Wallabies' game-by-game review for Nations Championship July series

The Nations Championship ended on a high for the Wallabies and their fans, but this series must go down in the history books as a failure.

Two wins from the three Test matches was the widely accepted bar throughout Australia, and the Wallabies were very close to achieving this.

While the series as a whole must be deemed as coming up short on the ambitions and realistic goals both internally and externally, there are positives to take out of the July Tests as a whole.

Crowd figures

Three sold-out stadiums in back-to-back-to-back weeks right across the country is a phenomenal effort and just goes to show how much support still exists for the national rugby side.

Sydney came out and swarmed Allianz for 35k plus attendees, Caxton Street ferried more than 52k fans to Suncorp, and almost 20k packed out HBF Park in Perth, turning the Sea of Blue into a sea of gold.

It must be said that while the punters did their bit to show their support, the Wallabies struggled to always repay the faith shown, but the activations around the grounds have definitely improved.

It catered to a much wider audience, with an interaction-first focus.

The Wallabies were treated to a combined crowd of more than 100-thousand fans screaming from the sidelines in just a 21-day window, which is epic.

The quality of opposition

The Wallabies won four out of the six halves that they played, making for a 66 per cent win rate based on halves.

If we are to be generous, we could suggest that the second half at Allianz is the closest thing to being a draw as you can get without actually achieving it, but that would be stretching it too far.

The fact is that with the Wallabies being eighth in the world rankings, and playing against third and fourth in Ireland and France respectively, the odds were never in the Wallabies favour.

However, let’s be honest about the quality of the opposition; both these sides, as well as Italy, were missing at least five key players each, and playing away from home at the end of very long seasons.

Ireland, whether by choice, injury, or other reason, were missing Andrew Porter, regular captain Caelan Doris, preferred flyhalf Jack Crowley, Mack Hansen, Ryan Baird, Jack Boyle, Rob Baloucoune, and Jeremy Loughman.

France were missing Antoine Dupont, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Charles Ollivon, Julian Marchand, Damian Penaud, Thibaud Flament, and Gregory Alldritt, to name a few.

Not to mention, all these games were played on home soil for the Wallabies; had they all been played overseas, the optics would be different.

France traditionally don’t travel well down south, whether by their own fault or not, and Ireland has only played the Wallabies in Australia once since 2018.

Overall, losing to these sides after they had pretty decent travel schedules just adds insult to injury for the Wallabies.

While France were playing their regular style of rugby without the gold dust of some of their biggest stars, the Irish were simply ordinary throughout July and looked tired.

The Wallabies own performance

The Ireland Test 31 – 33 (L)

It was clear for all to see that the Wallabies quickly and collectively got across the Joe Schmidt game plan in his third calendar year as coach.

The players were running shape, moving the ball, and executing the game plan a lot better than they had in seasons and games gone by.

The issue in this Test was the racking up of penalties and poor discipline at key moments and in pivotal positions on the field in the second half.

No possession, no territory, and inviting Ireland into their 22m zone regularly, was a fatal cocktail for the Wallabies.

Schmidt said as much in the post-match press conference, where he heralded the accuracy of Ireland in the “A-zone”.

Had Ben Donaldson kicked that final goal at the death, then the review would be the same, a tightly fought game where both sides had good patches but both were far from perfect.

Had the Wallabies won by the finest of margins, it would be just reward for keeping the third-best side in the world out after a strong Aussie first half followed by a determined Irish fightback.

The fact that this game went down to the wire is not spoken enough about; both sides were worthy winners, but both sides had also made enough blatant mistakes to lose.

The France Test 26 – 42 (L)

The Wallabies fielded yet another brand-new flyhalf and with it came a lot of uncertainty.

With the merry-go-round at no.10 in full swing, the Wallabies relied on previously underrated Ryan Lonergan to steer the ship from halfback, and for the second week in a row, he did so to great effect.

The Wallabies once again dominated the first half and succeeded in keeping the French out ahead of halftime.

However, unlike the week before, when the Wallabies were cutting the Irish up at will for a period in the first stanza, the Wallabies in Brisbane achieved their upper hand through sheer willpower.

The Wallabies’ tries at Suncorp came through gritty, tough, narrow forward play as opposed to the sweeping backline moves, linebreaks, and slick pod play of the game in Sydney.

The first 40 minutes were less refined, less intentional, and had a looser shape to it when compared with the first 40 against Ireland.

This was likely due to the debut of Declan Meredith, as well as playing against better opposition.

Unfortunately, the playmaking woes only got worse as the match dragged on and Jock Campbell, a career fullback, was inevitably and unfairly thrust into the pivot role.

The Wallabies played a lot of rugby between their own tryline and the French 40m line but rarely managed to camp themselves in the French quarter.

Despite these failed sieges, they rarely conceded penalties, which was a welcome change from the week before.

Nevertheless, poor edge defence meant the French didn’t need penalties to cruise their way into the Wallabies D-zone; rather, their dual playmaking stocks of Romain Ntamack and Matthieu Jalibert cut the Wallabies defensive line to pieces.

The Wallabies were outplayed by a better-balanced French side, who had the right players steering them around the field.

While the Wallabies excorcised their poor discipline demons from the week before, it was not enough of a step-up to be able to keep the free-flowing French out, and the scoreline actually ended up flattering the Wallabies.

The Italy Test 57 – 10 (W)

The Wallabies were better than the Italians in every single way.

You pick a stat, and the Wallabies were dominant.

As for the Italians and their poor form, they were missing almost an entire starting XV of their best talent for the very last match of their very long season.

To name a few of their missing key personnel, there was no Ange Capuozzo, Sebastian Negri, Giacomo Nicotera, Simone Ferrari, Tommaso Menoncello, Tommaso Allan, Stephen Varney, Lorenzo Cannone, and Giosuè Zilocchi.

Nonetheless, the Wallabies’ shape, their decision-making, and poise were much more akin to the first stanza against Ireland than the opening half against the French.

Meredith looked more assured, and while he didn’t overplay his hand, he made sure that he was getting more touches to be able to influence the game.

The Italians, truth be told, were directionless, had very little shape, and were missing the likes of Menoncello in midfield to get them over the gainline.

This is not to mention that they were without their coach, Gonzalo Quesada, after he was sanctioned by World Rugby for comments he made about the officiating of their game against the All Blacks the week before. He wasn’t even allowed in the stadium.

Had the Wallabies not spanked them, then there would’ve been serious questions being asked.

Nonetheless, it is the biggest win by the Wallabies for quite some time, and that has given the fan base some much-needed relief; it also sets up the start of the Les Kiss era in a more positive light.

The Wallabies four pillars

Attack: B

It is as simple as this: being able to put 31 points on Ireland, 26 points on France, and 57 on Italy, a total aggregate score of only a converted try less than the All Blacks put on the same three sides is impressive.

The only complaint can be that the Wallabies fluffed a few more five-pointers in the Italian game and at times failed to finish their line breaks in all three matches.

Nevertheless, their A-zone execution stats will look healthy after proving they can now do more with less.

Defence: C

By the same token, the Wallabies conceded a total of 85 points, while the All Blacks managed to leak just 70.

If you want that in points differential, the Wallabies ended July with a points differential of +29, while the All Blacks sit on +51; that seems like a pretty decent indicator of where these two teams are at.

To put this in perspective, the Springboks walk away from July scoring 130 points, and conceding just 49 with a points differential of +81.

This is even with them heavily rotating their squad and resting stars throughout. 

All this is to say that while the Wallabies tackled at 89%, 82%, and 91%, the Wallabies nonetheless conceded points, linebreaks, and dropped off tackles too often and at too many crucial points across the three matches.

While the percentages seem to be decent across an average, systemically, the Wallabies struggled to deal with the two pivots of France and the killer running lines of Ireland.

Set Piece: A

The Wallabies set piece has come on leaps and bounds under Mike Cron and Tom Donnelly.

While Cron has slowly built the base with his great batch of props, Donnelly has had to work quickly and hard in the off-season to get the Wallabies’ lineout back to Test standard.

A scrum of 100% across all three matches on their own feed, as well as lineout averaging 94% across the series, is just astounding.

Last time the Wallabies played Ireland alone, they had a 67% success rate at the lineout, which is a massive turnaround with comparatively rookie locks.

Winning your own ball on the feed is as good as gold in Test rugby, and it matters equally whether you’re pushing the opposition’s try line or defending your own.

Selections: D

The non-selection of Lukhan Salakaia-Loto and the failure to bring in at least one other experienced flyhalf when Carter Gordon and Donaldson went down were both costly and unfathomable mistakes.

Although the non-selection of LSL made way for outstanding Josh Canham, or should we say Can-Him, nothing was stopping Schmidt from selecting LSL alongside his rookie Reds teammate.

It was evident that, despite the Wallabies displaying great skill in their pod shape throughout the Test series, they lacked grunt and a real enforcer, particularly after Tom Hooper also went down lame after the Ireland Test.

This inability to dent the line at times meant the Wallabies’ playmakers, experienced or not, were often forced to throw passes to forwards who got monstered off slow ball.

The capitulation in the second 40 minutes against the French can only be explained as an own-goal after relying on Campbell for almost 30 minutes of play.

In the words of the ‘Ice Man’ Bernard Foley, who has now returned to the NSW Waratahs after a long stint in Japan, “it didn’t need to be like this”.

Schmidt could and should’ve selected a Noah Lolesio, James O’Connor, or even Foley himself to at least be brought into the environment to help prepare the rookies.

The bringing in of Harry McLaughlin-Philips, Joe Brial, and Isaac Henry ahead of the last game against Italy was also a tad head-scratching; none of them would have added any experience should they have been selected.

Many would have been wondering where the likes of Samu Kerevi, Izaia Perese, Izack Rodda, and Seru Uru were, and whether they were worth a call.

Overall summary of July Nations Championship: C

The Wallabies now sit third in the Nations Championship pool behind the Springboks and the All Blacks, and one spot above Argentina.

The Wallabies’ ability to secure bonus points has meant they pip Argentina, with the Wallabies sitting one point ahead of them on eight points.

Their corresponding third-ranked side in the northern hemisphere pool is England, which has 10 points.

This sets the Wallabies up for tense clashes with England, Scotland, and Wales in November at their respective fortresses; however, some will argue this is an easier run of games than the ones just had.

Results aside, there is a lot to build on for this team, and as the team farewells Schmidt and Laurie ‘the Lord’ Fisher, they will feel and know they are heading in the right direction.

Schmidt and his cast of experienced older coaches have imbued this side with the attention to detail needed to keep growing.

The foundations are now strong, and the selection pool is deeper and wider than at the end of 2023.

Schmidt leaves the Wallabies to continue his pursuit of growing Australian rugby’s depth as he looks to oversee the Australia A program with Stephen Larkham.

All his and the Lord’s work has set up Kiss nicely to take over and to add finesse and excitement on top of a well-laid foundation.