SYDNEY — The Wallabies will look back on the simplest of errors, their work at the tackle, and one huge decision on the stroke of halftime as they process a golden opportunity lost in the third Test against England and yet another speed bump in their development under Dave Rennie.
The tourists, meanwhile, can start their summer holiday with a spring in their step, having wiped away the memory of a disappointing Six Nations campaign and, for now at least, eased the pressure on coach Eddie Jones after a series-clinching 21-17 victory at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday night.
“This was tougher, mate, because we had a more established team in 2016 coming on the back of the Grand Slam and coming on the back of a 2015 team,” Jones said when asked to compare the sweetness of victory to England’s 2016 series win.
“This team, we’re nurturing this team at the moment, we’ve got a good group of senior players and we’ve got all these young guys coming through, so it was an entirely different experience.”
With a mountain of troops to come back, you get the feeling that Jones’ team has bottomed out and can now set course for the World Cup next year, albeit with some question marks over whether Marcus Smith and Owen Farrell is the right 10-12 axis.
Australia, meanwhile, appear a team full of promise, but one that continually lets itself down when it comes to the game’s core skills and decision-making under pressure.
And they must now suffer the indignity of a second straight series loss to the Auld Enemy on home soil, so too a beaming Jones who took his personal record against the team he coached to the 2003 World Cup final to 10-1.
“I reckon we’re better than the result tonight and better than the result last week,” a disappointed Rennie told reporters after the match. “Last week was a slow start and we fought our way back into the contest and probably should have finished over the top.
“We started better this week, we got behind again, and then had enough ball, territory and possession to win that. That’s where we’re at, we’ve got to be better. We’ve got a lot of footy [to come], we’re three weeks into our season, so we’ve got a few things that we need to sort out and tidy up heading into Argentina.”
Australia were the masters of their own heartbreak at the SCG as they looked to play with great width throughout the 80 minutes, but too often saw their endeavour amount to nothing.
And not only did the Wallabies gift England vital points immediately before halftime, but they were repeatedly let down by ineffectual breakdown work as England skipper Courtney Lawes had a field day at the tackle.
But it was the try right before halftime that really stung Australia.
Leading 10-6 with just a couple of minutes to play, Wallabies scrum-half Nic White, who was playing his 50th Test, decided to run the ball out from his own 22 after Farrell had hit the post with a penalty attempt.
While White made it out beyond the 22, he was eventually tackled, allowing England to get on the ball and win another penalty. On this occasion, the visitors kicked to the corner and after stringing nine phases together, fullback and man-of-the-match Freddie Steward crossed in the opposite corner.
What White really needed to do from the ricochet was to boot the ball deep into touch. But his decision to try and run the ball out was a poor one in a first half when the Wallabies were also let down by their passing.
Both Taniela Tupou and Reece Hodge threw terrible balls early on, just when it looked like they might create an overlap. In the case of the powerhouse prop, he may well have put Nick Frost on a path to tryline if not for an inexcusable ball that was thrown at Frost’s ankles.
While White’s late blunder was costly and a huge momentum swinger, he had combined masterfully with winger Tom Wright earlier in the half following barnstorming run from Marika Koroibete, which resulted in a breathtaking 60-metre five-pointer, the scrum-half and winger interplaying sublimely down the tight touchline to create a rare first-half highlight for the Wallabies.
In truth, Australia dominated territory and had almost double their opponents’ run metres to halftime, but they were consistently thwarted by some desperate English scrambling or a pouncing jackal who picked off the Wallabies’ ruck when it was undermanned.
There were no better at the breakdown than Lawes for England while prop Ellis Genge again made his presence felt with ball in hand and fullback Steward towered high above the Aussies in the aerial contest once more.
If the bumbles of the first half weren’t enough, Australia then gifted Marcus Smith a runaway try, which allowed England to seize the second-half advantage after a misdirected lineout on 55 minutes. Wallabies fly-half Noah Lolesio was unable to handle the loose ball, which Smith then scooped up, the fly-half spinning and running away to score next to the sticks.
21-10 down, the Wallabies had it all to do.
Still they spun the ball touchline to touchline, and eventually they got themselves back in the contest with 14 minutes to play.
After a sustained build-up, and successive lineout drives, the Wallabies’ pressure eventually told with Folau Fainga’a barging over next to the sticks.
The hosts would threaten again inside the final 10 minutes, but as had been the case earlier in Sydney and last week in Brisbane, they were time and time again let down by their work at the tackle.
The Wallabies continued to stretch England, by the end of the match the Jones’ side had made 96 more tackles than Australia, but the tourists’ dogged defence and committed breakdown work proved too resilient.
“What we know with England is that if you kick them a lot of ball they’ve got Steward at the back who kicks it longer,” Rennie said of his side’s expansive game plan. “So we wanted to move the ball and kick from wider channels, but we found a lot of space there and carried on attacking. We just needed to turn some of that field position and possession into more points.
“It’s disappointing because we gave up some soft points, obviously Marcus Smith’s try, and we had possession with about 30 seconds left in the half and turned it over and they end up scoring off that as well.
“So big moments in the game, but we’ve got to look at ourselves, we had plenty of chances. It hurts.”
There had been concerns pre-match about whether Harry Wilson and Rob Valetini could combine successfully in the Wallabies’ back-row, and the jury will remain out on that discussion with the Queenslander unable to impact the game in any significant way, while he also gave away a needless penalty when Australia were on the attack early.
Ensuring they continually get enough numbers to the ball after sustained phase build-up, and looking for a change of angle back on the inside as Rennie mentioned post-match, should be a focus of their preparation before the Rugby Championship.
And there is certainly no doubt that Australia were affected by a wretched run with injury in this series, losing no less than 11 players either in the lead-up to the first Test and then through to Brisbane; Darcy Swain’s red card and three-week ban certainly didn’t help with personnel strength either.
But there was also a silver lining in that adversity, with youngster Frost one player to emerge from the wider annals of Rennie’s squad.
Along with Koroibete, the tireless Samu Kerevi and the impressive Tom Wright, Frost was one of the Wallabies’ best at the SCG.
“Correct we don’t want to use that as an excuse, because we had a good enough side on the field to win tonight,” Rennie said when asked about the injury ward, which prop Angus Bell now looks set to join with a toe issue.
“What it highlights is that we’re creating really good depth and a lot of guys who got an opportunity have really stood up; if you look at a guy like Nick Frost tonight. You’ve got to find a way, don’t you? Injuries are part of the game, and I think we did enough tonight. But you’ve got to be clinical and take opportunities.”
Learning how to take those opportunities on a consistent basis will be the measure of whether this Wallabies side can develop into a team to threaten at next year’s Rugby World Cup, and more immediately push a wounded All Blacks side and the world champion Springboks in the Rugby Championship.
For compare Australia with the now No. 1 ranked Ireland, who earlier Saturday clinched an historic series triumph in New Zealand by scoring four tries by nailing their execution and the big moments when they mattered, then the Wallabies are a way off the game’s elite.
And judging by their lack of execution at critical points on Saturday night, they have a long way to go to get there.