As it happened: Wallabies survive Georgian fightback for third win under Schmidt

That’s all she wrote from Allianz Stadium folks. Thanks so much for following along the live updates.

I will leave with Jonny Drennan’s match report. He sums up a chaotic afternoon nicely.

“The record books will record the Wallabies’ fourth successive Test victory – the first time they have strung four wins together since 2021 – after dispatching Georgia by 11 points in Sydney, but their second-half meltdown will perhaps live longest in the memory.

As ever with the Wallabies, it wasn’t straightforward.”

Read the match report in full here.

See you next time.

July was always going to be a tricky month for Joe Schmidt.

He was introducing himself to several of them at the end of June, and he had the multi-pronged task of not only pulling a shell-shocked team out of the dark hole of 2023, but trying to prepare a team to beat Wales and Georgia in Test matches - and audition a 35-man squad for roles in the Rugby Championship and beyond.

He took a punt and made large numbers of changes for each Test. There were seven debutants in the first Test, five changes in the second, and then 17 positional shifts in the last Test against Georgia.

There were nine players given Wallabies debuts in July, and the numbers of guys who returned from the Test wilderness was in the double-figures, too.

So credit where’s it due: three Test wins in that scenario is a decent effort. None of the Test wins were super impressive, but that’s probably not unexpected given each of the teams had never played together.

So what of the auditions? Did a standout 23 emerge?

Probably not. Only about half of that number presented inarguable cases, including the likes of Fraser McReight, Rob Valetini, Jake Gordon, James Slipper, Allan Alaalatoa and Hunter Paisami. Some of the rookies/recalls impressed, though, and names like Isaac Kailea, Josh Flook and Jeremy Williams will be regulars, too.

But Schmidt still has mountains of choices to make - and none stand out more than his no.10.

Did Noah Lolesio or Ben Donaldson do enough in their time to grab the jersey and own it? Did either bend under the pressure of the role? Will the pair continue to yo-yo in and out of the team?

We will find out soon. You suspect Schmidt would want to pick and stick with one. But which one?

Joe Schmidt is just the third Wallabies coach to win his first three Tests in charge.

He was circumspect about the latest victory over Georgia, given the fact he used July as both a chance to introduce himself to players, and then give them auditions. All while trying to win Test matches.

“It is only three weeks that we have been together, and we made 10 changes. We knew there was an element of risk in that,” Schmidt told Stan Sport.

“But I like the way we built our way into the game. We put a few nice tries together and built a lead, and it was really disappointing on the back of losing Filipo, they got back into the game and we were scrambling a little bit.

“We just have to stay moment focused and try to win the moment in front of our face, and not get distracted by the scoreboard or get distracted by decisions.

“In all the Test matches, we have conceded a penalty and then conceded another one and banked a few up, and put ourselves in a corner where we are under pressure. We have to make sure we stay present and deliver as best we can.

“We are just trying to offer opportunity and some guys have put their hands up, and some guys probably need to do a bit of work.”

Skipper Allan Alaalatoa has got the monkey off the back and survived his first game as Wallabies captain without a major calamity. His first game was in the defeat to Italy in Florence, and his second was at the MCG last year against New Zealand - where he did his achilles tendon.

And though Georgia threw a kitchen sink at the Wallabies, he’s captained them to a win tonight.

“The boys are happy ... I am very proud of the boys with how we dug deep there. We probably didn’t help ourselves with our discipline and we knew had to roll the sleeves up at times, with ‘Lipo’ (Daugunu) out for 20 minutes of the game,” Alaalatoa told Stan.

“Georgia, you to give credit to them, they never went away and that’s what we expected. It was a tough, physical game and I am very proud of the effort.”

Fraser McReight crashes over.Credit: Getty Images

Alaalatoa was happy with the Wallabies’ returns at maul time. They’d been under fire against Wales but repelled Georgia several times, and even scored a couple via their maul

“Really happy. It was something we spoke about over the last two games and the Georgians pride themselves on that set-piece. We wanted to take that personally today about not letting maul tries in, but also trying to bag a few as well,” Alaalatoa said.

Hard to argue with Fraser McReight being awarded the man of the match award. There were a number of players who didn’t enhance their names at Allianz Stadium, but the no.7 was not one of them. He was in everything.

McReight said the win was “very scrappy” but it was good to get the result.

“There are plenty of work ons. Our discipline, a lot of that game was pretty poor,” McReight told Stan Sport.

“I was super happy with our maul, both sides of the ball. There were times we lost the kicking game and our discipline really let us down. But that’s test footy. We found a way to win against a really quality Georgian side so credit to them.

“It is the first time we have won three in a row for a while, albeit they have been scrappy, we will take that. They’re Test wins and we are a young group together, with new staff and coaches. We are just going to keep building. There might be some lows through the year but it’s about riding that wave.”

Okay, you can breathe out again Wallabies fans.

The full-time siren has sounded and Australia have scored a 40-29 win.

But holy heck, they were made to work for it. The Wallabies looked good in parts, and they put enough solid connection together to score six tries. But they also looked awful in parts, and that was enough for Georgia to post four tries and make a hell of a game.

FULL-TIME: Wallabies 40-29

Well, this contest isn’t over.

Sloppy play yet again by the Wallabies has seen the Georgians scored another try. A penalty for a late hit by Nick Frost - albeit a rough call - saw the visitors get back upfield and the backline defence was shoddy enough for Tabutsadze to skin Tom Wright on the right sideline and score.

Buckle up folks.

70min: Wallabies 40 Georgia 29

Georgia’s fightback has been ruined by a lack of discipline, and they found themselves back on their own line soon enough.

This time McReight got the chocolates, via the same move and a rolling maul.

That’s eased the tension in the stadium with Australia leading by 16 with 15 minutes left.

63min: Wallabies 40 Georgia 24

The Wallabies looked to have scored a rolling maul try to McReight but Valetini was ruled to have stepped in front of the lineout receiver.

Reserve prop Alex Hodgman has entered the field, making him the fourth player to play Test rugby for both the All Blacks and the Wallabies.

The crowd was just announced as 26,139 and they are in for the ride of their life.

After Georgia lost a man to the sin-bin, and Australia lost another ball over the line, the Wallabies struck from a lineout 60 metres out. And Fraser McReight was the man.

The flanker dummied through a gap and raced 40 metres upfield, and handled twice before Rob Valetini barged over from close range to score.

And now the Wallabies are back to 15 men, too.

54min: Wallabies 33 Georgia 24