ANALYSIS: The Wallabies have backed the wrong horse as their No.10 project

The Wallabies desperately needed to unearth a new young flyhalf after the 2019 Rugby World Cup but, unfortunately, they’ve backed the wrong horse in Noah Lolesio.

No one should interpret that as laying the blame for the awful 28-27 loss to Italy in Florence on the 22-year-old’s doorstep. He made no big mistake of handling or a dumb late tackle. In fact, the Wallabies may well have gotten out of jail if he’d still been on the field to kick the final conversion.

 (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

The issue is broader. The Wallabies have now invested 16 Tests in a young No.10 who shows only fleeting signs of being able to control a game or ignite the big play to turn one.

Apart from neatly flattening up at the line and delivering a wide pass to Tom Wright for the first Wallabies try, Lolesio was near invisible.

Sure, he kicked cool matchwinners to beat France in Australia last year and produced a lovely break and pass for the key Fraser McReight try to sink South Africa in Adelaide this year.

They are moments. What the Wallabies need is a dictator at No.10 who runs 80 minutes not an experiment who is only a chance of deciding a game if paired with Nic White, who takes on 70 per cent of the game-control plays when he’s on.

Jim Tucker is joined by Brett McKay and Harry Jones to discuss Lolesio and the overall Wallabies performance on the Instant Reaction podcast

We get that coach Dave Rennie has limited choices and his top choice, Quade Cooper, is racing the World Cup clock with a major Achilles injury.

Bernard Foley has offered a bit with his veteran skills but, really, Australian rugby’s next long-term No.10 is still a mystery.

Test debutant Ben Donaldson was handed five minutes at the death against the Italians when Lolesio was replaced. It might not have been one of Rennie’s greatest calculations when it comes to substitutions.

The Wallabies trailed by six points at the time so the coach was basically saying, “We can still score a last-gasp try but you, as our most inexperienced back, will have to kick the conversion to win it.”

Like we said, it’s what Lolesio didn’t do in controlling the game. He almost looks like a reluctant kicker in general play and he’s a functional passer rather than a creative one. He’s a terrific young man and a major trump for the Brumbies but…

The Junior Wallabies thought him more of an inside centre. Donaldson is quicker, runs more squarely at the line and is a better attacker but he’s late to the party now.

Again, “The Italian Job” wasn’t bungled by any personal mistake from Lolesio. He had henchmen aplenty ticking those boxes, big and small. Actually, you can take your pick of “Blunder Bingo” because the Wallabies had every square covered by full-time.

The botched lineouts of throwers Folau Fainga’a and Lachie Lonergan. The wasteful, sloppy passes of wingers Tom Wright and Mark Nawaqanitawase, the poor tackle decisions by Jake Gordon and Tom Robertson.

The inaccurate Tate McDermott high ball and pass off the final scrum. The Len Ikitau kick dead in goal. The inability to sustain the clear half-time instructions beyond the few minutes it took to score the McReight try with excellent, direct, ruck-sharp rugby. Coming second at the ruck too often. Ill discipline at a gallop. Tick. Tick. Tick. Do we have to go on.

It’s a shame Rennie didn’t have Black Ferns’ World Cup centre Stacey Fluhler at his disposal to throw on. She’s a gun and knows a thing or two about cool precision to win on the biggest stage.

She can pass too. Many of us should have noticed in recent weeks that the Japan XV, Scots, French and now the Italians have all been more precise with passing rushes than Australians who claim them is part of their DNA.

It’s a much longer conversation about how little rugby is played in Australia that has affected those skills. Things like GPS schoolboys cocooned away from junior club footy and no Kiwi-style Bunnings NPC now the National Rugby Championship is defunct.

Make no mistake, this first-ever loss to Italy ranks right down there with the lowest moments of Wallabies’ history…the 1973 trip-up to Tonga and the 2011 stumble against Samoa.

Where to from here for the Wallabies?

Well, for starters Rennie has to pretty much pick his best XV for EVERY Test until the World Cup.

That’s seven Tests, not a lot. The best team will face world No.1 Ireland in Dublin next weekend.

That means more of Will Skelton at lock after his best Test for the Wallabies as an overseas-based player. He, at least, was utilised well with rumbles around the the back of lineouts and in the midfield where he dished two good offloads.

(Photo by Timothy Rogers/Getty Images)

Nawaqanitawase was busy and hungry for the ball. He stays ahead of stay-at-home winger Suliasi Vunivalu on that score alone entering 2023.

I’ll never lose faith in what the Wallabies are capable of. If this dire four-win season (from 12 Tests) has taught us anything it is that one week bears no relevance to the next.

Instead of “momentum”, fans have watched 12 Tests bearing no resemblance to the Test before or the Test after.

The Wallabies can lift three levels to fight and scrap and score good tries against the Irish. It’s the passages of play in between we are all worried about. Those where a better director of play would be a great help.