‘It’s going to hurt’: Harry Wilson reacts after Wallabies lose to Italy

Harry Wilson and the Wallabies are feeling the pain of their shock 26-19 Autumn Nations Series defeat to Italy in Udine, but the skipper has urged the team to “let it hurt” ahead of blockbuster Tests against Ireland and France.

After last weekend’s 18-point loss to England at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium, the Wallabies looked to bounce back against a side they hadn’t faced in three years – falling to Italy 28-27 three years ago at Florence’s Artemio Franchi Stadium.

Italy opened the scoring in the sixth minute through Paolo Garbisi, who knocked over two early shots to give the hosts a 6-0 advantage. Australia hit back through Matt Faessler and Angus Bell, as they took control on the scoreboard 10-6 deep into the half.

Another Garbisi penalty made it a three-point game at the break, before the playmaker drew the Azzurri level early in the second term. While the Wallabies regained the advantage through returning fly-half Carter Gordon, the final 20 minutes was one-way traffic.

Louis Lynagh and Monty Ioane ran in a try each during a 14-0 point-scoring run, leading by seven with 18 to play. With both teams failing to score any more points, the Italians hung on for yet another famous win over the Wallabies.

“We’ve just got to stay connected. We’re a really close group and really do care for each other,” Wilson said post-game on Stan Sport.

“It’s going to hurt the next 24, 48 hours and we’re going to have to let it hurt because we’ve got two big Test matches to come and I know this group will be able to get up for it.

“We’re going to take some learnings from the night and we’re going to be better next week. We just need to stay connected, stay together, and keep learning as a group.”

That was the Wallabies’ eighth defeat of the season, and the second time in 2025 they’ve suffered back-to-back defeats. They’ve lost five of their last six, with their sole win coming against Eddie Jones’ Japan in Tokyo on October 25.

Australia’s season started with a last-gasp win over Fiji, before a couple of inspirational performances against the British & Irish Lions. The men in gold then went to South Africa for two Tests, which included a famous comeback win over the Springboks in Johannesburg.

Wilson’s captaincy was a talking point for all the right reasons after another thrilling win, this time against Los Pumas in Townsville, before that tough run of one win from six matches began against the Argentinians in Sydney.

Before their 2025 season comes to an end, and ahead of the 2027 Rugby World Cup Draw in Sydney next month, the Wallabies have two more matches left. They’ll face Ireland in Dublin next weekend, before a clash with France on November 22.

“We’re hurting. We wanted to fix up from last week, we said we’re going to fix it up and we didn’t. We want to be a team that does what we say we’re going to do and we didn’t do that tonight,” Wilson explained.

“The breakdown was a mess tonight, credit to Italy they made it a mess. It’s a bit of a lottery in there and they really benefited from there. We’ve got to be a lot better there to be honest.

“We put them under a bit of pressure at the set-piece there. It’s a bit of a target for us after last game and we made a few improvements there but we need all our game working together and it didn’t happen tonight.”