Bledisloe Cup: Wallabies suffer largest ever defeat by New Zealand
As the Wallabies reel from a history making Bledisloe defeat, coach Dave Rennie needs to go back to the basics to give this young team any chance of developing, writes JAMIE PANDARAM.
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Time to simplify it.
Wallabies coach Dave Rennie is an astute rugby mind, with complex game plans and strategies.
But this was always going to be an uphill battle – a debutant midfield, inexperienced backline, rookie forwards. That told in the end.
We won’t see the potential of the Wallabies under Rennie for a couple of years.
And while there are some strong signs, losing by record margins will only dent confidence and counteract the developments being made on the training track.
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Australia’s inability to retain their ball, or mindlessly kick it away when they’d won it back, was reminiscent of so many previous incarnations of this team along the 18-year stretch of Bledisloe Cup woe.
We can afford this team some leeway given they’re early in their cycle of development.
But they need to show more nous under pressure.
The most disappointing aspect of this record 43-5 defeat to the All Blacks was the inability to change approach when necessary.
The playmakers needed to gather the team and promote a caution to the wind approach when down 19-0.
Instead, they chose to continue with their pre-match kicking strategy and gave valuable ball away. They failed to sense the different demands of the game.
The All Blacks took the offer and thumped the table with it.
That is what inexperience exposes.
The Wallabies will have a tough week ahead. One last Bledisloe match for the year next Saturday, in Brisbane, with nothing to play for but pride.
Rennie, who hasn’t hesitated to make changes in his opening three Tests in charge, certainly will tinker again.
What is crucial is that players understand the requirement to adjust as the situation calls.
They should be able to think on their feet when Plan A fails.
Securing their own ball is a must. Allowing Sam Whitelock, Sam Cane and Caleb Clarke to isolate ball-runners so easily is among the most pressing issues for Monday briefing.
Next is the ball-handling, particularly in between the 22-metre zones when players hesitate between caution and carelessness.
The more nuanced aspects of Rennie’s coaching will take many Tests to crystalise.
What is non-negotiable while that happens is the players’ ability to catch and pass, clean out rucks, change attacking plans on the run, and apply repeated pressure in defence. The simple rules of rugby.
New Zealand won by a record margin, without their best forward Ardie Savea, who will return next weekend.
Australia is coming from a long way back. The trajectories of the two teams since the 16-all draw in Wellington has been polar opposite.
Whatever they hope to achieve in Brisbane in seven days’ time can only happen if they do the basics right.
Match report: Wallabies make horrible history
– Julian Linden
There’s just no way anyone should sugar-coat that debacle.
The Wallabies 43-5 loss to New Zealand at ANZ Stadium - Australia’s heaviest defeat to the All Blacks in 117 years - was as ugly as the scoreboard suggests.
In a year where the world has been turned upside down and the impossible has become the norm - one horrible truth remains unchanged.
The Wallabies are still no match for the All Blacks when the pressure cooker atmosphere of the Bledisloe Cup gets turned up to full blast.
It’s now 18 years in a row that the All Blacks have held the trophy - if anyone’s still keeping count - with no end in sight of when the Wallabies will ever win it back.
“We’re hurting a lot from that,” Australia’s crestfallen skipper Michael Hooper said.
“We really wanted to fly into these two weeks, so it’s a hit to the confidence.”
For all the buzz and hype about the next generation of young players that are coming through, Saturday’s 38-point flogging was a humiliating reminder of what happens when you pit boys against men.
Dave Rennie nearly pulled off a miracle when the Wallabies drew the first test in Wellington three weeks ago but he’ll need the patience of Job before the Australians can seriously expect to beat the All Blacks in a series.
This Wallabies team will improve and there is genuine belief in the ranks that they’ll be among the contenders at the 2023 World Cup in France but for now, they remain a work in progress.
“We’re five to six weeks into a four year campaign,” Rennie said.
“All I can say is we’re going to keep working hard. We think we’ve got some good kids coming through. We need to respond immediately.”
Instead of getting better, the Wallabies have gone backwards in their last two matches - losing 27-7 in Auckland before this six tries to one hammering.
There were some highlight reel moments from Saturday’s match - Jordan Petaia’s break that set up a try for debutant Noah Lolesio and Marika Koroibete’s try saving tackle on Caleb Clarke that brought back memories of George Gregan’s matchwinning effort to stop Jeff Wilson way back in 1994 - but it was a horror show for the rest of the night.
“We were a long way off it tonight,” Hooper said. “We came up against a really slick out for ti it’s not up the standards we need to be.
This All Blacks team may not be as dominant as some of their previous sides, but they are just as ruthless once they find your weaknesses, and they found plenty in the Australians as they raced to a 26-0 lead by halftime - despite having two tries disallowed and being reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes when Jordie Barrett was yellow carded for elbowing Dane Haylett-Petty in the face.
The Wallabies also lost Filipo Daugunu to the sin bin when he clumsily made contact with Clarke in the air, with New Zealand opening the scoring while he was off when prop Karl Tu’inukuafe charged over the line.
Starved of possession, the Wallabies just made things worse for themselves by committing rugby’s three cardinal sins: missing tackles, dropping the ball and kicking it away whenever they did get their hands on the pill.
Former Australian test captain Phil Kearns., commentating on Fox Sports, said the Wallabies were their own worst enemies.
“The experience in the All Blacks backline is giving a bit of a lesson to the youngsters in the Wallaby backline,” he said.
“Brilliant from the All Blacks, but from the Wallabies if you do something at training you do it on the field, but if you don’t do it at training you don’t do it on the field.”
Wallaby legend Justin Harrison told Fox Sports the Wallabies gave themselves no chances by constantly trying to find longshot solutions.
“We are not playing captain obvious here. We know what has happened. But how do you start to mount a challenge to a 26-0 scoreline?
“What you do is remind yourself that sport and rugby never ask you to do something that you can’t do.
Richie Mo’unga had a field day, tormenting the Australians with his full repertoire of tricks and helping himself to two early tries, while hooker Dan Coles got one off the back of a rolling maul to put the result to bed by halftime.
The Wallabies played better in the second half but not enough to ever challenge the Kiwis, who brought on their reserves to join in the rout.
Petaia is the one youngster who already looks completely at home in the test arena and it was no surprise that he engineered Australia’s only try when he split the defence and offloaded to Lolesio, but New Zealand finished stronger.
If ever there was proof that the All Blacks are faster learners than the Wallabies, then it came with New Zealand’s final two tries.
Dropped after he spilt the ball over the line in the first test when he tried to plant it down one handed, Rieko Ioane made sure he had both hands on the ball this time when he dived over in the right corner off the back of a scrum.
Then Barrett made amends for his earlier indiscretion when he scored a runaway try under the sticks to complete New Zealand’s record 38-point margin over the Wallabies.
The Bledisloe Cup may be gone for this year, but there is still some silverware left to be decided, though it’s hard to see the Wallabies adding the Tri Nations trophy to their empty cabinet.
Next month’s final Bledisloe Cup in Brisbane will be followed by two tests against Argentina, who haven’t played an international since last year’s World Cup.
“I just don’t think we were accurate,” Hooper said.
“The times that we did make dents down the side we lost the ball, giving away possession too easily, and we didn’t kick smart
“Credit to the All Blacks, they were very good.”
FINAL SCORE
WALLABIES 5 (Lolesio try) defeated by ALL BLACKS 43 (Mo’unga 2, Tu’inukuafe, Coles, Ioane, J Barrett tries; Mo’unga 5 con; 1 pen)