The Eddie era is off and running. Unfortunately, it was the false start Eddie Jones and the Wallabies desperately didn’t want to occur but realistically was always on the cards.
Few international teams go to the Highveld to take on the Springboks as favourites, but this was not how Jones will have envisioned his return to playout.
The Wallabies were beaten in every facet of the game and paid the price for their errors to go down 43-12 at Loftus Versfeld.
It was the Wallabies’ eighth straight defeat at the venue since first playing there in 1963. It was also the same way Jones started his first tenure as Wallabies coach in 2001 after replacing Rod Macqueen, as John Eales’ side went down 20-15 also in Pretoria.
The Wallabies scored first through a perfectly executed backline play, as a sublime Quade Cooper ball and hands from Len Ikitau freed up Tom Wright to allow Marika Koroibete to do what he does best and sprint down the touchline to score.
But it was one-way traffic from that moment on, as the errors mounted, tackles were missed, scrums went down and shots at goal, when the Wallabies were still in the match, were missed. It was a full house of blunders, as the Wallabies’ lack of detail was brutally exposed where the air is at its thinnest in international rugby.
“This has been a disaster for Eddie Jones in his first Test match in charge,” declared two-time World Cup winner Tim Horan late in the match in commentary for Stan Sport.
In the end, the Wallabies conceded 43 straight points to be sent packing home before some brilliance from Carter Gordon after the final siren gave the visitors something to smile about. They’ll have less than a week to prepare for next Saturday’s second Rugby Championship Test against Michael Cheika’s Los Pumas.
The Wallabies were smashed at the collision by the Springboks at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on July 08, 2023 in Pretoria. (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
The Springboks were brilliant. They dominated the collisions and they outsmarted the Wallabies, particularly around the maul and decision making.
Manie Libbok was marvellous on his starting debut in the No.10 jersey and benefitted from a forward pack that cleaned up at the gain line.
It led to the Wallabies being smashed by referee Ben O’Keeffe, with Jones’ men on the end of a sobering 13-3 penalty count.
O’Keeffe also went to the pocket twice, showing yellow cards to hooker Dave Porecki (collapsing the maul) and winger Suliasi Vunivalu (deliberate knockdown) and awarding the Springboks penalty tries for a double dose of pain.
“There was an opportunity to come here and put in a game that we were proud of and, to be fair, we just defended the whole second half,” Wallabies co-captain James Slipper said.
“You’ve got to give credit to the Springboks, they put us under pressure. We’ll learn a lot from that.”
Asked what, Slipper emphasised the need to improve their discipline – a familiar theme in recent years.
“Our discipline, playing at the right end of the field. It’s a tough start but we’ve got a long year ahead of us, there’s plenty to come. We’ll keep working hard.”
Eddie Jones has a huge task ahead of him after the Wallabies were smashed in Pretoria. (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Jones has never sparred any prisoners throughout his two-decade career of international rugby. How he assesses his men who first got to wear the Wallabies jersey will be fascinating.
While changes were always expected given the short turnaround in Tests and long flight home, some fears were confirmed.
Although Reece Hodge’s big boot was helpful, modern rugby is about the gain line battle and Samu Kerevi’s side was missing.
Tom Hooper, who went off after half-an-hour with a shoulder injury, fell off a couple of tackles when the Wallabies were outnumbered on the fringes.
Vunivalu also wasn’t able to turn his reputation around despite his teammates inside him not helping his case.
But, in reality, with a badly beaten pack, few came away with their reputation in tact, including the replacement front-row with Jordan Uelese’s throwing issues once again coming home to roost.
Gordon’s brilliantly executed grubber and long range try was a beauty however and the confirmed the young No.10’s growing reputation.
“We got beaten to punch everywhere,” Jones said. “We got beaten in the set piece, we got beaten on at the gain line and beaten in the air and if you don’t win any of those contests it’s going to be a long day at the office.
“There wasn’t many positives today. We went out there to play with a bit more pace and we were able to do that for the first 20 minutes but weren’t able to convert any pressure we put on the Springboks into points. Of course the Springboks came back and every time they got an opportunity they converted it into points.
“‘It starts with the set piece and once they’re on top they’ve got their big ball runners and there’s no better team in the world than South Africa once they’ve got an edge to keep playing on top of you.”
Earlier, the Wallabies ran out to a 5-0 lead after Koroibete’s opening try.
But Australian rugby’s poor ability to exit their own line throughout Super Rugby followed them into the international arena, as Nic White was held up in a tackle from the kick restart. It allowed the Springboks to get on the scoreboard through Libbok.
Kurt-Lee Arendse scored a hat-trick to help lead the Springboks to a crushing win over the Wallabies at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on July 08, 2023. (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Then the Springboks showed how to do it, bursting through some poor defence and leaving a trail of badly exposed Wallabies defenders as Kurt-Lee Arendse eventually scored to help the home side to a 10-5 lead.
A Michael Hooper breakdown penalty midway through the half gave the Wallabies an opportunity to narrow the margin, but Reece Hodge missed from 46 metres out.
The failure to convert the opportunity was another telling sign of the next hour to come, as the Springboks made the Wallabies pay for putting too many forwards in the maul and spread the ball wide to Arendse to score his second easily.
Trailing 17-5, the Wallabies won a penalty on the stroke of half-time at the breakdown. Rather than kicking for territory, Hodge stepped up from 66m out but his rocket boot fell just short.
Needing a fast start in the second half, the Wallabies managed to come away unscathed to begin with.
But a kick out on the full from Len Ikitau only turned the pressure back on the Wallabies after defending their own line gallantly. Seconds later, Arendse had his third and any hopes of a comeback were dead in the Loftus graveyard.
Kerevi was rightly pinged for needlessly tackling Willie le Roux after hacking the ball into touch in the 53rd minute.
From the resulting lineout, Porecki was sent to the sin bin for collapsing the maul and a penalty try awarded.
The Boks moved further ahead when Vunivalu was also shown a yellow card for a deliberate knockdown. It was harsh but predictable given the way the law is applied, while du Toit’s try saw the Springboks score a sixth try.
Gordon’s brilliance gave the Wallabies something to smile about it, as the replacement playmaker swan dived over the line to finish a marvellous effort.
But there will be few smiles from Jones, with the Wallabies coach sternly aware of the giant task ahead of him with Australia’s World Cup opener in Paris exactly two months away.
Bear
Roar Rookie
I’m as pissed as everyone about the way they play, but blaming the coach early in his tenure just dog whistling. Perhaps the Roar should Rename itself to Bark! Certainly some players were well below test par. Tom Weight stands out but others played well as individuals …but not as a team. And that’s the point it’s a team game and until that’s how they play this will keep happening. Scrum much better MN good, QC played well, White not so well. Skelton was good as was no 6. 7 better for the run. Don’t blame the coach 2 games in, it’s a team game and the team was and is fractured! As for Peyper would do I start same for 6-2 bench. Watch out AB’s????
Humdinger
Roar Rookie
“You’ve got to give credit to the Springboks, they put us under pressure. We’ll learn a lot from that.” James, test match footy mate. You weren't expecting the Boks to put you under pressure ? Guess you have a PhD now.
stevemerrick7
Roar Rookie
God I wish we could get Pocock out of retirement/politics. Soooo miss him at the breakdown getting stuck in and pilfering balls left and right!
Jacko
Roar Rookie
Well Eddie should have also said that he got the plan all wrong, he picked the wrong team and he failed to read the opposition. Its pretty typical of Eddie to blame everything but his own failings and to me thats a weak coaches statement as it is him thats claiming they are world beaters one minute, demanding respect from SA over their selections, yet post match its all the players fault. Yep lets see how NZ go against SA. We are all keen to see that. Hoping for a quality and brutal match.
Francisco Roldan
Roar Rookie
I agree with you Andrew. In test rugby, if we exceed the digit on penalties we are in trouble. If the percentage of penalties focused on the breakdown exceeds 50% of the total, then we are close to a massive fail.
Brendan NH Fan
Roar Rookie
Eddie said on the pod that Oz teams were rubbish at setpeice apart from the Brumbies and that Argentina's problem 2016-2020 was they tried to play SR at test level. NZ teams a better at set piece but let's see how NZ go against an SA team that will be much more up for the fight. We saw a SRP ref apply test rules resulting in a 13-3 penalty count.
No, you’re right, he didn’t say that, but I actually wasn’t quoting him but a headline article on this website. Which as you know, can always misquote people to get views. It’s all about $$ & no integrity! Lol.. I can play for the wallabies, as in it’s a possibility. Whether it’s probable or likely is like the likelihood of me having $800 000 000 000 000 in my bank account on the next 15 minutes., very, very low. :stoked: Which is also the likelihood I believe Suli has of being the best winger in the world. He can but very, very unlikely. That may have been the reason for Eddie saying that to the media in the first place, to justify him picking Suli, but as Rennie has already seen from Suli at Super level.. didn’t waste his time picking him. Eddie should’ve seen that. Anyway I believe Suli played rugby first before league ( I could be wrong) but just has some issues preventing him from having a good work ethic. Def not worth the money they paid for him. I think the only guy who got the best out of him was Bellamy. Hopefully he and the Wallabies can turn things around. Let’s see how thing go.. :thumbup:
Jacko
Roar Rookie
What would make me feel good LP is if RA introduced a NRC and kept it operating for the next 200 years. Only then will we see improvements in the SR sides and the Wallabies and it launches opportunity for another 200 players above club land. The Wallabies atm have just enough sugar hit wins over the top sides to keep them believing that they dont need to do anything but with the Lions series then a home WC bringing in plenty of cash, now is the time before its too late. Nothing much gets achieved if only mentioned once!
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
Broken record, but at least you feel better whenever you say it.
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
If you think you can play for the Wallabies (and do better) then go for it. I know I couldn't get close. Anyway, at least you went and looked it up and now know he didn't ever say he was the best player. Hopefully now he sends him back to the Reds to teach him how to play.
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Big Dave
Roar Rookie
Nor was this our no. 1. Not when you see Suli, Uelese, Hodge at 12 etc and no Thor, Bell, Kerevi.
FatOldHalfback
Roar Rookie
Penalties, penalties, penalties. I love to say I told you so. Before the match I wrote here on Roar that if you give away 12+ penalties you lose. Penalty count was 13-3 (according to some bloke on the internet). Side conceding 13 lost (BTW giving up only 3 is outstanding), sure a few were forced at scrum time (and I didn't agree with most, I am an ex-halfback) but the rest were the usual mixture of off-side and ruck/maul penalties plus the 2 yellow card / penalty try instances. EJ will end as a failure if this continues.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
I dont think anyone genuinely believes the top Japan sides would beat SR sides Olly. I understand what you are saying but that extra pressure that the player isnt used to is the difference.
Big A
Roar Rookie
don’t you just love cricket – just when it seems you’re on the front foot you lose a few wickets and suddenly everything is on its head again – hopefully we can hang in there and do the business in one of the last two matches – who knows maybe the rain might intervene – things just got a bit harder overnight – i left them at 6 down with 75 to get – had a feeling they would make it
HittingGapsWithNoGas
Roar Rookie
100%. White was asked to kick, kick, kick and he was pretty pin point on many occasions. Tate and Gordon looked class when they came on but they were obviously liberated from the game plan when they came on so putting it down to just personnel isn’t fair. Hopefully there’s a bit more freedom to play “eyes-up footy” if the game plan’s not bearing fruit this weekend. Defence needs mountains of work for all.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
People are criticising White, Cooper and Hodge for Eddie’s game plan. The reality is they executed the plan reasonably well to their abilities. It was a poor game plan. Only Hodge was responsible for a few poorly executed kicks.
HittingGapsWithNoGas
Roar Rookie
Yeah to be fair he was sticking to a predetermined game plan that the Wallabies weren’t cut out for. Unfortunately that only becomes obvious in a game rather than in training.
Cec
Roar Rookie
Rhys, Test Match Rugby is never a trial game in the sense you can waste them and not care about the result or think there are nil implications. You’re 100% right there. Judging by all the comments, media coverage, Eddie’s reaction, plus all the millions tuned in to watch Ed fall on his face at the first hurdle, it wasn’t a trial. Not that many people care about trials or else we would have broken the Guinness Book of Records for Interest in a ‘trial game’. It would be fair to accept that people arguing, deflecting or feigning disinterest in this result are freaking disappointed that they backed the wrong horse, but hey it’s just the first hurdle and Ed may get back up. The only one on ‘trial’ should be Hamish, Eddie and Assist Coaches. :laughing:
Nah, Wallabies played better under Rennie. Still early days to go for Eddie though.