The up-one-week-down-the-next Wallabies have extended the cycle with another frustrating display that looked almost the polar opposite of the win in Adelaide last week.
And all the hallmarks of the 2022 losses were there, too: conceded early points, forced onto the back foot from the outset, compounded by unforced errors and penalties following penalties, allowing more scoreboard pressure into the contest, rinse and repeat.
The extreme distance between Australia’s best and worst might actually be growing.
For the fourth time in as many losses this year and mirroring all 11 losses recorded in 2021 as well, the Aussies couldn’t recover from a halftime deficit. Only once this year and once last year – in 21 games in all – have they been able to win a game coming from behind at the break.
In the end, the number spoke for themselves: 19 missed tackles, 16 points, ten turnovers, three lineouts lost.
Not a single point of failure, but yet another collection of failings spread across the park. Again.
And again, Dave Rennie was talking about collisions early in the press conference. Last week, his side dominated them. This week, they lost them early. Plenty to work on for the borrowed collisions coach, who at least this week was back in a familiar bucket hat.
“As you can imagine we’re pretty disappointed. It’s pretty quiet in there,” James Slipper said, fairly obviously, in response to a question about mood in the dressing room immediately after the loss.
“I made a point after the game that this one has to hurt a lot. I want the boys to hurt because yes, South Africa were good, but I just felt like we didn’t really play much rugby at all tonight.
“That ‘not winning the collision’ sort of talk really hurts me.”
James Slipper (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
I really like Slipper as captain. He wasn’t front of mind when I raised the point about at least having the conversation about whether Michael Hooper was still the best option back in July, but Slipper has fast become the clear and obvious leader for right now.
He’s saying what needs to be said, and he’s saying it publicly to challenge his players immediately after quite likely saying exactly the same thing behind closed doors.
On the never-ending search for consistency: “It’s a good question. I spoke during week about how we wanted to review last week and how we want to be a better rugby team.
“At no stage do we think we’re the finished product. Individually, we just need to have a look at ourselves.
“I’m confident we’re tracking the right direction and we just need a bit more polish and… we just need to execute under pressure.”
He’s always been pretty forthright, James Slipper, but after a loss he might be at his most brutally honest. To put it the same frank way he would, there’s just no bullshit about him.
“I just wanted the boys to realise how much it hurts and hold on to that and let that drive you into the future,” he said.
“We can be disappointed for a day or two but at the end of the day, we’ve got the All Blacks coming up in two weeks.
“If you’re still kicking cans around at that time, then that’s not going to help anyone. I want it to hurt but at the same time I want to be better. We’ve got to be better.
“I just put a challenge to the group, essentially.”
And there is no shortage of things to work on heading into said first Bledisloe Test on Thursday week.
Yet again, the lineout misfiring meant the maul was largely non-existent. As was the kick-chase. There wasn’t a lot of vision around the kicking, either, where space in behind the Springboks’ back three was mostly ignored and Reece Hodge’s boot went chronically under-utilised.
Tom Wright, Marika Koroibete, Rob Valetini each kicked the ball once. But so did Hodge.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
But maybe the biggest thing the Wallabies need to get into their heads and into their game is a willingness to roll the sleeves up and just graft.
If they can’t guarantee they’ll start a game well, then they need to find a way to get back into the contest. They need to grind and graft and pick and drive and tackle and clean out, and just concentrate on doing the really boring, unglamourous, underappreciated – but basically essential – stuff well so that they can get their hands on the ball, so that they can put the opposition back down their end of the field.
Teams with the scoreboard and plenty of possession and all their end of the field behind them are generally hard to beat. Australia have proved this 15 times in the last 12 months.
Grinding and grafting may not win you a Bledisloe Cup, but not being able to do it will almost certainly lose it.
Putting the head down and getting back into contests on the brink of getting away is going to be the difference between maybe winning Rugby World Cup pool games and potentially going deep into the knockout stage.
And if you want proof, just look at South Africa. Look at what they weren’t doing in Adelaide and what they did from kick-off in Sydney.
Look how they beat Wales in the 2019 semi-final, and how they wore England down in the final before ultimately running away with the Webb Ellis Trophy for a third time.
Ireland may well have some of the best structured attack in the game currently, but look at what they did to New Zealand in July before they started bombarding their line.
The Wallabies – and their fans are united in this – want nothing more than consistency, but it all starts with what they’re prepared to do themselves on the field when things aren’t going their way.
This has to be the biggest lesson from the hurt they should still be feeling today.
A new squad will be named this week, and it needs to come with a new attitude toward the unspectacular.
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