Wallabies turn the page: ‘You can’t just play for 40 minutes'

The Wallabies have “closed the chapter” on an eventful 2025 season that delivered some famous results against the British & Irish Lions and Springboks, but also saw unwanted records fall in The Rugby Championship and during a winless Spring Tour.

Tate McDermott was a shining light for the Wallabies during all three highly-anticipated Lions Series matches, with the scrum-half scoring a try in Brisbane and another in Sydney. McDermott also played most of the second Test on the wing after an injury to Harry Potter.

The Wallabies fell agonisingly short of victory at the MCG, with Hugo Keenan securing a series win for the visitors with a last-minute try. Australia bounced back seven days later at Sydney’s Accor Stadium, with the underdogs triumphing 22-12 in rainy conditions.

They backed that result up with a historic comeback win over the Springboks, coming back from 22 points down to win 38-22 in Johannesburg. The Wallabies were beaten by the two-time reigning World Cup winners a week later in Cape Town, as a losing streak began for the men in gold.

Australia finished the season with a 33 per cent winning record, becoming the first Wallabies team in 126 years to lose 10 Tests in a calendar year. They suffered a record-setting 11^th consecutive defeat to the All Blacks, and failed to win a Test during a four-match European tour for the first time since 1958.

“It’s a bit of a thing we started to do last year and we’ve done it in years past, but we kind of closed the chapter and then we look forward,” McDermott told reporters, with 40 players assembling for a Wallabies camp in Sydney this week.

“Spent a little bit of time yesterday debriefing the season that was, the positives we took from that and the areas of growth we really need to work on, which we discovered towards the backend of the year.

“A little bit of testing sprinkled in that here and there, so the boys just finished their Bronco, and they’re all looking pretty good. A lot of people are really excited for what lies ahead for this group.”

The Wallabies started last season with a thrilling 21-18 victory over Fiji in Newcastle, with captain Harry Wilson scoring the match-winning try in the dying stages. Their next fixture was the start of the Lions Series, losing 27-19 in Brisbane.

After beating the Lions in the series finale and following that with a memorable comeback against the Boks, the Wallabies lost eight of their next 10. Their two wins came against Los Pumas in Townsville and against the Brave Blossoms at Japan National Stadium.

“To be competitive on the international stage, you can’t just play for 40 minutes,” McDermott said.

“We just didn’t put enough time together to win those little battles across the trip and then across the whole year, we got lucky a couple of times last year where we left our run pretty late.

“We’ve spoken a little bit about the high ball area, just being consistent in our set-piece and just little stuff like that. More consistent in our defence approach as well. There’s a number of areas we need to fix but there’s also a number of areas that we’re really good at.

“We just weren’t good at that for long enough throughout the whole year.”