Tri-Nations: Wallabies blow lead as they pay the price for ill-discipline against Argentina

The Wallabies’ blew their chance to put themselves in the box seat for the Tri-Nations trophy as the Pumas goaded them at every opportunity.

Matt Philip of the Wallabies is tackled against the Pumas. Picture; Getty Images

When will the Wallabies ever learn?

Every time they look like they’ve turned the corner they just fall flat on their faces again.

The Wallabies should be eyeing a major piece of silverware to stick in the empty trophy cabinet but instead, they’re left wondering what went wrong after blowing a nine-point lead to draw 15-15 with the Pumas in Newcastle on Saturday.

Reece Hodge had a chance to win the game for Australia but his long-range penalty shot went wide – his only miss in six attempts at goal.

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But the opportunity for the Wallabies had gone long before then – and they only had themselves to blame.

“Really frustrated and really disappointed,” coach Dave Rennie said.

“At 15-6, we really had control of the game and we had chances to pin them into the corners and we had a fair bit of success with kicking and it looks like we got bored of it.

“We played and overplayed and turned the ball over and let them back into the game.

“We should have closed it out and really let ourselves down.

“We’ve just got to be better across the board.

“We were constantly passing messages down. Even in the first half, we had a lot of ball and we were trying to go around them a lot after squeezing them up.”

Wallabies lock Matt Philip is tackled by an Argentinian opponent. Picture: Getty Images

Discipline remains Australia’s biggest problem. The Wallabies still give away too many stupid penalties and cough up possession by pushing passes that aren’t on.

Worst of all, they keep taking the bait and retaliating to off the ball incidents that blow up in their faces.

The Pumas get a lot of praise for their passion but they deserve plenty of stick for their dirty little tricks – which include pulling hair, kicking players and blatantly lying on the ball.

The Wallabies know that but still fell for it and it cost them dearly though everything is not lost yet.

The Wallabies know that but still fall for it every time and it cost them dearly in Newcastle.

“Argentina didn’t look like scoring a try all night,” Rennie said.

“If we could have scored straight after halftime, it probably would have blown the game open. They’d made a lot of tackles and we felt they were fatiguing and they were just hanging in there.

“But we didn’t put them out of it and it hurt us in the end.”

Everything’s not lost just yet.

Unthinkable last month when the Wallabies were absolutely humiliated by the All Blacks at ANZ Stadium, Dave Rennie’s Australians could still end winning the Tri-Nations title.

Saturday’s bruising draw has made it harder but if they beat the Pumas at Bankwest Stadium in a fortnight’s time it will all come down to bonus points.

The key to turning things around can’t be any simpler – the Wallabies need to ditch a lot of the high-risk fancy stuff and go back to basics.

That means booting the ball away to play the game in Argentinian territory, controlling the set pieces and, most importantly, taking the points when they are on offer.

For the most part, that’s what they did on Saturday – opening up a 9-6 lead at half time and surging 15-6 ahead before the wheels fell off and Nicolas Sanchez got the Pumas back on level terms with his lethal boot.

Reece Hodge missed a late kick to win the match for the Wallabies. Picture: AFP

Whether they ever admit it or not, this is the way forward for this Wallabies team because they just have too many limitations to play any other way.

They did show some glimpses of magic – with Jordan Petaia and Tom Wright eliciting a few gasps from the crowd with their sleight of hand play – but these Wallabies aren’t the Harlem Globetrotters.

Despite having 63 per cent of possession and playing almost three quarters of the game in Argentina’s half all the Wallabies had to show for their efforts was Hodge’s five penalty goals.

Petaia was centimetres away from scoring what would have been an incredible acrobatic try off a perfectly weighted kick from Hunter Paisami but it was disallowed when replays showed his front row was just touching the dead ball line.

And Marika Koroibete had a try disallowed on the stroke of half time when the TMO correctly ruled that the last pass had floated forward – summing up Australia’s miserable night.

Originally published as Tri-Nations: Wallabies blow lead as they pay the price for ill-discipline against Argentina