Harry Wilson’s ‘too little too late’ assessment of Wallabies’ defeat

Australia captain Harry Wilson remains confident in the Wallabies’ ability to “cut teams up” with the ball in hand, but dismissed a strong final quarter as “too little too late” after a 45-22 defeat to traditional rivals England.

It was a nine-point game at the break, but England controlled both the possession and territory battles during the second term, and that showed on the scoreboard. The home side ran in four tries and 26 points en route to a famous result.

Filipo Daugunu and Jeremy Williams gave Wallabies fans reason to cheer in the early hours of Monday morning in Australia, but a Ben Spencer try inside the final five minutes capped off what had been a dominant display.

Wilson acknowledged the Wallabies produced some positive rugby during the final 20 minutes, but England had practically wrapped up the contest by then. The skipper insisted the Aussies are capable but must starting playing the Wallabies way from minute one.

“We struggled to get our game going. England put under the pump. We didn’t get much ball in the first half, didn’t get too many A-zone entries and England were the better team today,” Wilson said post-game, as seen on Stan Sport.

“They fronted up physically. They put us under the pump. Our defence, we weren’t physical enough, we didn’t slow their ball down… credit to England.”

Max Jorgensen scored the only other try for the Wallabies, with the winger picking off a pass and racing away for a long-range effort just before the break. Rayn Lonergan added points off the tee as well, as the Wallabies remained in the fight  during the first 40.

But with the full-time whistle echoing throughout Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium, the team’s focus now shifts to a clash with Scotland in the fifth Nations Championship round. The Wallabies are 1-3 in the competition this year, three weeks out from the Finals Weekend.

“A lot of it might be mindset. We’ve got seven days just to take some feedback from this game and make sure we’re a lot better,” Wilson explained.

“Scotland are a really good team and we’ve got to be ready for it and we’ve got to take these harsh lessons.”

Coach Les Kiss reflected: “I thought the first half, we probably went into some bad habits and played a bit narrow but we needed to get the ball into the first hands, shift the point of attack, create our swing that we have, which we got to in the second half.

“We just didn’t get enough of those opportunities in the first half. The second half, yep, we certainly started to put something together.

“We’ve got to do better in the early parts to be able to give ourselves a chance.”