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Taniela Tupou was the most relieved man in Scotland after the Wallabies’ 16-15 win against Scotland at Murrayfield.
After being thrust on as a halftime replacement for ineffectual Allan Alaalatoa, the Queenslander had his best performance of a disappointing and injury-affected year before a final-minute brain fart that should have sentenced Australia to an agonising loss.
Instead, Blair Kinghorn missed a relatively easy shot at the penalty conceded by Tupou and Dave Rennie’s men escaped with the narrowest of victories.
Rennie was calm and measured in the post-match and while he called out Tupou for a bad decision, but the Reds prop was part of a bench rotation that saw the team home. Jock Campbell and Langi Gleeson, a late call-up for injured Pete Samu, made it on for their debuts and will never forget winning their first Tests in such fashion.
So who else starred and who struggled?
Wallabies skipper James Slipper scored only the third Test try of his long career and was named the official man of the match.
On The Roar Rugby Instant Reaction podcast, Harry Jones lauded Slipper.
“I was super excited for James Slipper,” said Jones.
“He played quite a bit as a link man in this match. He had six carries with the ball and had 11 tackles – and a lot of those tackles were extremely crucial because Scotland were knocking on the door for a lot of this match.”
The Roar experts Brett McKay, Harry Jones and Jim Tucker discuss the Wallabies’ win in the Instant Reaction Podcast. Stream here or on your podcast app of choice
While Slipper got the post-match gong, Nick Frost must have run his captain close as best on the park, although he did play a part in Scotland’s opening try.
Jim Tucker was raving about the young lock – you can read his analysis here – and called for him to be partnered with Will Skelton next week against France. Skelton was sidelined from this game because it fell outside the official Test window.
It’s worth keeping in mind that Frost had decided to head overseas to play in Japan, feeling his pathway to the Wallabies was blocked. It’s a good thing Rugby Australia, and his Brumbies coach Dan McKellar in particular, were able to change his mind.
“Nick Frost is the fuller performer in the tight five for the Wallabies this year,” Tucker said. “Going forward, the Wallabies need Nick Frost who challenges in the lineout on opposition throws, and Will Skelton beside him.
“Sorry Cadeyrn Neville, solid performer, but we need a bit more dynamism there. I think that’s potentially a really good looking lock pairing. Frost is a very fine player. “
Wallabies coach Dave Rennie got good value from his bench players – particularly Tupou and Nic White, who finished the match with an excellent touch finder.
Bernard Foley of Australia is challenged by Sione Tuipulotu. (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)
“Taniela Tupou had his best game in a Wallabies jersey this year, barring that late penalty,” said Brett McKay on the podcast.
“Up to that point, I think he’d actually been quite good. He did get a steal not long before which probably gave him the confidence to have a crack at that last one.
“He won a scrum penalty straightaway he carried well, he had a bit of foot work before contact as well.
“What I liked about Whitey was he immediately flattened the attack up and that brought Bernard Foley closer to the line. And all of a sudden he was catching the ball with a defender a metre away from him and he was beating the first tackle.
“I just wish Bernard Foley would play flatter by default. Overall the bench impact was good. Ned Hanigan made some really important tackles and I think it all went went pretty well off there.”
Harry Jones was also impressed with White, who replaced Tate McDermott after his up and down impact.
“The Scottish commentators were saying he’s the most disliked rugby player on Earth. But he really rescued the match,” Jones said.
“I think that Tate was getting in trouble. He had that wonderful snipe. But the rest of that time he was on he was really struggling to read rucks to know when to go in and dig to know when to throw your hands up.
“He was getting a little bit down on himself. I think Nick just brought on this [attitude of] ‘we’re gonna put this to bed. We’re gonna take this home.’ The exits he made were longer than everyone else’s.”
It was a strange performance from McDermott, paired with No.10 Foley for the first time, and he had moments of rustiness after a stunning start.
Within minutes he had cut through the Scottish defence but lacked support and his kick ahead came to nothing.
Much of his later issues were to do with tardiness in the pack getting to breakdowns.
“We knew that Tate could run and open them up and he found a lot of space,” said Rennie.
“It was messy around the back of the ruck, especially down in the attack zone and so he got a little ball that was bobbing around and they came through and put pressure on. That affected the quality of his pass and the combination with Bernard. We’re happy with the contribution.”
Foley was the iceman all over again with his kicking – and his four from four was the difference as the Scots scored two tries to one. But he had a hard time making an impression with the ball in hand and his careless rushed pass under pressure gave Scotland their second try right after halftime. His kicking for the sideline was also far from his best.
Tom Banks, who recently returned via the Australia A tour, looked off Test pace at times and he was easily stepped past on the try line as Scotland’s Ollie Smith crossed for the opening try.
“Banks didn’t convince me on his positioning and it’s subtle things,” said Harry Jones.
“It’s not just the plays that ended up in a try or the time when the ball went over his head with terrible technique to try and catch it on a wet pitch.
“In general he was in bad positions and it made other people look bad. So when they do the actual wash up, they’re gonna see that the reason why someone missed this tackle was actually because Tom Banks was a step behind, which is understandable. He hasn’t played very much rugby.”
Tucker said his stock falling from this match was centre Hunter Paisami.
“He might not have been in the top three Australian centres this weekend,” Tucker said.
“You had Dylan Riley playing for Japan and he had a blinder and [Frankston born] Sione Tuipulotu, who had a really good game for Scotland here.
“Without wanting to be the dinosaur, when you’re looking at a point of difference player – probably like a Tim Horan or someone like that – that backline is missing some magic whether it’s from Foley or whether it’s from an inside centre.”
He pointed to the lead up to the second Scotland try where the backline was in a “complete mess” before losing the ball.
“That’s not a precision Australian side. The Australia that used to go to the northern hemisphere would have this confidence they’d be the silky best backline going into the UK, but that’s not the case.
“Now there’s some clumsiness there that or lack of precision. And they’ve really got to get some of those things sorted out. We haven’t got that magical player in the midfield yet.”