After seven minutes of probing and prodding from both sides in Melbourne, a loose pass from Noah Lolesio put Tom Wright under pressure under his own posts, and looked to have created the first scoring opportunity for Wales.
Never fear, Lolesio knew what he was doing. When the ball ended up with Andrew Kellaway, he instinctively did the most un-Joe Schmidt thing he could do; chip and chase from his own goal-line. Seconds later, Filipo Daugunu was coasting in for a try and the Wallabies were on their way to a 36-28 win.
Handling the slippery conditions better, the Wallabies were good for their 17-0 lead, after 26 minutes. But all week, Wales coach Warren Gatland had spoken about his side “staying in the fight”, and his men did just that, closing the margin to 9 points at half-time.
By the 47th minute it was back to 23-21, the impressive Dewi Lake huge on the carry before Liam Williams scored, cutting back on the angle.
But after Alan Ala’alatoa squirreled over for his first Test try, it was Williams who made the crucial play for Australia, tipping a penalty kick infield – James Lowe-style – straight into the arms of a rushing Daugunu.
Filipo Daugunu of the Wallabies makes a break to score a try. (Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)
A Rio Dyer score still gave Wales a chance, but a fluffed attacking lineout – until then a source of profit for the visitors – would prove to be a last opportunity spurned.
Afterwards Schmidt struck a nice balance between a man with skip in his step befitting his 100 per cent coaching record, and a man in charge of a squad just making its first tentative steps past base camp.
There was plenty to like. In the pack, Lukhan Salakaia-Loto completely dominated the lineout and Rob Valetini’s imposing physicality meant that the Wallabies had some useful front-foot ball to work with. Jake Gordon has found his rhythm at halfback, while Daugunu’s work-rate and defensive presence was singled out by his coach.
But all the hallmarks of a young, inexperienced team are there: a lack of clinical precision, moments of frustrating ill-discipline and lineout maul defence as resistant as a pat of butter left on a Kolkata footpath.
Schmidt indicated that he will likely make a few changes for the match against Georgia, trying to balance the need for cohesion with the desire to give other squad players an opportunity. Following that match, he will then have his first opportunity to draw breath and determine what exactly it is he has to work with, heading into the more challenging Rugby Championship.
Remember – as Schmidt explained to an enraptured audience at a Melbourne rugby dinner during the week – it is now only two weeks since he met many of these players for the first time.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Of course, that doesn’t keep at bay the natural inclination of fans and some in the media to pass instant judgment on individual players. But post-Georgia also feels like the right time to make a more considered, ‘first-pass’ assessment of this three-match block, and where things might be headed.
For his part, Gatland is insistent he knows exactly where he is headed. His new side may be in the midst of a nine-match losing streak, but he is playing the long game, certain that he has a group of players who will be a force to contend with when they return to Australia for the 2027 World Cup.
It’s easy to see what he is talking about, and in hooker Lake, and the injured Aaron Wainwright, Wales has two inspirational power players they can build a competitive pack around.
Gatland’s problem is that the UK press does not typically accommodate such long-term strategising. Some of the promise shown by Wales on this tour will soon need to be converted into a few wins, if this team is to be allowed the space to breathe and develop.
In Auckland, England got a lot of things right, but didn’t reckon on Beauden Barrett reprising the best of his 2016 and 2017 form, helping edge the All Blacks to a tense 24-17 win.
Barrett’s injection into the match coincided with the All Blacks finally breaking free of the constraints Alex Mitchell’s pinpoint kicking and England’s swarming defence had placed on it, and with important contributions off the bench from Cortez Ratima and Asafo Aumua, the home side gradually found ascendancy.
(Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)
It was a near run thing however. Twice in the final three minutes, England threw to an attacking lineout with a chance to draw the match. Opting not to contest the jump, the All Blacks’ defence held firm, with referee Nic Berry and TMO Brett Cronan ending the match with an obstruction call against the visitors after England’s original maul had broken up.
As in Dunedin, this was a compelling contest between two sides that promise plenty of improvement to come. Test rugby in the truest sense of the term.
Building off a dominant scrum, the All Blacks opening try was efficiently taken; Mark Tele’a slipping into the blindside space opened up by a superb Scott Barrett cleanout on Maru Itoje.
What wasn’t working so well was their lineout; England – Itoje in particular – disrupting after the catch, messing with the All Blacks’ ball presentation.
More clinical was England’s finishing, with Marcus Smith laying on two tries with superbly conceived and executed kicks. 14-13 at half-time had many in the home crowd stunned and worried.
Perhaps England weren’t quite brave enough when they had third-quarter ascendancy. Perhaps they were displaying the signs of weariness that come with a long club and international season.
In the end, they resorted too often to grubbering the ball in behind the line, where both Barrett and Damian McKenzie had their measure. A curious tactic given their first-half success in the air.
In a series dominated by attrition and slow ball at the breakdown, it was the rare achievement of successive quick rucks which opened up a seam for Barrett to send Tele’a in for his second. Back in front at the 60-minute mark, it was a lead the All Blacks would never relinquish.
England coach Steve Borthwick clearly has something to work with. Providing he doesn’t butcher himself when he finally starts shaving, prop Fin Baxter could be anything. The way Ollie Sleighthome skinned Sevu Reece on the outside screamed, ‘give that man more opportunities.’
At just 21 years old, Chandler Cunningham-South is a beast in the making. And Marcus Smith has now moved well beyond the threshold from talented and promising, to fully fledged, high-quality Test player.
There’s every chance Scott Robertson will eventually look back at his first series as a godsend. No false sense of security provided, instead thrown in at the deep end against high quality opposition, with his side stuttering in key areas, needing to learn about themselves to find how to win.
As ever with the All Blacks, they have enough highly skilled individuals to create opportunities and step their way out of trouble, that other sides don’t. Barrett, obviously. And the way McKenzie sparked two of their best attacking opportunities of the match; his intent and pace to spark a counter attack in the first half, and a brilliant left to right pass to set Reece free in the second was breathtaking.
Fans of old-school, highly physical Test rugby got everything they expected in another compelling Ireland versus South Africa showdown in Durban. The attrition rate was high – Willie Le Roux not making it past the first play, while other bloodied and injured players studded the field throughout.
South Africa looked to have weathered the Irish challenge, clawing their way back from a ten-point half-time deficit to lead 24-19 entering the final ten minutes.
But it was replacement flyhalf Ciaran Frawley who rocketed into the ‘Ranga World XV’ by drilling two 40-metre-plus drop goals, the second one just as the clock ticked over 80 minutes, sensationally sealing things at 25-24.
Ireland players celebrate after Ciarán Frawley kicked their side’s winning drop goal. (Photo By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Thrilling stuff. Built on the combativeness of the always excellent Caelan Doris and a superb defensive effort which saw the home side restricted to six Handre Pollard penalty goals.
Unlike other high-stakes, high-intensity matches in the Republic, this one was mostly free of controversy, save for a decision by referee Karl Dickson to issue a yellow card to Doris for an ugly clean-out on Malcolm Marx.
Doris deserved his whack, but quite what Dickson and TMO Ian Tempest were doing, trying to determine if it was Doris or James Ryan who was most at fault for endangering Marx is puzzling.
Upon review, Tempest concluded that Doris’ sanction would stay yellow due to the “dynamics” of Ryan’s involvement. That’s code for Ryan contributing to the foul play on Marx as well. Why does it have to be one card only? If two players do the crime, let two players do the time.
Elsewhere, Georgia beat Japan 25-23, while France weren’t able to overcome their horrific build-up, falling to Argentina 33-25, giving Puma’s coach Felipe Contepomi his first win.
The final match of a busy weekend was at Ballymore, where New Zealand’s Black Ferns continued their dominance over Australia, with an imposing 62-0 win.
Winger Katelyn Vaha’akolo’s four tries were an individual highlight, but the disparity between black and gold was right across the park. Too fast, too strong, too dynamic.
There is little point in calling the players and coaching group to account. And the current Rugby Australia administration is in a horrible bind, without the necessary funds it knows it needs to invest into women’s rugby, if the Wallaroos are to remain competitive with the world’s leading nations.
No, the seeds for this and other recent results were sown in the hubris and lack of foresight shown after the women’s sevens gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. With rugby league, AFL and soccer at the time, well off the pace in their recognition of high-performance women’s football, the field was wide open for Rugby Australia to capture the hearts and minds of girls and draw them into sevens and 15s rugby.
In a hot field of missteps in Australian rugby this century, failure to devise and implement a strategy to leverage the excitement of 2016 into a prosperous sport on and off the field is one of Rugby Australia’s greatest calamities.
