The Wallaroos will swap city lights for the quiet of Whangerei in New Zealand’s deep north as they prepare to face Scotland in their must-win second pool match at the Rugby World Cup.
Australia can still make the quarter-finals if they beat Scotland and Wales during the next two weeks, despite suffering a 41-17 loss to the Black Ferns at a sold-out Eden Park on Saturday.
They travel north to Whangerei on Monday to plot victory against the 10th-ranked Scots, who have not competed at a World Cup since 2010 and were the last nation to qualify after victory over Colombia. They lost 18-15 to Wales on Sunday but secured a losing bonus point, relegating Australia to the bottom of the Pool A table.
“Destiny is still in our hands. If we win these two games we secure a quarter-final spot so that’s still the aim,” Wallaroos coach Jay Tregonning said.
“Scotland play in the Six Nations and the professional competitions they have up there. They’ll go to their maul and set piece where they can. New Zealand made some inroads there against us as well as in their pick and drive. We’re under no illusion that [Scotland] might try to bring something similar, so we’ll look at tidying up that area as well.”
Saturday’s scoreline belied an improved performance from Australia, who were smashed 52-5 and 22-14 by the Black Ferns in the Laurie O’Reilly Cup series in August.
Teenager Bienne Terita scored two tries for Australia.Credit:AP
They harnessed the atmosphere of the occasion at Eden Park, dominating the collision area and pouncing on New Zealand errors.
A double to teen revelation Bienne Terita put the Wallaroos out to a 17-0 lead, stunning the Black Ferns and silencing fans in the Auckland cauldron.
But New Zealand showed their class, not to mention the benefits of a full-time program, to hit back with two tries of their own by half-time. Australia lost two players to the bin midway through the second half with a Ruby Tui double and Portia Woodman hat-trick putting the game beyond reach.
The 41-17 scoreline was the closest of the day’s pool games, with top sides England and France beating Fiji and South Africa by 65 and 35 points, respectively.
“We feel we’ve got the ball carriers through the middle and the finishers out wide to be able to get over Scotland…”
Wallaroos coach Jay Tregonning
Tregonning said there was pride within the side at the first 30 minutes and the pack’s improved set piece work. He enlisted Wallabies scrum coach Petrus du Plessis and Brumbies set piece coach Dan Palmer to help during the past six weeks.
Scotland’s northern hemisphere style will test those gains, but Australia have threats of their own.
Sevens veteran Sharni Williams added punch to the midfield and the physicality brought by Australia’s back row trio of Emily Chancellor, Shannon Parry and Grace Hamilton helped the Wallaroos stun the Black Ferns early.
“We’ve prided ourselves on trying to win that collision area and we were in the beginning of the game and forcing some mistakes there,” Tregonning said.
“If we get our attacking game right, we feel we’ve got the ball carriers through the middle and the finishers out wide to be able to get over Scotland for sure.”
Much of the analysis after the game focused on Australia’s fade-out at the end of the first half, but Tregonning denied fitness was his side’s biggest issue.
He batted away a question about the impact of the squad’s part-time status, saying there was a lot the seventh-ranked team could improve on this week, including ball retention, better clean-outs and support play.
The latter fell away sharply toward in the end of the game, with a break up the midfield from Trilleen Pomare turned over two phases later.
“We proved that we’re really competitive with teams above us in the world rankings and there are things in our control that could help us beat those teams,” he said. “We don’t think we’re way off the pace at all but Scotland and Wales are going to bring a totally different kind of game and challenge for us.”
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