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Sam Bruce, Deputy Editor, espn.com.au
MELBOURNE — Bad habits? The Wallabies have a few.
Fixing some of the inherent issues in their game has been a focus of Australia’s preparation for Bledisloe I in Melbourne, where they will seek not only a first win for 2023 under returned coach Eddie Jones, but also attempt to erase the memory of last year’s dramatic finale at Marvel Stadium.
While there is no sign of French referee Mathieu Raynal — the man who made the infamous time-wasting call — the Wallabies’ disciplinary travails have continued since that decision; they have already lost both the penalty counts, as well as the Tests themselves, against the Springboks and Pumas this season.
“Discipline is something that I feel like I talk about a lot, I guess in our sport the referee has a pretty hard job to referee the game, and for us we always seem to be on the wrong side of that,” Wallabies coach James Slipper said after posing alongside All Blacks skipper Ardie Savea by the Yarra River in the heart of Melbourne.
“And that’s on us as players, we’ve spoken about it, but it’s reoccurring and that’s probably the issue. But we’ve addressed it, we’ve trained it, we need to see that transfer into the game.”
While the Wallabies were blown off the paddock in Pretoria, it was a late TMO interjection that handed the Pumas one final opportunity to steal the win in Sydney a fortnight ago, which the visitors did with an 80th minute try to Juan Martin Gonzalez.
As well as their ongoing ill-discipline, the Wallabies also have an issue with dwelling on their mistakes, Jed Holloway said, the back-rower revealing that Jones was also trying to drive a mindset change.
“I think we got stuck in being disappointed in ourselves once an error or something is made, and us [internalizing that] and missing an opportunity to make amends for those habits,” Holloway said Thursday.
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“So it’s more so just recognising that in ourselves and making sure we’re putting the team first in every case like that. Because as rugby players you do do it a lot, whether it’s at lineout or a skill error or you miss a tackle, you sit there and you go ‘f—‘. And he’s just trying to get us to get out of those habits and go ‘team first, what’s next, I’ve got to sprint back and get in the D-line’.
“So just recognising that and making sure he sees a reaction about, and he’s definitely made it known to us if he didn’t see it any training.”
Jones pulled a selection surprise on Thursday by naming Carter Gordon at fly-half, throwing the 22-year-old playmaker in at the deep end for what will be his run-on debut.
All Blacks skipper Savea, who is standing in for the resting Sam Cane, said he had been impressed by Gordon, and was also aware of a picture of the two of them together from a previous New Zealand visit to Australia that was doing the rounds on social media.
While he didn’t directly reference his infamous throat-slitting gesture following a little scuffle with Gordon during Super Round in Melbourne directly — an act that earned him a week’s suspension — Savea did admit he had probably come out on the wrong side of that little battle.
“Yeah, I [saw] that, I tried to push the link but it wouldn’t allow me to go on it. But I [saw] the photo, what was it 2016,” Savea asked.
“He can [play], he showed that during Super Rugby. I tried to scrap him [with] the Canes in Melbourne and probably ended up second best. But that’s what I like about him, he doesn’t take a step back, he’s young but he’s not scared or afraid of the challenge.
“So it’s something for us to keep an eye on and we know that he’s going to attack the line and play his game and that’s something that hopefully we can nullify.”
As for whether last year’s defeat in Melbourne, and specifically Raynal’s decision, still hurt, Slipper said the key was to learn from that incident and ensure that it didn’t happen again.
And, as Holloway explained, there’s no use dwelling on it now.
“Whenever you don’t get the result, it’s always going to hurt you,” he said. “And I guess in the fashion that we kind of blew that game, it makes it hurt a little bit more. So for us, hopefully we can play a game that’s on our terms, we don’t have the referee come in and decide it right in the end.
“But it was a great game to be part of, we absolutely love playing in Melbourne, the crowd was unbelievable last year and we’re expecting the same tomorrow.”