'Maybe it’s the biggest game in the professional era for Australian rugby'
The stakes could not be higher when the Wallabies take on Wales in Lyon on Sunday night with discipline and Tate McDermott the keys, according to the double World Cup winner.
It is simple for Tim Horan: the Wallabies have to beat Wales tonight or rugby union is in real trouble back home.
“Maybe it’s the biggest game in the professional era for Australian rugby because if you don’t make the quarterfinals for the first time in the Rugby World Cup that is huge. The ramifications of not making a quarterfinal are big,” said the man who in happier times for those Down Under lifted the Webb Ellis Cup in both 1991 and 1999.
The pressure on the under-fire Wallabies has only increased with the recent reports in the Sydney Morning Herald claiming that head coach Eddie Jones met with Japanese rugby officials over Zoom from Paris just days before the start of the World Cup.
“In the context of where rugby sits in Australia, the amount of tourists that are here supporting the Wallabies, the amount of people back home supporting the Wallabies, we need to win this game.
“We are always paddling for airtime in Australia with the other codes. For us, if you don’t get to a World Cup final things are tough. So, to not make a quarterfinal is going to make the next two years leading into a British and Irish Lions test series tough to be able to promote.
“A lot of fans in Australia they watch (only) the Wallabies and they are dictated by wins and losses for the Wallabies.”
It is a stark message for a side that has lost six of its past seven matches, with the 22-15 defeat to Fiji last Sunday, part of a run that has seen the Wallabies defence leak a damaging 216 points in 2023.
The group’s inexperience has come under particular attack – with an average of 26, it is the youngest World Cup squad in 32 years – and Horan added his voice to those questioning Eddie Jones’ thinking.
“Maybe it’s a Quade Cooper, maybe it’s a Bernard Foley as a back-up 10. Coming into the Rugby World Cup with the youngest squad in the whole World Cup, you needed a little bit of experience around the team,” Horan argued. “Yes, you can look for two-to-four years down the track but you’ve still got to go well in this World Cup.”
One of Jones’ headline selections, the decision to bring 22-year-old Carter Gordon as the only recognised fly-half, appears to have backfired. The nine-cap man will start the must-win game looking on from the bench while utility back Ben Donaldson attempts to dictate play from No.10 for the very first time in his fledging test match career.
Add on the nagging need Australia have for a bonus-point win – Wales sit top of Pool C with 10 points, while the Wallabies and Fiji are locked together on six – and the picture is bleak.
Not that Horan has lost all hope.
“If we are single digit penalties awarded against us, I think we can win the game,” said the man who will commentate on the game for Australian broadcaster Stan. “Once we start to hit double figures, we will struggle.
“Discipline is really key after 18 penalties last week (against Fiji) and then the accuracy at the breakdown. Not to go too wide, too early to get exposed. That’s a pattern of play the Wallabies will have to balance with. You know, you’ve got two of the top six wingers in the game, those two wingers for Wallabies (Mark Nawaqanitawase and Marika Koroibete) and you’ve got to get them the ball. They have to get some width in their game.”
There is one other bright spot for the rumoured 15,000 Australian fans who have descended on Lyon.
“Tate McDermott (returning Australian scrum-half), he’s the key. For me if the Wallabies are to win Tate McDermott has to be probably man of the match. They missed him last week,” Horan said, before delivering a final message to his successors in the shirt he served so well:
“They know there is pressure, they know there is support. It’s up to them now to probably take it out of Eddie Jones’ hands and do something special as a team, as individuals.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Speell cehck
1 Go to commentsColeman is gaawwwwnnn.
1 Go to commentsnext SA head coach?
3 Go to commentsGreat try by van Poortvliet.
1 Go to commentsThey have been cruelled by injuries but almost nobody (Sevu Reece and Fletcher Newell big exceptions) has played above himself which regularly happened before. Surely Scott Robertson had maintained the recruitment programme and it looks like a reasonable squad. Last in this competition will stall a lot of careers. Penny seems likeable. But it’s not enough even though this was better. We haven’t been good enough and it’s not helped by the “it’s been 15 years since… “etc “after nearly every match. Seems somehow a soft gifting of something once valuable. Kieran Read giving comments last week almost choked describing the easy surrender of possession by the forwards. I’d love to think that the senior players some of whom are back can show enough pride in the jersey to test the Blues next week.
3 Go to commentsWho will Joe select for the back three with so many in form candidates? Just hope he doesn’t get shafted like Dave Rennie and to a lesser extent Deans.
6 Go to commentsAlways reluctant to blame a coach when losses rack up, but Penney must go. The backline is dysfunctional and the coach must carry the can. No cohesion, no idea and in many cases, minimal skill. The trains out of Roma St depart faster than the ball from Crusaders’ set pieces. Wouldn’t be surprised if the forwards went on strike.
3 Go to commentsAdding to earlier comment. Cullen Grace has been playing great at no6. Lio-Willie , who was on fire a few weeks ago, had a bad game. I think Cullen should have been moved to 8 earlier, Dominic Gardiner on earlier. Feel for Quinten Strange , put in a big shift .
6 Go to commentsWe dominated the scrums Ben Curry was all over pitch again .Surely James Harper got to be one of best English tightheads
1 Go to commentsRoos is a better option at 6 than 8 for the boks. Needs to work on his windgat though.
1 Go to commentsThe Sharks’ 2nd team maybe?
1 Go to comments‘radical’
1 Go to commentsCome back to Christchurch Robbie, please!
1 Go to commentsI think there is zero chance Sam Cane will be selected for another Test. There is simply no point except sentimentality. Razor is not sentimental- ask Wyatt Crocket. Razor is a ruthless selector
5 Go to comments> It would be best described as an elegant solution to what was potentially going to be a significant problem for new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson. It is a problem the mad population of New Zealand will have to cope with more and more as All Blacks are able to continue their careers in NZ post RWCs. It will not be a problem for coaches, who are always going to start a campaign with the captain for the next WC in mind. > Cane, despite his warrior spirit, his undoubted commitment to every team he played for and unforgettable heroics against Ireland in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, was never unanimously admired or respected within New Zealand while he was in the role. Neither was McCaw, he was considered far too passive a captain and then out of form until his last world cup where everyone opinions changed, just like they would have if Cane had won the WC. > It was never easy to see where Cane, or even if, he would fit into Robertson’s squad given the new coach will want to be building a new-look team with 2027 in mind. > Cane will win his selections on merit and come the end of the year, he’ll sign off, he hopes, with 100 caps and maybe even, at last, universal public appreciation for what was a special career. No, he won’t. Those returning from Japan have already earned the right to retain their jersey, it’s in their contract. Cane would have been playing against England if he was ready, and found it very hard to keep his place. Perform, and they keep it however. Very easy to see where Cane could have fit, very hard to see how he could have accomplished it choosing this year as his sabbatical instead of 2025, and that’s how it played out (though I assume we now know what when NZR said they were allowing him to move his sabbatical forward and return to NZ next year, they had actually agreed to simply select him for the All Blacks from overseas, without any chance he was going to play in NZ again). With a mammoth season of 15 All Black games they might as well get some value out of his years contract, though even with him being of equal character to Richie, I don’t think they should guarantee him his 100 caps. That’s not what the All Blacks should be about. He absolutely has to play winning football.
5 Go to commentswhat’s happening to Ian Peel?
1 Go to commentsAs a Crusaders fan , so disappointed , again.But I think Fergus Burke was all class for the Crusaders in his first game since October last year. Fletcher Newell , was so good at prop. Johnny McNicoll has been gold since returning from Wales. Noah Hotham brilliant , in a coming of age second season for the Crusaders.Jone Rova did really well at centre. The end of the game was tough.Sevu Reece , what a game/season in tough times.
6 Go to commentsFellas a balloon
3 Go to commentsBlues B team on display and made no race of it. By far the best team in SR with the Hurricanes barely getting past the winning post. Up the Blues 💙
7 Go to commentsWould be amazing to have Servette Genève reaching this level
3 Go to comments