This was another “Gallipoli” for the Wallabies, a magnificent performance but . . . still a loss in the end. A 33-31 loss to a team as strong as Ireland, currently ranked third in the world, with the game in the balance to the final whistle is no shame, but the frustration remains that it was SO close to fame!
Let’s go to the good stuff first.
The big news is that the Wallabies have finally solved the halves issue. Mark these names down for next year’s World Cup: Ryan Lonergan and Carter Gordon. Like every brilliant halves combination, in this match they added up to 1.25, not 1.00 – each one complementing the other’s game. Lonergan’s pass was fast and accurate. (When Lonergan was injured, Tate McDermott came on and was equally strong, his every dart hitting the bullseye – and one scoring a try.)
Carter Gordon, newly returned from a disastrously injured spell in the NRL, was a revelation. He was what we have long needed, a fly-half who not only fed his outside backs with quick hands, but also regularly broke the line himself, and had a judicious kicking game.
Outside him Joseph Aukuso Suaalii had his best and busiest game in at least a year. And they don’t call Len Ikitau, “Flikitau” for nothing. His no-look flicks were fabulous, and constantly put his wingers, Dylan Pietsch and Max Jorgensen into glorious space. I told you Pietsch would be great, and he was! He tackled, he scored, he leapt high, he was in Ireland’s face the whole game.
Jorgensen was what he always is: world-class.
At full-back Jock Campbell had a great return to the Wallabies for his first Test since 2022 debut, including scoring a great try.
In the forwards, there were more great revelations.
The lineouts worked! Actually, they worked better than ever – and though they nicked one of ours, we nicked three of theirs.
The scrums worked.
The mauls worked.
Clearly the Wallabies forward coach has done a great job.
Individually, Harry Wilson had a great captain’s knock, which was always coming from the moment he broke away from the final line of the national anthem, Advance Australia faiii…. with a pat to the tummy of Angus Bell, in the manner of “Let’s do this!”
Angus Bell himself? Don’t even speak. How many props in the world can do what he does, hold down the scrum, tackle himself red-raw, do no-look passes of his own, and constantly wrong-foot the defence to break through. Ditto Rob Valetini, who was as great as ever in breaking the line and got through an Everest of work, in a performance that was close to man of the match.
The two locks, Jeremy Williams and Josh Canham, had magnificent games, each scoring a try and doing a great deal of both tackling and ball carrying. (We knew they had to be good if they were strong enough to keep Nick Frost out of the side.) Josh Nasser and Fraser McReight also had great games, with Nasser’s accurate throwing a feature, bar that one occasion.
But enough bouquets, for what was, after all, a loss.
Where can the Wallabies improve?
Let’s go to Phil Gould, first. In his NRL commentary Gould has two mantras. The first is said with world-weary sagacity, “It’s a funny game rugby league.” (Add water, and repeat 50 times until everyone’s nose bleeds.) The second one, said with even more world-weary sagacity – it’s his personal specialty – is apposite here. “If you let the ball bounce, you’re inviting disappointment into your life.”
Thrice, the Wallabies let the ball bounce, and thrice they suffered disappointment as a result, with Ireland regathering to do us damage. For ruck’s sake, youse blokes, it is permissible to go up for it and bobble it or knock it on. It is NOT permissible to have no-one shout out – like we were taught in the under-12s – “MINE!” and go hard after it. In similar fashion, a couple of times the ball was loose on the deck and just needed someone to dive on it to secure it. But the ball went undived on, and Ireland got what was not properly theirs.
The next thing is this: once the Wallabies cross the stripe, they need to look to run it around closer to the posts. We lost this match by two points, and on two occasions we missed difficult conversions that might have been made if the try-scorers had made the effort to run closer to the posts. Conversions see a 40% premium on the scoreboard, but in the rush of scoring we too often squander our advantage and hope the kicker can salvage the premium. Against Ireland that didn’t happen, and cost victory!
Thirdly, we need to put more pressure on them from the kick-off. I’ll say it again. In our armoury bag, we have Joseph Aukuso Suaalii, who we know can sail a metre higher than any forward in captivity when he rushes up from the kick-off. In his debut match for the Wallabies against England at Twickenham, he did it three times, and that, too, was the difference between winning and losing. Why on earth is he not doing that every kick-off? Why do we have an unused guided missile in our armoury that we are not regularly firing?
Lastly, with a backline working as well as ours did, the box-kicks were overdone, particularly in the last two minutes when it was crazy to kick away possession.
All up though?
All up this match proved beyond all doubt that this generation of Wallabies is a magnificent team in the making. The personnel is there. The skills are there. The will-to-win and great captaincy is there. They are capable of taking on the best teams in the world and dusting them.
But right now they remain Gallipoli meets Maxwell Smart.
They were great, but they missed it. . . by that much.
Peter FitzSimons is a journalist and columnist with The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X.
