Australian rugby is sick and what happened during the last World Cup seriously aggravated its case. The Wallabies, who were coached at the time by Eddie Jones, were unable to get out of Pool C, beaten in particular by Fiji (22-15) and Wales (40-6). Welsh rugby is also sick. The team coached by Warren Gatland finished in last place in the Six Nations Tournament with five defeats. So obviously, the match that took place this Saturday in Sydney did not reach an immense level, it was even at times very weak and painful to watch.
In the end, it was the Australians who won (25-16). A success that will do them good. It was their first match of the year, it was also the first match managed by Joe Schmidt, the new coach, a New Zealander who knows this position well having occupied it in Ireland from 2013 to 2019. Australia, which will organize the next World Cup, is counting on him to revive a rugby in great difficulty, which regularly loses players attracted by what is happening abroad, or by rugby league – like Mark Nawaqanitawase and Carter Gordon – where money flows freely. He will also have to do without Michael Hooper, the third-row, who announced a week ago, at 32 years old, his end of career. A tribute was paid to him, before the kick-off of this international test refereed by the Frenchman Pierre Brousset.
Tupou performing
For this first match, Joe Schmidt had decided to entrust the direction of the game to Noah Lelesio, who spent a few months in Toulon as a World Cup joker. It was not a great success. Lelesio was messy and wasted some good attacking balls. He was not the only one to panic in a messy match with many handling errors, whistled penalties, tactical misunderstandings.
But Australia was able to make the difference, particularly with its senior players, and we will remember the performance of its powerful right pillar Taniela Tupou, solid in the closed scrum, and often used as the first attacker. His injury during the World Cup had been a hard blow for Eddie Jones’ staff. It was he, this Saturday, who scored the first of the three Australian tries (21st), the other two scored on personal exploits and two magnificent inspirations by Filipo Daugunu (53rd) and Tom Wright (68th), who were also able to take advantage of the Welsh defensive largesse. READ FULL STORY HERE>>>CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING>>>
Warren Gatland, who hesitated for a long time before agreeing to continue to take charge of the Welsh selection, has a lot of work and will certainly have to be patient. His team, which suffered a heavy defeat last June after holding out for an hour at Twickenham, against South Africa (41-13), is in the process of rebuilding and lacks resources and quality.
The two teams will meet again next week in Melbourne.
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