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'They'll be licking their lips': Wounded Wallabies expect Portugal to smell blood
Fullback Andrew Kellaway expects Portugal to be “licking their lips” about their World Cup clash with the battered Wallabies, meeting the Australians at their lowest ebb.
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The Wallabies face a final pool match with world No.16 Portugal in Saint-Etienne next Sunday (Monday AEDT), having to rally after their humiliating 40-6 loss to Wales.
The record defeat in Lyon effectively ended Australia’s dreams of a third World Cup title, requiring a miracle result from Fiji’s remaining two pool matches to stay in France beyond the pool stage.
It will mark the first time in history the Wallabies have failed to progress through to the quarter-finals.
Coach Eddie Jones would have pencilled the Portugal match as a chance to rest his regular starters and give the remaining players in the 33-man squad a run.
But with his job on the line and just one win, over Georgia, Jones has little choice but to pick his best side to try to salvage something from a disastrous World Cup campaign.
The Portuguese won’t be a push-over, losing to unbeaten Wales by 28-8 – a smaller margin than the Australians – while they drew with Georgia in their last match before their bye round.
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Kellaway said that it would be tough week at training after the demoralising defeat.
“Next week’s going to be a tough week, obviously,” said Kellaway, whose first match of the tournament was against Wales.
“We’re hurting now and no doubt Portugal will have seen that and they’ll be licking their lips.
“For us, it’s about making sure we learn the lessons because there were some pretty hefty lessons there to learn but we’ve got to get on with it pretty quick because there’s another game coming up.”
His message was echoed by five-eighth Ben Donaldson, who had a mixed bag against Wales with some costly errors.
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Donaldson said the Wallabies would soak up the pain and then turn their focus to Portugal to try to finish the tournament on a positive note.
“We’re all thinking about the now (Wales) and we how wanted to perform at this World Cup and how we’ve let everyone down,” said the 24-year-old Sydneysider.
“We’re obviously feeling very hurt right now and we need to feel that for a while because that’s going to make us hungrier.
“You can dwell on it a little bit but we’ve got another game next week and if we don’t move on quick enough we’re not going to perform next week.
“We’re upset and it was a terrible performance but we just take learnings and move forward.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Proof. That if you lay dramatic instrumental hip hop music over a video of a skinny pale white kid running an unopposed zig zag on a training ground - it’ll seem next-level epic!
12 Go to commentsIf they win the challenge Cup then it will have all been worth it. If they don’t, then maybe he should go. Lots of ppl seem to think very highly of him as a coach, but maybe he would be better working under someone. Any top sides looking for forwards coaches rn?
1 Go to commentsJason Ryan knows his craft as forwards coach and I'm sure he’ll hold sway with Scott Robertson of who he feels worthy of selection…his credentials validated when he put a 7xcaps between them front row...Ethan, Samisoni and Lomax on Ellis Park…Go the AB's…
5 Go to commentsFascinating. I’m optimistic about a team coached by Schmiddy, Cron and Parling
13 Go to commentsI think if Blackadder is fit, he has to be in the team. If he isn’t, Finau would be good, and I always thought Akira deserved more of a crack at it. I think he looked better than ppl gave him credit.
5 Go to commentsThanks again Nick and interesting comments from Parling about his lineout preferences. Bearing in mind what Schmidt has said about prioritising Oz based players initially we may not see Skeleton until the EOY trip to Ireland and the UK. To me that suggests that Cale has to be ready by then. In the meantime we get 3 jumpers by having 2 jumping locks and a Wright/Swinton/Holloway/Leota type of guy at 6. I think that he (Parling) would do well to coach Valentini and Wilson to jump more. Surely they could learn more about this?
13 Go to commentsdo what the ABs normally do and cruise around the South Pacific to cherry-pick the contenders
5 Go to commentsGood read, GP comes across as a very knowledgeable guy and pretty decent human to boot! Genuinely leaves me wondering though, how Australia’s second city could be in with a serious possibility of being left without a pro team. Just how does that get to happen? Credit to the team though, they’re performing pretty well under some horrible circumstances and pressure on their livelihoods. Whoever made the call to boot out DR, his staff and the structure/connections/succession plans he had put in place in unbelievably short order needs strung up by their most sensitive body parts. Thought that at the time and of course, events unfolded even worse than feared!
13 Go to commentsCan’t see an appetite to pick Brad Shields for obvious reasons, but Devan Flanders has got to be in with a shout.
5 Go to commentsThe rise of Hunter Paisami! Good read Nick (as ever). Cheers.
13 Go to commentsAs a long term glos supporter saturday was the last straw. Terrible run of results in league since Jan 23. No excuses , there are 3 conclusions Players simply arent good enough. Coaching team not good enough. Or combination of the 2. Either way glos lost pride in what used to be a team others feared.
1 Go to commentsWhat an interesting article, Nick. Late here, so will comment tomorrow am. “In the UK, you might have three whole months when you train set-piece and it’s pissing down. Over here, we very rarely experience games severely affected by weather..” Did you see the Waratahs game on the weekend ? If not have a look at the weather for that struck that one. Drowning would have a been a worry for any player trapped at the bottomof a pile up. Suspect the water polo people might be looking with interest at some of those rugby players after that game😀
13 Go to commentsThis article overlooks how the 9 position has developed to be a playmaker, which these 2 are both excellent at. Defences are so good now there is not the luxury of going 9 -> 10 on every play. Playing “off 9” as they say, has become very commonplace these days, but 10+ years ago you hardly saw this. Boiling the great modern 9s down to box kicking doesn’t do justice to how good the great ones have become. Dupont would be the first choice 10 in most teams in the world, JGP pops up in places you would never expect a 9 to be.
22 Go to commentsThe banning of the croc roll will make carrying the ball into contact far more risky, leading to more kicking, and the change to the Dupont law will mean forwards have to do far more running than they do now. As a result I think there will be a rise of smaller, more mobile forwards who are strong defenders and strong over the ball like Kirifi.
3 Go to commentsWhat does the ownership of the club have to do with the poor performance of the team. It’s not as if he’s coaching them or in any way influencing the composition of the teams. I honestly don’t understand the comment.
1 Go to commentsHe knows his body is not up to the work load of international rugby. The fact that Cane only played only 27 of the 46 games the ABs played while he was officially captain is a telling statistic. And that excludes the time he had out with neck injury. He was never able to put a long enough body of work together to get back to his best without a new injury setting him back. He knows better than anyone that the problem will get worse, not better, given the same workload. Correct decision and good luck to him.
10 Go to commentsWith three clubs it's surely death by oligopoly!😂 I suspect that other french clubs like Montpellier rich enough to compete, they are just missing some vital ingredients. Do you think that keeping an eight player bench but only being allowed to use four would level the playing field a bit? The 12 changes rule sounds disastrous for running rugby.
124 Go to commentsNice article
32 Go to commentsSurely they aren’t that short of 10s in the northern hemisphere?
1 Go to commentsBest wishes to a true warrior who gave everything for his team and country. He was no McCaw but the closest we've had in recent years in terms putting his head into dark places, leading the defensive line and securing the attacking breakdown - the core roles of a modern open side. If only he could have played more tests under Foster and Plumtree with blindsides who fulfilled their core roles. 2027 was always going to be a long shot. Hopefully Papalii fulfils the promise of 2021 and late 2022 and/or Lakai turns out to be as good as he looks.
10 Go to comments