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How ‘cut-throat’ Wallabies sparked hope for Australia’s rugby revival
By Finn Morton
Rugby World Cup winner Matt Burke has opened up on how a “cut-throat” Wallabies outfit was able to recapture the attention of a nation during their four-Test Spring Tour. Australia shocked England at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium and dominated Wales during their tour up north.
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Len Ikitau and Mex Jorgsesen combined in the 84th minute for a match-winning try down the left edge as the Wallabies stunned Steve Borthwick’s England 42-37 in early November. It was an inspiring result that left Australian sports fans daring to dream of a potential grand slam.
The Wallabies backed up that performance with an emphatic 52-20 win over Warren Gatland’s Wales, who went on to finish the calendar year without a single victory. With two wins from two starts, there was a bit of a buzz about rugby union in Australia before another decisive Test.
Australia and Scotland have played out a series of tightly-contested battles over the last decade, but unfortunately for the visitors, they wouldn’t repeat their heroics from 2022 by leaving Edinburgh’s iconic Murrayfield Stadium with a sought-after triumph.
After falling to Scotland, Australia’s international season came to a close with a three-point loss to world no. 2 Ireland in Dublin. But as Burke discussed, Australia was proud of the Wallabies’ performance up north, which sets the stage for the 2025 British and Irish Lions Series.
“It’s a bit different, isn’t it? This time last year it was two and four, or two and two I should say, two out of four,” Burke said on Sport Nation’s Scotty & Izzy. “There seems to be a little bit of a culture shift in amongst the team.
“About six weeks ago, seven weeks ago, I did an interview with Mike Cron who is obviously the forwards coach that Joe (Schmidt) brought across… he spoke very calmly, very succulently, and he basically said, ‘I had to take these guys back to go forward.’
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“It was the most intricate interview I’ve ever heard, and it was really interesting because he basically said, ‘I didn’t know these guys, I didn’t know their background… when I came from New Zealand… I knew their strengths and weaknesses.’
“I think the biggest difference is the forwards. You look at these guys now and they’re competing in those last four games in Europe.
“Scotland was a blowout… that was the old, ‘I think we’re going to win this game and yep it’s Scotland and oh my God what are they doing.’ They played well, they played good ball movement and that was the most disappointing part.
“The exciting part was that finish of the England game and also putting to the throat the Welsh, finishing them off. Normally that would’ve been, for this team, a 30-20 game rather than the 50-20 game and I thought it was the most cut-throat I’ve seen them for a while.
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“In that last game against Ireland, you just need to be tough, don’t you? I think that’s what’s showed in that last tour, it’s pretty cool.”
Jorgensen’s try in the 84th minute against England will be replayed for years to come, with the youngster’s swan dive against the old foe speaking volumes about the significance of the score. You could see it on the faces of the players themselves, they had proved some doubters wrong.
Ikitau had thrown a pearler of a flick pass to send the winger flying down the left edge. As Jorgensen celebrated, Ikitau was embraced by new teammate Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii who received Player of the Match honours after a sensational debut in rugby union.
Suaalii is Rugby Australia’s marquee recruit ahead of the Lions Series and the Rugby World Cup. The 21-year-old impressed with the Sydney Roosters in the NRL, which saw him earn representative honours with Samoa and New South Wales in State of Origin.
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt selected the code-hopper in the national squad before he’d played any professional rugby union at senior level, but that decision proved to be a masterstroke as Suaalii’s performance against England showed.
“It’s certainly turning,” Burke explained. “There’s a bit more, as they used to say, column inches in the paper. We’re seeing a flood on social media now, especially with Joseph coming across and that first game he played against England.
“I chat with a bit of radio boys here and they said, ‘Well he didn’t look like a rugby league bloke playing rugby union.’ I said that’s because he was a rugby union bloke playing rugby league. His background is in the 15-man game.
“He did well. He underplayed his role when he needed to, he stepped up when he needed to.
“I was at a lunch the other day, a rugby lunch the other day, and we were talking about the Lions Series next year and how many people are coming down… the Lions, because it’s so infrequent every 12 years, I think people forget how big it’s going to be.
“There’s going to be 40,000 people come down. It’s a calendar stop for those Europeans who want to follow their rugby… that’s huge in itself.
“People are talking about it, people are getting interested in it… it’s creating opportunity for people to have that conversation rather than being that sport that was on the low for so long.”
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