Wallabies vs Argentina: Wallabies fall to Argentina 34-31, Eddie Jones remains winless on return
Eddie Jones lamented the errors of his side in their loss against Argentina, but says he remains confident the Wallabies can turn it around in time to challenege for the World Cup.
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Wallabies fans can rest easy.
Anyone who was still hoping to get a ticket to this year’s World Cup final can stop worrying.
They can save their money now and hope for better luck getting a seat at one of Taylor Swift’s concerts because the Wallabies don’t look as though they have a hope in the world of making it to the big dance.
For Australia’s long-suffering fans, Saturday’s gut wrenching 34-31 loss to Argentina will almost come as a relief.
Stolen at the death, it was a shattering way to lose but the Wallabies deserved no better, because they were the architects of their own demise.
“To sum it up, probably gutted is one word that comes to mind,” Wallabies captain James Slipper said.
“I thought we turned up and started playing some good rugby but we kept putting pressure on ourselves.
“Ill discipline kept hurting us again. You just can’t win test matches playing that kind of rugby.
“With performances like that, we won’t go far at the World Cup.”
“We’re all really disappointed. We put a lot into that but we just couldn’t put enough pressure on the opposition,” Wallabies coach Eddie Jones said.
“Every time we got in position to put pressure, we either gave the ball back or didn’t defend hard enough. So there’s a couple of things we need to fix, which we can fix with a lot of hard work and if we’re prepared to do the hard work we’ll get the fix. I’m sure the players will.”
Despite the loss Jones said he remained confident the Wallabies can fix their mistakes in time to make a big run at the World Cup.
“Well, I never look at it as discipline. To me, it’s errors. When you give the ball back as much as we did, you’re putting pressure on yourself and that’s what we did.
“I’m 100% confident. At the moment it seems that we’re miles away from where we need to be but all this is going to make us harder and more hungry to get it right.
“We’re a team that needs to change. We know that. And that’s the reason I’m here in the job, that it needs to change. We’re not seeing the change in terms of results at the moment, but we’ll see that.”
The wowsers who have long been convinced the Wallabies carry on like pampered poodles with more bark than bite, won’t be surprised by the train wreck they witnessed.
One thing is for sure, the Wallabies certainly can’t be accused of peaking too early because they still haven’t fired a shot since Eddie Jones took over from Dave Rennie.
Following last weekend’s flogging in South Africa, and with two warm up matches to come against New Zealand and one against France – it’s possible the Wallabies will go into the World Cup off the back of five straight losses.
They do have a relatively easy draw in France but could face the Michael Cheika-coached Pumas in the quarterfinals, so nothing is guaranteed.
“I thought we deserved to win the game, Australia were really good but I think we managed things very well,” Cheika said.
“I’m really happy.”
There were at least some positive signs but not enough to sugar-coat the bitter reality of losing yet another close match.
The Wallabies have become masters of snatching defeat from the jaws because they keep making the same mistakes over and over again – coughing up possession too easily, missing one-on-one tackles and giving away far too many penalties.
The Wallabies had a chance to win the match when winger Mark Nawaqanitawase scored a length of the field intercept try with four minutes to go, but they couldn’t hang on.
One of the few bright lights, Nawaqanitawase mustn’t have got the memo that the Wallabies have fooled themselves into believing that kicking the ball away is the key to success because he also set up an early try for Len Ikitau with a quick tap and go.
Samu Kerevi, back in the starting line-up, played strong, as did giant lock Will Skelton. Quade Cooper and rookie replacement Carter Gordon also had their moments in attack, but the Wallabies were caught short in defence when Ikitau went off injured and Jones did not have an outside back on the bench to bring on.
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Originally published as Wallabies vs Argentina: Wallabies fall to Argentina 34-31, Eddie Jones remains winless on return