‘Don’t lose faith’: Wallabies coach’s message to fans after defeat

Joe Schmidt has called on Wallabies supporters to keep the faith, delivering a message of hope and resilience after the team’s fifth loss in six Tests – suffering a surprise 26-19 Autumn Nations Series defeat to Italy in Udine on Saturday.

When the Wallabies defeated Los Pumas 28-24 in early September, they had put themselves in a position to challenge for The Rugby Championship title, having stunned the Springboks in Johannesburg during the first half of the tournament.

Australia have since lost to Argentina, two Tests to New Zealand, before being beaten by England and Italy during their Spring Tour. The Wallabies’ sole win from their last six matches was a four-point triumph over a valiant Japan side, coached by Eddie Jones.

The Wallabies have already played 13 Tests this year and have another two to play before their season draws to a close, taking on two sides ranked in the top five on World Rugby’s rankings. They face Ireland in Dublin next weekend and then France on November 22.

“There’s still a lot of work to do to get them to where they need to be,” Schmidt told reporters.

“I’ve had lots of experience coaching a lot of Test matches and had teams be number one in the world and I know what it takes to get there, and I know the strength and depth that you need, and we’re setting about trying to build that.

“We’ll reflect on what we put out there tonight, what we can build on and what we need to make sure we improve upon.

“All I can say to people is that we believe in what we can deliver. Don’t lose faith because we will guarantee to keep working as hard as we can to try and demonstrate what it means to us to try and be as competitive as possible.”

Fly-half Paolo Garbisi opened the scoring for Italy with two early penalties, as the hosts took a 6-0 lead by the 10^th minute. The Wallabies struck back, even taking control on the scoreboard with front-rowers Matt Faessler and Angus Bell crashing over for a try each.

Australia took a 12-9 lead into the sheds at half-time, but it didn’t take Italy long to bring the two teams level, with Garbisi knocking over another shot at the uprights. While the Wallabies regained the lead through Carter Gordon with 30 minutes to play, ill-discipline was a costly factor.

Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was shown a yellow card in the 57^th minute, and Italy made the most of their one-man advantage. After a try to Louis Lynagh, Monty Ioane crossed for a five-pointer to give the hosts a seven-point lead deep into the contest

Billy Pollard came close to scoring but the hooker couldn’t quite get the ball down, as Italy hung on for a seven-point win – their second consecutive triumph over the Wallabies, having registered a one-point win in their previous meeting three years ago.

“We had a 10-minute period where we didn’t have Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii.” Schmidt reflected.

“At the start of the second half we actually started okay, but… once we got the yellow card, I felt that we overplayed, got very lateral, we started going away from how we like to play.

“When we did put the ball in behind or make it contestable, we just weren’t as efficient as we needed to be. They are some things that we’ll work on.

“Certainly, at 26-19 when Billy Pollard is held up over the line, that’s how close it is. That margin where he went so close to scoring and we could’ve built to score, it was great defence from Italy and not good enough attack from us, albeit with a man down.”