half what it was compared to Argentina, but obviously he was a constant threat to get over the ball if SA missed a clean out or didn't over comit to a ruck.
Zero_Cool
Roar Rookie
Is Noah the answer I don't think so, but between him and Foley, better the devil you know. Lolesio was fine, he didn't look like he was comfortable, but South Africa was pushed back by the very concerted kicking effort from the Wallabies.
Tim J
Roar Rookie
It was great to see him just sticking to the basics Train, it made a huge difference.. :thumbup:
Bourkos
Roar Rookie
Haha
tsuru
Roar Rookie
Following that link and links within that article I found that it appears the old stadium had the same capacity.
East Coast Aces
Roar Rookie
Was it a "such a good crowd"? Nowhere near sell out for one of the best home test matches we can have, against current world champs.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
But they haven’t banked on him solely and Quade. JOC was an option but he’s failed to deliver. Hodge remains a 4th choice option because he’s flawed. Which most 4th choices are. Otherwise they’d be a higher choice.
Bobby
Roar Rookie
True, he had 2 beauties. The tackle AND the try
Doctordbx
Roar Rookie
It's a predicament either way. I'm more than happy Lolesio had a great game. His best game ever for the Wallabies. Banking on solely him and Quade for the cup is risky especially given that Cooper might not make a full recovery.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
He just did his job which was exactly what was required of him.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Which is the maximum the stadium will allow.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
No. We were one injury away from selecting an uncapped 10. Which is what happens when you get multiple injuries in a position. How many nations have 4 or 5 experienced test capped players at 10?
Mactruck
Roar Rookie
45,500 thanks Google
Vince Martin
Roar Rookie
Lord Laurie’s fingerprints were all over that performance- bar line out but give SA credit for how good they were too - and we were smart enough to run a couple of throws to the front that worked well
Double Agent
Guest
MK had more than one highlight moment.
Double Agent
Guest
I thought it was two?
Mungbean74
Roar Rookie
I gave him a 10. What a cracker of a performance
Mungbean74
Roar Rookie
I noticed Hodges kicking style when kicking for touch, very awkward. Very few steps, no momentum, and kicking very square. Seems like he’s focused more on placement and direction. Where’s that driver we know he has in his artillery?
Bobby
Roar Rookie
Noah had a good but not great game. He didn't try "too hard" qnd credit to him. Marika was good and had a highlight reel moment with that Gregan-like moment. Unbelievable committment. Our bench were pretty average and Taniela continues with his form - substandard ! Lineouts were a shambles and I don't know who to be critical of - FF, Arnold or Philip ( or all 3 of them). Anyway, terrific win, but we need to repeat next week.