Wallabies coach Dave Rennie preferred to focus on the “lot of heart” shown by his team rather than their calamitous failure to close out another close contest in the 30-29 loss to France.
French winger Damian Penaud scored with five minutes to play as a nervy Australia were unable to close out a win. How different would public perceptions be of Rennie’s team had they managed to see out Bledisloe I in Melbourne and then this game in front of a huge crowd in Paris against the 2023 World Cup favourites?
Rennie played down the significant errors that cost his team at the death.
Even after the France winning try the Wallabies had chances to steal it, only for a poor lineout throw from reserve hooker Folau Fainga’a – his second of his cameo – to kill momentum.
“I thought we defended really well our defensive maul again was really good and the set piece was reasonably solid – both sides lost a couple of lineouts,” Rennie said.
“It was pretty evenly matched I think. We needed to be able to camp a little bit more in their end of the field and we got rewarded when we got down there.
“It’s a game of inches. Four minutes left they put a bit of kick pressure on, Hodgey shanked one at the middle of the field and but even prior to that, Len Ikitau if he held his feet he’s straight through. We got away with a tight one last week and we finished second this time.”
Rennie was pleased with his team’s “excellent” preparation for the game and felt they handled France’s threats for the most part.
“They’re a big team with great athletes. You have to bar up defensively and put your body in harm’s way and I thought we did it really well for a big chunk.
“Where France are dangerous is from penalty advantage or from knock on advantages. They play a lot then and have great athletes in the backs and forwards who can hurt you.
Antoine Dupont of France is tackled by Nic White of Australia during the Autumn Nations Series match between France and Australia on November 05, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)
“They offloaded a hell of a lot more than us – I think the offloading count was like 16-2. When they’ve got the advantage they throw the ball around.
“Errors are a common part of the game and both sides made a lot of errors.”
One of those errors came just before halftime when Bernard Foley dropped the ball under pressure in the midfield. It was a similar mistake to the one a week earlier when Scotland’s Blair Kinghorn pounced and scored a runaway try.
Rennie suggested there might have been a French knock on the lead up.
“Unfortunately, you know one big error prior to halftime – I’m not sure if it was knocked on I’d like your view on that – it ended up being reasonably costly,” Rennie said.
“Likewise with Bobby’s [Rob Valetini’s] kick. He’s probably the best back-row kicker I’ve ever seen. So he would normally nail that and backed himself and it wasn’t his best.
“We’re not not looking at two or three or four errors. There was a lot of heart tonight and we can look at a number of things that happened late in the game or early in the game that were key moments in the end.”
Rennie praised the finishing of French match-winner Damian Penaud but felt Australia needed to be better in stopping his surge to the line.
“He’s one of the best wingers in the world. And he’s finished off a number of tries like that,” Rennie said.
“Given our time over again you’d hope to do a better job on that. I think we defended really well for a big chunk of the game and there was a handful of times where they had a bit of time and space and we were able to scramble and fight for each other and shut them down.
“So considering the amount of ball they had, to only get a couple of tries [against] tonight highlights the fact that we defend them pretty well for big chunks.”
The last man beaten for the try was Wallabies fullback Jock Campbell on his starting debut. He’d earlier put Australia in front with a second-half try.
“I thought he had a really strong performance considering where we were playing and who we were playing and only in his second Test, his first start,” said Rennie. “It was pretty cool, his mum and dad were in the stand and they’d be very proud tonight.”
He added Will Skelton – a 53rd minute replacement off the bench – would likely start next week against Italy.
“I thought he had a really big impact as we’d expected. And I look forward to getting more minutes out of him next week,” Rennie said.
There will be wholesale changes against the Italians, who beat Samoa comfortably earlier Sunday.
One player who won’t be sighted is Lalakai Foketi with Rennie saying his shin injury “looks significant” ahead of a scan on Monday.
“I’ve talked about sharing the load,” said Rennie. “Playing five Tests against Six Nations sides in consecutive weeks is pretty demanding.
“We want to utilise squad and give guys opportunities to impress. But we’re not going to do anything that doesn’t respect Italy. They had an excellent win and we’re well aware of their ability. We’re also looking big picture.
“We’re going to Ireland the following week and Wales the week after that.”
France meanwhile registered a national record 11th straight win.
We were playing for a record that dated back to the 1930s,” said France coach Fabien Galthie.
“Winning 11 consecutive games in a row in modern rugby is no small feat and I’m proud of the players because they went for it,” he added.
France had a first team who had not played together since their Grand Slam in the Six Nations last March and struggled with cohesion.
“We knew that two weeks of work could no make up for all these months not being together, especially against a team who have been playing together a lot recently,” said Galthie.
“It was a very tough game but we knew it would be tight. I’m very proud of the boys, they never gave up.”
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