Cardiff: Senior Wallabies figures have once again gone into bat for coach Dave Rennie following another unfavourable result on a strange spring tour heading into a fascinating final fixture against World Cup pool rivals Wales.
Before learning a concussion would rule him out of this weekend’s last match in Cardiff, Wallabies halfback Nic White was asked to compare a one-point loss to France a fortnight ago and a 13-10 result against Ireland in Dublin.
Rennie and Jake Gordon after the Wallabies’ loss to Ireland.Credit:AP
“There’s positives, it’s just hard to see right now,” said White in the mixed zone under Stade de France, having watched Damian Penaud brush off Tom Wright and Jock Campbell to seal a come-from-behind win.
Two weeks on, with just one win to show from four Tests, White almost repeated himself word for word.
“We’ll take some confidence. It’s hard at the moment,” he said. “Sport can be cruel. The boys are gutted. She’s been a tough tour. A couple of moments go differently and we could be sitting here riding high. We could be four from four and I’ll tell you what, there’d be some worried people around.
“We’re not. We’re one [win] and three [losses]. That hurts.”
Analysing and critiquing this Wallabies side recently has been a tricky task. An awful performance against Italy took place between two outings against France and Ireland, the top two ranked sides in the world, where Rennie’s men aimed up and proved many people wrong.
But at World Cups, you don’t get plaudits for coming close, at least when you’re Australia.
The Wallabies spent an extra evening in Dublin before travelling to Wales on Monday. The team organised a meal at an Irish pub, where they drank Guinness and enjoyed a local music act.
There is only so much torment one team can take from multiple single-digit losses. That doesn’t excuse the fact the Wallabies have won just four of their past 15 Tests.
Rennie has been under immense pressure all tour and the heat won’t go away. His Wallabies win record was 37.9 per cent when he left Sydney and will be 36.4 per cent when he touches down in Cardiff.
However, the Wallabies did have the chance to come away from their last match against Ireland if they opted for a penalty. They kicked for touch instead and came off second best.
Rennie’s hopes of coaching the Wallabies beyond 2023 are fading fast and White feels that’s deeply unfair.
“100 per cent I think Dave’s the man for the job,” White said. “He’s doing a great job.
“It’s not that we’ve been a million miles away and I feel like surely everyone can see that. I believe that the coaching staff are at a level and, as players, we’re not quite there yet.”
‘Marky-Mark’: Nawaqanitawase on the burst for the Wallabies.Credit:AP
Captain James Slipper echoed White’s view that players needed to cop the brunt.
“There’s so much trust in Dave … I don’t even want to go down that track at the moment,” Slipper said. “We’re the players out there in those big moments and we’re failing him. We go into those games and couldn’t be more prepared.”
The final match of a draining tour is against Wales and won’t lack context, despite being outside the international window. The Wallabies have lost three on the trot to Wales and behind closed doors, that does not sit well with the team at all.
While Australia’s loss to Italy was slammed by fans back home, Wales’ 13-12 loss to Georgia is nearly the final straw for a proud rugby nation who feel coach Wayne Pivac has had his time.
Keep in mind, Australia and Wales both square off against Georgia in next year’s World Cup.
Unthinkable four years ago, in some ways, it’s now a banana skin game.
“It’ll make for a good World Cup and I certainly think teams all the way down the top 10 will be thinking there are a chance because it’s a funny game,” White said.
“We’re going into a World Cup where we might see some genuine upsets and some [lower-ranked] teams go through.
“We’ll come back over here next year feeling not a million miles away. Confident is probably not the right word. We haven’t got the right results for that. We certainly won’t be shy though.”
