The ‘really good positive’ for Wallabies despite All Blacks defeat

Les Kiss wasn’t surprised to see Declan Meredith produce an impressive performance against the All Blacks, with the international rookie fly-half standing out despite the Wallabies falling to a 43-21 defeat at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.

Meredith enjoyed a breakout Super Rugby Pacific campaign with the ACT Brumbies, which saw the 26-year-old skyrocket into the Wallabies selection frame. The playmaker debuted against Six Nations side France during the Nations Championship, and also suited up against Italy.

The Wallabies started their new era under coach Kiss with Meredith in the starting role, playing the full 80 against the Brave Blossoms in Japan. Meredith later featured off the bench against the All Blacks at Eden Park and was brought into the First XV for the second Test.

Beauden Barrett crossed for two tries as the All Blacks put on 36 points during a clinical first-half performance. But Meredith was still able to stand out, helping put teammates into space out wide and taking the line on himself.

Meredith finished with more than 100 running metres and came incredibly close to scoring a try during the second half, had it not been for a Cam Roigard defensive effort. In the absence of the injured Ben Donaldson, Meredith steered the ship during an All Blacks storm.

“Not surprised. He’s a hard marker on himself… I thought he had a superb game really. He took the line on, marshalled ourselves into that second half with some good footy. Even the first half, he was probably the most dangerous player in terms of putting us into space,” Kiss said.

“Maybe some better decision-making would’ve been nicer for us. We played a long pass instead of hands that was created by Declan inside. The forwards, I thought, played some really nice footy for us to be able to get north and give us a chance to sit defenders and get into that space.

“I think Decky had a pretty good game really. He’s only what four Tests old and that’s one of the things that will always stand for us now. We’ve got to make sure that we have players that can stand in the breach.

“That’s a really good positive to come out of the game, to see Decky do what he did.”

Meredith helped put Max Jorgrnsen into space, with the winger making three line breaks inside the first 15 minutes. The fly-half also had the Wallabies in strong field position early on, but the All Blacks scrambled well to deny the hosts.

Instead, it was the All Blacks who scored first, with Josh Moorby running in a five-pointer just after the 10-minute mark. Barrett, Peter Lakai and Rieko Ioane also got on the scoresheet, as the visitors raced out to a 22-0 advantage after 25 minutes.

“22 points that we just give in a small amount of time. It wasn’t dissimilar to last week, the second half. It was costly, without a doubt,” Kiss told reporters.

“Trying to put a finger on it now, not quite sure. Obviously they hit some seams in the midfield, cut us up and when they got through they were very, very clinical. Fair play to them in that sense.”

Jeremy Williams hit back for the Wallabies, but was sent to the sidelines two minutes later after being shown a yellow card. The All Blacks made the most of their one-man advantage going into half-time, with Wallace Sititi and Barrett touching down for five each,.

It was a 29-point ball game at the break, but the Wallabies delivered an improved performance during the second term, outscoring the All Blacks 14-7. Tom Wright and Filipo Daugunu crossed the try line, and the Aussies had just shy of 70 per cent possession in the final 10.

“We certainly addressed it a little bit more positively at half-time and we got a bit of return in the second half, not only on that side of the ball but our side of the ball,” the coach added.

“We just backed our game a bit more instead of kicking it away and just working harder for the shapes that we want to be able to expose some things and I thought we did that better in the second half.

“You give a start like that, it’s hard to pull it back.”