Former Wallaby weighs in on Australia’s attack despite ‘world-class’ talent

Former Wallabies scrum-half Nick Phipps doesn’t doubt Australia has world-class players who can trouble opposition defences, but believes they’ve “got to pick their moments better” after a 15-12 defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield.

Harry Potter gave Wallabies fans in Australia plenty to cheer about in the early hours of Monday morning, with the winger crossing for the team’s first try inside 15 minutes. But the Aussies didn’t score another point for almost 70 minutes, when Max Jorgensen crossed the try line.

Western Force teammates Ben Donaldson and Jeremy Williams helped create something from nothing, setting up Max Jorgensen for a crucial try with one minute left. ‘Jorgo’ made it a one-score game but the Scots held on to win a Nations Championship thriller.

The Wallabies made 10 line breaks to Scotland’s one, had more than 90 post-contact metres across the board, and had three players carry for at least 44 metres. Fraser McReight and Harry Wilson topped the tackle charts too, making 29 and 22 tackles respectively.

“If you’re Les Kiss, you’re sitting in a team meeting this week and you’re showing those two tries and you’re showing the possibilities ahead of them. They’ve got it in them, they’ve got the skills, they’re world-class players,” Phipps said on Stan Sport’s post-game show.

“It’s about consistency getting that ball into the right place. It’s about getting the carries where you want to get them over the [advantage] line and then being able to sweep, if that’s the way they want to play, into the right time.

“But they’ve got to pick their moments better. Too many times they did it a phase too late. There was space out there on the edge where they could’ve pulled the trigger out of that forward pod but they just did it a phase too late, gave the Scottish the time to fold around and defend up. Then we’re bashing into brick walls again.”

Carter Gordon returned from an injury stint on the sidelines, linking up with Ryan Lonergan in the halves.  Len Ikitau and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii rekindled their midfield combination too, following a season-ending hamstring injury to Isaac Henry.

The Wallabies looked to bounce back from a 45-17 defeat to England last week, and as captain Wilson acknowledged, the group still took a “step forward” despite the result. “But it wasn’t a win. We want to win,” Wilson clarified.

Australia gave away three of the last five penalties, and only had 40 per cent possession the final 10 minutes. Phipps has warned that it could be “the same old story” up north if the Wallabies don’t address their shape before facing Wales.

“The tactics need to be worked on, definitely, that attack shape. Whether you can develop that in seven days is up to them really. Otherwise it’s going to be the same old story in a northern hemisphere game,” Phipps explained.

“You’ll be trying to make sure you look after that high ball. The contest around the breakdown needs to be physical again and as we spoke about in the pre-game, the forwards need to be directing traffic through the middle of the field. They need to be physical up front.”