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Allan Alaalatoa reveals what the Wallabies 'can't afford' to give Boks
By Finn Morton
There’s an old saying in sports that suggests an athlete will learn more from a loss than a win. For a relatively inexperienced Australia side who are searching for their identity under a new coaching group, their 33-7 loss to South Africa is another opportunity to grow.
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Wallabies captain Allan Alaalatoa is confident that “a lot of our boys” will take the learnings from the devastatingly dominant defeat. The Aussies barely fired a shot as they were outclassed at their fallen fortress Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.
The visitors opened the scoring in the ninth minute through Siya Kolisi and were unfortunate not to score shortly after through Willie le Roux. Pieter-Steph du Toit and Kurt-Lee Arendse also crossed for a try each during a one-sided first half.
Australia’s loose forward trio of Rob Valetini, Carlo Tizzano and Harry Wilson all stood out on the back of their tireless work rate but their efforts couldn’t slow down South Africa’s momentum. South Africa had all but won the Test by the 50-minute mark.
While the Wallabies had 91 per cent of possession in the final 10 minutes, and had the last say with a try to Hunter Paisami, time was not on their side. South Africa’s poor discipline cost them late but it was a minor blip as they handed Australia a heavy loss to start The Rugby Championship.
“It’s going to be a tough pill to swallow but a lot of our boys will learn from that,” Allan Alaalatoa told reporters on Saturday evening.
“We’ve got a lot of our boys with a handful of caps learning what the Test arena is like and there’s no better way to learn than versing the South Africans.
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“We’ve got to learn and make sure that we’re better for Perth.
“It’s certainly tough. The scoreboard showed that in the first half and it’s going to be a tough learning for us by understanding that you can’t give them an out or an easy out,” he had mentioned earlier in the press conference.
“As our coach mentioned, they put us under pressure at the set-piece and came to our multi-phase attack and they’re pressuring our breakdown.
“Our learning is we can’t afford to give them those moments back-to-back. That’s what made it tough to get out of our own half.”
Winger Filipo Daugunu limped off the field midway through the first half and a few others were left a bit bruised. Nick Frost’s eye was closed shut about an hour after full-time with the loss suffering a brutal laceration which has since caused some swelling.
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The Springboks’ dominance and highly physical approach to the contest took its toll on the Wallabies. While they threw everything at their favoured rivals, the Aussies couldn’t match it against a Boks team who looked like the ‘world champions’ they are.
Alaalatoa, 30, was part of an Australian front row that came off second best time and time again at the set-piece. The inexperienced duo of Isaac Kailea and Matt Faessler were taught some lessons as they went head-to-head with the Boks for the first time.
Kailea was caught out in the first scrum of the Test and gave away a scrum penalty. The Wallabies were penalised just before the half-time break as their scrum continued to collapse and struggle against the force of their world-class opponents.
“It was certainly tough and we knew what was coming,” Alaalatoa explained.
“For us, we built as the game went on but you’ve got to be able to face that and be better right from the start, especially technically.
“It’s an area of your game that the front row will look at – make sure that we’re better for next week.”
The Wallabies sit last on The Rugby Championship standings after one round but they’ll look to change that next weekend when they host the Springboks at Perth’s Optus Stadium on August 17.
