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'Serious problems': Ex-All Blacks rip into Wallabies performance

By Alex McLeod
(Photo by James Worsfold/Getty Images)

Former All Blacks greats Sir John Kirwan and Mils Muliaina have blasted the performance of the Wallabies after their 38-21 defeat to the All Blacks in Perth last weekend.

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The result ensured the All Blacks completed a Bledisloe Cup clean sweep of their Australian counterparts to move up to the top of the Rugby Championship table.

The Wallabies, meanwhile, have plummeted to the bottom of the competition standings, and Muliaina told The Breakdown that Australia head coach Dave Rennie has plenty of work to do in order to bounce back from three successive losses.

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How the All Blacks clean swept the Wallabies, the rise of the Ioane brothers and Jordie Barrett’s red card | Aotearoa Rugby Pod

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How the All Blacks clean swept the Wallabies, the rise of the Ioane brothers and Jordie Barrett’s red card | Aotearoa Rugby Pod

“For a team like that that’s so inexperienced, it’s really difficult to come back,” the former 100-test utility back said.

“They’ve almost lost the mental game as well. For Dave Rennie, this is probably a huge step backwards. Lots of talk about the physicality and how that was going to play out, the All Blacks definitely won that, and they won it without the ball in hand.”

Muliaina was full of praise for the All Blacks forwards as he made particular note of Akira Ioane’s man-of-the-match performance, which he said was made possibly by the contribution of Scott Barrett in the tight five.

He added that combinations like those in the forward pack, as well as those in the backline such as in the midfield between David Havili and Anton Lienert-Brown, will have All Blacks boss Ian Foster “licking his lips” ahead of this week’s clash against Los Pumas.

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As for the Wallabies, though, Muliaina said some tough questions will need to be asked of themselves before they take on the world champion Springboks on the Gold Coast this Sunday.

“I think, for the Wallabies, there’ll be some soul-searching because their captain [Michael Hooper] was under the pump with injury worries there in terms of his cut,” Muliaina said.

“Where do they go to now? They lack a lot of leadership at the moment, so it’s a massive ask now for Dave Rennie to be able to get his side back to that pre-Bledisloe campaign.”

Muliaina’s sentiments were supported by Kirwan, who said the continual selection of young first-five Noah Lolesio, who struggled to impress from the No 10 jersey in all three recent tests against the All Blacks, needs to be reviewed.

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“Lolesio, I think maybe Dave Rennie’s got to have a look at him and say, ‘Look, if he’s the future, maybe we need to bring him off the bench with 20 minutes to go’,” Kirwan, the 1987 World Cup-winning All Blacks wing, said.

“He misses that kick, he does some stuff that I really thought [was] just not really handling the pressure and putting the All Blacks under pressure when they need to.”

Kirwan doubled down on his claims by saying that Rennie may need to adopt a different game plan that involves more experienced playmakers and inside backs in future tests.

“All Blacks three steps forward, Australia three steps back. If you’re Dave Rennie, you’ve got some serious problems. They never give up, they show incredible courage, but they were never in that game, I didn’t think,” Kirwan told The Breakdown.

“I was sitting there, and I was never really worried that it was close. I think he’s got some serious problems at his decision-making at 10. I don’t think that the young fellas are ready to take control of the football team.

“I think, when you listen to Dave Rennie talk, is he trying to be too much like a New Zealand side? You talk about physicality, I’d never talk about physicality if I was playing the All Blacks, ever. I would keep that quiet.

“Maybe he needs to look at their style of rugby and come up with a different game plan, because, currently, this game plan is not working. They’ve been beaten pretty well in three test matches.”

Kirwan’s comments, which were backed by Black Ferns midfielder Chelsea Alley, came after Rennie kept Lolesio at No 10 despite heavy speculation that veteran playmaker Quade Cooper would make his first test appearance in four years against the All Blacks.

The 33-year-old played the last of his 70 tests for the Wallabies against Italy in 2017, but was considered a possibility to face his nation of birth at Optus Stadium after linking up with the Australian squad following an injury to James O’Connor.

The selection of Cooper never came to fruition, though, and his time in Rennie’s squad remains unclear given O’Connor is set to return to the Wallabies camp as he continues to recover from his lengthy groin injury.

Thrusting O’Connor, an experienced operator himself with 55 tests to his name, back into the mix could go some way to alleviating Australia’s woes as he would likely form a powerhouse five-eighths pairing with recent returnee Samu Kerevi.

Kerevi is one of two players in Rennie’s squad, alongside the uncapped Duncan Paia’aua, who have been re-called from overseas despite not meeting the Giteau Law criteria of at least 60 test caps and seven years’ worth of professional rugby in Australia.

The relaxation of the law by Rugby Australia was designed to help make the Wallabies more competitive, but their recent results against the All Blacks have suggested otherwise, leaving Muliaina to offer some selection advice to Rennie.

“I think, what the Wallabies are doing at the moment, they’re a little bit unsure. As soon as they get the ball and there’s a bit of space there, it just seems a little bit frantic and panicked,” he said.

“They throw those long passes where they think, ‘Oh no, there’s an opportunity there, we can score from there’, when it’s perhaps not on. That’s inexperience, so you want to give someone a go in at 10 now.

“Lolesio’s the future, he’s had a shot, but try and ease him back into that, ease him back into the reins until he gets a bit of confidence back.

“When they start playing the Springboks and then the Argentinians, it’s perhaps a way for Dave Rennie to think about the big picture.

“The result is not ideal, they won’t be liking it at all, but they’re starting to change things, and now you’re seeing the reason why they’ve changed that Giteau Law, to be able to strengthen this Wallabies side up, but it’s going to take some time and they’ve got to be patient with it.”

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Jon 4 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 7 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

30 Go to comments
A
Adrian 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

30 Go to comments
T
Trevor 12 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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