Dave Rennie has put the Wallabies on notice, saying “selection” will be something he strongly looks at following yet another ill-disciplined display that led to their thrashing across the ditch.
Unlike the nailbiter in Melbourne, the All Blacks were never troubled by the Wallabies who were punished for their inaccuracy.
The Wallabies lost Jed Holloway in just the second minute for a lifting tackle, which left the visitors on the backfoot from the outset.
Poor discipline (16 penalties, including two yellow cards), dreadful turnovers (15 to six) and missed tackles (29) meant the Wallabies stood little chance of ending their 36-year hoodoo at Eden Park, as the home side scored five tries.
Rennie quite rightly said the Wallabies were “shaded in all areas”, who returned to somewhere near their clinical best.
“Massive disappointment,” Rennie said.
“Gave away too many penalties, lost the collisions and gave the All Blacks field position and they put us in the corner and hurt us.”
The loss was Australia’s fourth of the tournament, leaving Rennie’s career winning record at an unflattering 37.9 – the lowest in the professional era by a Wallabies coach.
Rennie described the tournament as “a mixed bag”.
“We had a couple of good performances in there, maybe three good performances and three under par.”
The Wallabies weren’t helped by the sudden withdrawal of captain Michael Hooper on the eve of the tournament.
His absence was compounded by season-ending injuries to Quade Cooper and Samu Kerevi.
The squad was also battered throughout the tournament, with James Slipper and Rob Valetini the only two forwards not to start in every Test.
Rob Leota’s season-ending injury in Melbourne was also compounded by another serious shoulder injury to Lalakai Foketi.
Slipper said the testing period would ultimately help the Wallabies’ depth stocks ahead of next year’s World Cup.
“There’s plenty of hope,” he said.
“The confidence is in the group, definitely. And the staff members.
“I guess the beauty of the last three years is we’ve been able to blood quite a few Wallabies, and they’ll just continue to grow.
“But I think our biggest aspect we need to improve on is the consistency.
“We manage to put in a good performance and then back it up with a poor one. We do that regularly.
“That’s probably something we need to really work on because you can’t do that at a World Cup.
“But the bottom line is we’re confident. We’ve just got to build some momentum and keep getting better.”
Rennie has been backed through to next year’s World Cup despite his poor record.
One of the keys will be addressing their slow starts, with the Wallabies guilty of conceding first points in eight of their nine Tests this year.
Asked how he could fix the slow starts, Rennie was blunt.
“Selection, maybe, hey?” he said.
“If we’ve got individuals giving away lots of penalties, maybe it’s a selection issue.
“But you’re right, we lost collisions. So you’re constantly going backwards if you get passive tackles, you give away penalties.
“At times we’ll end up in front of the last man’s feet because it’s a passive tackle. So obviously, there’s lots of things.
“It’s a massive focus for us. We put a lot of time into it this week and still got to be better.”
In particular, Tom Wright’s decision making once again left a lot to be desired, with the winger guilty of playing on quickly from a penalty when the percentage play was to absorb time and kick for touch. Instead, he turned over possession and within a flash the Wallabies were down to 14 men and another converted try.
Yet, he was not alone with his discipline, with the Wallabies’ scrum towelled up while a number of players including Len Ikitau, Jordan Petaia and Bernard Foley fell off tackles.
The Wallabies have five weeks to prepare for their next Test, with Rennie’s men to take on Scotland on what is as a huge five-week tour of the Northern Hemisphere.
The former Chiefs coach said the Wallabies needed to play as much Test rugby together to build on their cohesion ahead of next year’s World Cup and welcomed the heavy international schedule.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “And that’s why we’re doing it.
“We were only down to have three games on this tour but we’ve added in Scotland at the start and Wales at the end.
“It’s a tough tour but as we’ve talked about we need to play a lot of footy, we’ve got a lot of young men who the more we play the better heading into a World Cup year.
“We’re going to go over there without any of our Japanese boys, so there’ll be more opportunities for others — Lalakai Foketi may miss the tour as well.
“But it’s going to help us create depth in various positions.
“So, look, incredibly disappointed tonight because we’re better than that, but as I said we’ve got to be at our best and we’re going to play some really good sides over in Europe and it’s going to be good for us.”
