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Wallabies coach Dave Rennie seemed surprised with one question during his post match press conference after his team was ruthlessly dispatched by the All Blacks.
Asked to name the positives from the 40-14 loss at Eden Park, Rennie gave a wry smile.
“I’ll tell you in about two or three days when I’ve looked through the footage. There’s always some positives and there will be some good individual performances in there but as a group it’s not good enough,” Rennie said.
He’ll have to look extra hard to find any Australians who stood out in yet another miserable visit to Eden Park.
In contrast, the All Blacks had “studs” galore, with Jordie Barrett at 12 combining brilliantly with brother Beauden at 15, and Richie Mo’unga at No.10. Will Jordan contributed his 21st try in 21 Tests. It’s a rare combination for Ian Foster but surely set for more action in the build up to next year’s World Cup in France.
On the Australian side was mostly devastation. Pete Samu had another eye grabbing performance, although was not blameless as the All Blacks broke a staggering 29 tackles. Rennie was asked if he could fix the ill-discipline – and he responded that maybe it was all about selection.
“Pete Samu showed some steel,” said Harry Jones on The Roar’s Instant Reaction podcast. “He showed personal pride that he’s not going to get beaten in the contest. He tends to shrug off a lot of tacklers. I like the guy more and more.”
“He beats a lot of defenders,” added Brett McKay on the podcast.
“His first metre or so in contact is generally very good. Fraser McReight started there in the first couple of games but Pete Samu has taken that open side contest to another level now and McReight can see exactly the level he’s got to get to.”
Jim Tucker added: “Samu has shown a versatile ability as well. He competes hard on the ball was good in the contest and set up a try. I think McReight’s an outstanding player … but Samu has taken the challenge on and you can’t do better than have to whales of a game against the All Blacks.”
Pete Samu. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)
As for other positives, Tucker called out Nick Frost for his role in a Wallabies try, and replacement hooker Folau Fainga’a who “flew into everything while he was on the field.”
The Wallabies defeat sent Rennie’s win percentage in 29 Tests at the helm to 37.93 percent with 11 wins and three draws.
Afterwards he went on a tangent about the state of the game, saying: “I reckon it’s a tough game to referee at the moment. The game takes forever to play because of TMO chipping in as well. It’s messy isn’t it? It’s not a great product.”
Harry Jones took umbrage at the statement with a scathing reaction.
“It was difficult to see any cohesion at all until the final try,” Jones said. “It was the first time they put together any kind of movement and they scored. There was panic. There was no composure. There was little voice.
“I look at a coach, a captain and a senior group and I see a lack of composure, little poise, bad games on the road.
“I wouldn’t start bashing someone else or some abstract idea or the refs – it’s your players who are making those mistakes. I also say this: you pick your captains, you picked this captain, and it looks like the refs are not really loving them that much right now.
“I think you should stop deflecting and say I am steering myself into the worst record in Wallaby history, why? Maybe there’s some wholesale changes to make, and maybe don’t be sarcastic about some things and actually do something.”
Wallabies head coach Dave Rennie. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)
The issue of the Australians’ relations with referees was taken up by the Stan Sport crew post game with Drew Mitchell asked if they have an “arrogance” problem in the eyes of officials.
“Look, If there is a perception, then perception is reality,” Mitchell said. “If that’s the perception the ref is holding, let’s just assume they do… look, I’m guilty of it, we’re all guilty at times of whinging because we’re emotionally invested in this.
“When there is a 50/50, of course, you’re going to go to the bias where you’re emotionally invested. Last week I was against Mathieu Raynal because emotionally I felt like we got the wrong rub of the green.”
“It does work against you . You look at the way the ref spoke to Nic White today when he told him ‘If that was directed at me, you’re going off the field’.
“Those types of interactions with referees give you an insight as to how they feel or how they position themselves against these players or teams.”
There is more than a hint of arrogance right through the Wallabies dealings with those outside their bubble. Rennie, and his staff, too often go on the defensive or fire up about what he perceives to be negative questions from reporters. But it’s hard to ask positive questions in the aftermath of defeats.
The last 10 Wallabies coaches have all had win percentages of 50 percent or higher. Rennie can’t end with the worst however the next 12 months pans out. But Des Connor, who coached 14 times for just two wins, and Bryan Palmer who lost four from four, are the only coaches in the past 60 years with worse records than Rennie. None have a worse record since Connor called it quits in 1971.
Brett McKay summed up the feeling of many fans when he talked of the fluctuations between the Wallabies’ best and worst performances.
“My biggest gripe out of the performance is that so many players who have done so many good things over the last 12 or 18 months have again proven themselves to be rocks or diamonds.
“And there’s any number of players that you want to throw up who fall into this. You’ve got to say Jed Holloway, Rob Valetini, Harry Wilson, Bernard Foley, who was certainly the other extreme after last week, Andrew Kellaway, Tom Wright. They all had moments that they just rather take back.”
One of those moments was a senseless decision by Wright to take a quick tap and kick ahead into New Zealand cover.
“I literally groaned,” said Harry Jones. “You quick tap then you kick? It makes zero sense.”
Jim Tucker picked out Jordan Petaia and Holloway as his “stock falling” men from Eden Park.
“I really had high hopes for Jordie Petaia this year, that this would be a breakout year for him,” Tucker said.
“I’ve been disappointed with his whole year to be honest in terms of Test play. He’s making too many errors for someone who should have had that period of time where they’re out of his game.”
He added: “I’ve got to see a bit more of Jed Holloway to be convinced, whether his work rate measures up to some of the top locks around the place. Very much a question mark, if it does or not. Our scrum has been pretty solid at various times this year but there were real issues tonight.”
The nature of the defeat has also sparked a discussion about soft factors such as the Wallabies desire.
On the Stan coverage Allana Ferguson said the Wallabies ‘crumbled’ under the pressure, but that was met with a passionate response from Justin Harrison.
“I think it’s important to recognise that New Zealand don’t have a mortgage on the jersey and national pride when they lose or win Test matches and they have fear of losing,” said Harrison.
“Every single time you take a Wallaby jersey onto the field, you have the same amount of pride in wearing that jersey.
“Now what we’re searching for is a team that has consistency. For the first 20 minutes Harry Wilson was running great lines, Pete Samu, (Lalakai) Foketi was dominant in the middle of the field. We had some adversity thrown at us, we had over 25 missed tackles and we had over 13 or 14 handling errors.
“Now that is not a lack of pride and a lack of knowing what it means to wear the Wallaby jersey. So let’s arrest this thing that New Zealand have a fear of losing so they never lose. It’s not a lack of skill. The All Blacks have played very well.
“New Zealand have played poorly last week, Australia had that game won until the last 30 seconds and then came over to Eden Park – the All Blacks reacted well. Let’s not talk about the Wallabies are in disaster zones and they need to arrest all of these things that they’ve just had go wrong for them. There’s a pathway back to seeing what we saw last week, intertwined with the adversity thrown at them tonight.”