The Wallabies were uninspiring last week. Australia deserves better

The Wallabies’ performance against the Lions last week was a confidence-shaker in coach Joe Schmidt and the unusual handover plan Rugby Australia has constructed for his successor Les Kiss.

The 27-19 result itself was relatively easy to read – this column had predicted a 25-17 scoreline – but the Wallabies’ performance was far more uninspiring than that full-time score suggests.

Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in the Wallabies first Test against the British and Irish Lions.Credit: Getty Images

Assumptions that their passive performance against Fiji two weeks earlier was a one-off proved off the mark, and it cannot be taken for granted that the Wallabies will bounce back significantly at the MCG on Saturday as part of a natural shift in momentum during a three-Test series.

So these are nervous times for Schmidt and Rugby Australia. The coach is contracted through to the middle of next year, but if the series is 2-0 after Saturday night and the Wallabies’ resistance is appreciably milder than that generated by Toutai Kefu and his First Nations and Pasifika coaches on Tuesday, then Schmidt will be in lame-duck territory for the rest of his tenure.

The wisdom of Rugby Australia asking him to stay on while Kiss serves out his final season at the Reds will also be up for debate. It was sold as the smart continuity option, but that only makes sense if there is something worth continuing with.

Those are the high stakes at play in Melbourne, and it would be a cop-out not to point them out.

Of course, Schmidt has nothing to prove in terms of his coaching nous. He has a tonne of capital in the bank that he could cash in around the world as a result of his achievements in Ireland, and to a lesser extent with the All Blacks.

Consequently, criticism in Australia has largely been gentle, with Australians now conditioned to believe that all the team’s woes can be put on the well-documented structural issues within the national game, combined with bad governance decisions and various self-inflicted wounds of the past 20 years.

But still, Schmidt’s messaging in this series so far has hit the wrong note. Even before the first Test there was a reference to the “short runway” the Wallabies had, and the statement that accompanied the team announcement for the Melbourne Test included a line on how “the week’s preparation here in Melbourne has allowed us a bit more time together”.

Whatever the ins and outs of the Wallabies’ preparations – and Schmidt’s statements hint at his unhappiness – this is not a message that can be sold to the Australian rugby public, which has for more than a decade been asked to accept deferred gratification as one great plan or another unfolds, only for none to come to fruition.

It’s a line that goes way back, to even before the 2011 Rugby World Cup when Robbie Deans was granted a contract extension before the tournament and indicated afterwards the performance of younger players at that event pointed to a brighter future.

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt.Credit: Getty Images

The points made here would be much more muted had it not been for the performance of the First Nations and Pasifika team on Tuesday, and also the Waratahs in their tour game against the Lions.

Had those games been walkovers, as expected, we could have fallen into the comfortable old excuse about Australia “not having the cattle”, which is so much easier to process than the awkward business of posing hard questions.

But the fact is the First Nations and Pasifika side and the Waratahs rattled the Lions, and the tourists’ response on Tuesday was telling: after being punched on the nose by Kefu’s troops, they tried to go around them, not through them as needed. They lost the fight, even if their superior class won the evening in the end.

Schmidt poked a hole in their approach by highlighting the number of line breaks they conceded, but it was as clear as day that the Lions were upset by the First Nations and Pasifika’s line speed: they were stressed and started looking for the easier options with ball in hand, a concession to Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and Charlie Gamble in particular.

It is therefore not too much to ask of the Wallabies on Saturday that they put the Lions under serious pressure. Injuries are starting to take their toll on the Lions, and it is inconceivable that Tom Curry and Tadhg Beirne will be able to replicate their defiant performances in Brisbane.

Australia has a right to expect much better from the Wallabies in Melbourne, and will want answers if that isn’t the case.

All nine matches of The British & Irish Lions Tour to Australia are live & on demand on Stan Sport, with Wallabies Tests in 4K. All Test matches live and free on Channel 9 & 9Now.