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The Wallabies’ World Cup campaign got off to the worst possible start in Pretoria and showed the mountain of work Eddie Jones faces to bring coherency to his squad with just four Tests left before the tournament kicks off in France.
The 43-12 pummeling in Pretoria, where the Wallabies scored the first and last tries but were outclassed in between, left Jones bristling, as evidenced by his testy clash with a South African journo.
Jones took four debutants to South Africa, but perhaps his most contentious pre-match decision was to give Suliasi Vunivalu a start on the right wing. It’s fair to say the former NRL star did nothing to silence his doubters.
It wasn’t just that his opposite winger Kurt-Lee Arendse scored a hat-trick of tries – although that is probably enough to tell the story of his poor performance.
He was ineffectual in attack – making 23 metres from four carries – and was yellow carded near the end for knocking the ball down to prevent Arendse a fourth try.
“He had some good parts,” Jones said afterwards. “When you’re playing off scarce possession and you’re playing against a team that is dominating territory … I’d never take too much into consideration (about) their performance.”
Speaking on The Roar’s Instant reaction podcast, Brett McKay was scathing of the NRL import and his impact on the Wallabies’ cohesion at the back.
“Australia’s back three were just never connected,” said McKay. “Vunivalu is going to get a whole lot of attention. He’s already trending on Twitter from Wallabies fans.
“He’s going to cop an absolute caning for that display and most of it will be justified. His positioning in defense was horrendous – his defence is never great anyway but his positioning tonight in this game was just hopeless.
Manie Libbok of South Africa outplayed Quade Cooper. (Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
“There are so many stocks falling across Wallabies ranks. I don’t think Quade Cooper had a great game and then Jordan Uelese, when he came on, had three line out throws pulled up not straight and that’s not what you want to see from your reserve hooker.”
Former All Blacks star Jeff Wilson went harder at Cooper on Sky Sport in NZ.
“Quade Cooper’s not the answer at 10,” he said. “If they want to go forward, if they want to go to a new era and play a different way Gordon’s got to be at 10. They couldn’t control the territory and if you can’t control territory against the Springboks you’re going to get hurt.”
Cooper was outshone by Springboks debutant No.10 Manie Libbok and one of the few bright spots came when he was replaced by Carter Gordon, who celebrated his try with a swan dive that The Roar’s Harry Jones, watching from the stands, said was met with disgust by Springboks fans.
Gordon must be a chance to come for a start in Sydney next week.
“I think he’s got to start next week against Argentina,” said Tim Horan on Stan Sport.
“Yes, it’s been late in the game, but he’s certainly made that little bit of difference to the width of the Wallabies.”
Eddie Jones said it was a tough ask for the four debutants – Tom Hooper had two defensive errors before leaving early with a shoulder injury, while Richie Arnold and Zane Nonggorr got on the park.
“That’s like in cricket parlance for a debutant batsman playing against the West Indies with four pacemen. The ball zinging around your head the whole time – you’re just ducking weaving trying to survive. So they survived today they’ll be better next game,” said Eddie Jones.
Jones has talked a good game ahead of his return match but this result will bring added scrutiny. Is it a case of the Emperor’s new clothes? And what does he do now?
(Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Iain Payten, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, questioned Jones’ tactics.
“Jones believes possession rugby is dead, and generally speaking, doesn’t want to hold the ball beyond three phases in high-pressure games. Hence the massive amount of kicking by Nic White at Loftus Versfeld, and assorted others,” he wrote.
“The problem is Australians don’t appear in tune with a tactical kicking plan and in Pretoria, the chasers simply weren’t in the contest. South Africa’s wingers cleaned up most contestable kicks, rendering the kicks a waste of possession. South Africa won the air and never looked troubled.
With the Wallabies playing off White, the ball rarely made it to Quade Cooper, a player who needs dozens of touches to be at his best.
“When Tate McDermott came on and Carter Gordon was able to handle the steering wheel and pass, the Wallabies looked more fluent. It was encouraging for Gordon on debut but also pointed to a now pressing question for Jones: does he hold firm with the territory-first mentality, or seek more balance and allow Cooper and Samu Kerevi to use the ball more?”
“It’s hard to say it’s a step back because with Eddie Jones in charge, that were starting from fresh anyway,” said McKay.
“I don’t know you can say they’ve gone backwards but what they now change and what sort of side he puts out for Argentina in Sydney next Saturday is going to be really interesting.
“The Argentina game would be the one he would have been t looking at to try a few blokes. Carter Gordon, starting at 10 is probably one of those. That’s worth doing but I feel like he’s got to find some combinations here. And he’s got to try and work out what he’s best side is.
“It is easy to say that he probably needs to make half a dozen changes to the starting side, but he was probably going to do that anyway. Will we actually know whether that’s, looking at what needs to be done or whether that’s a reflection of the performance in Pretoria?. It’s a hard one to judge at the moment.”
Australia’s set piece was destroyed – they conceded 13 penalties to three – and Harry Jones took aim at the Australian hookers. Dave Porecki was perhaps unfortunate to see yellow after being adjudged to have brought down a Boks maul as they steamed towards the try line.
Bright lights were few and far between.
“On the Australian side of things I think I can really only point to Will Skelton and Nick Frost, who I think were actually pretty good and contained the Boks’ locks pretty well all things considered,” said McKay.
“Neither line out was great tonight. I must say Skelton that was maybe his best Wallabies Test in a good which sort of speaks to the way his international career has been up and down.”
McKay also had praise for Marika Koroibete and Len Ikitau – “He did exploit Lukhanyo Am in defence a couple of times and make tackle busts and get around him and we get offloads away so he was he was pretty strong.”
Former Wallaby Stephen Hoiles said the game could be a defining one for players hoping to go to the World Cup.
“I think that Pete Samu went well coming off the bench when Tom Hooper came off early,” said Hoiles.
“The lineout struggled, three not straight throws in the second half from Uelese, put himself and the team under pressure. There’s a few big moments there. I look there are some good positives as well. Carter Gordon should probably start next week.
“I definitely think there’s a few guys there that said, ‘yeah, I’m ready for this level’, Carter Gordon being one of them And a couple of others we need to look at and going maybe that’s not the right way to go.”